3 ‘phase 0’ digital transformation errors no IT leader should make

No digital initiative today can succeed without LOB sponsorship and involvement. For instance, if a company intends to overhaul its recruitment strategy with a new digital solution, there must be complete involvement of the human resource department. However, in most cases, the HR team already has its hands full with its day-to-day workload and is unable to take out time to work alongside IT on the project.

With low HR involvement in meetings and feedback phases related to the project, IT will struggle to hit goals and timelines, jeopardizing the initiative’s outcome.

While it is relatively easy for an IT leader to put his or her team in place before embarking on a digital transformation journey, it may not be as easy for LOB leaders to identify the right team members to be involved. Therefore, it is on CIOs to ensure that their LOB counterparts set aside the right talent from their departments to be involved in the process and prioritize their participation alongside their daily work. This must be done right at the start, not after the project has launched, else the CIO will have to continue to re-baseline the timing and requirements of the initiative. Cross-functional teams are vital to digital success, and CIOs should insist on them.

Misunderstanding the organization’s digital maturity

Another major reason digital transformations stumble is the lack of visibility business and technology leaders often have into their organization’s digital maturity before they begin. To become digitally mature, an enterprise must know its capabilities. This is an imperative precursor before deciding to go digital.

Each company has a different level of digital maturity at the enterprise, technology, and functional levels, and how it complements business. If business and technology leaders understand where they stand on this digital maturity curve, it gets easier to know where they intend to go and how long will it take to reach that destination.

The onus lies on the CIO to apprise top management on the status of the company’s digital maturity, so they know where they stand. For instance, if a company is in growth mode, it may need to align resources, scale up its technology platforms, and hire more employees. By getting to know the digital maturity in each of these functions, technology investments can be prioritized and aligned in relevant areas accordingly. In the absence of this, companies can make investments in wrong areas without realizing larger value.