Digital transformation levers to address tech adoption challenges and maximize ROI

The implementation of digital/ technology in business began with the goal of improving human activity, primarily through automation. However, today’s digital/ technology solutions offer much more than just speed; they unlock numerous possibilities that organizations can consciously leverage to their advantage.  

Push sales has been an important area of focus for organizations, regardless of their size and need for digital transformation. While beneficial in exploring new areas, push sales could lead to investments in non-prioritized areas that do not attract the intended returns. To address this, organizations can follow some proven steps to identify a prioritized roadmap: identify the valid use cases; prioritize the use cases as per organization maturity, architecture, and operating context; determine if the organization is ready to leverage the benefits (as articulated in use case); and arrive at an optimal solution. 

In many cases, stakeholders lack complete decision-making capabilities, leading to delays in digital initiatives. However, advancements in technology have democratized decision-making, allowing end-users to have a significant impact on digital maturity. Digital maturity analysis can now be conducted at individual role levels, empowering anyone within the organization to contribute to raising digital maturity levels.  

To assess digital maturity at the individual role level, organizations should focus on activities that improve effectiveness and efficiency within specific roles. However, to reap significant benefits at the organizational level, maturity assessment, and interventions should extend beyond individual roles to encompass teams, functions, inter-functions, business processes, business verticals, management, and group levels. This should be a perpetual activity rather than a one-time event.

When discussing digital transformation with stakeholders, organizations can use the following four levers:  

Automation potential: The automation potential focuses on optimizing repetitive activities. After determining the cost of performing a given transaction, which involves identifying the time taken for a particular activity, the possibility of optimizing it is considered. Optimization typically results in a 20-30% improvement in efficiency.  

Control enhancement possibility: This process investigates enhancing preventive controls, with potential benefits ranging from 10% - 50% of the expected value of preventable loss, depending on the industry type. The control priority should be established based on the impact and probability of the event since the ‘investment versus expected value of loss’ justifies the business case for investments. The threat vectors are ever-evolving and becoming systemic across the ecosystem; hence, control must become systemic and relevant within the organization and among the extended stakeholder groups. 

Decision enablement: A higher velocity of transaction allows one to obtain derivatives. These derivatives could be harnessed to control and modify the transaction metadata, offering a possibility of significant business benefits through better alignment, especially when the organization is scaling up. 

Experience management: As trust in the organizational ecosystem grows, organizations start aligning their transaction systems to cater to business partners, customers, suppliers, investors, and other stakeholders. Hence, the ability to provide a seamless experience to business stakeholders has become paramount and can potentially create new revenue streams. 

While most organizations have digital and technology as part of their board agendas, it is now imperative to consider digital perspectives before making business decisions. Organizations can achieve their objectives more effectively and optimally by identifying the right roadmap and continuously realizing value while enabling adoption in the face of different headwinds.

Seshail Kamanna

---

Seshail Kamanna is Partner, Digital Transformation, BDO India