In the age of digital disruption, the future obviously looks better for those who are viewing digital as an opportunity to outperform leaders in their industries. However, the wrong digital strategy can spell disaster for a company.

In a recent episode of Stu Taylor on Business, Aspire’s Digital Business Expert, Finny Chellakumar discussed the challenges in Digital Transformation and how Aspire’s Digital Discovery service can help organizations identify their digital priorities and transform their digital ecosystem. Following are excerpts of the interview. (Check out the continuation part of the talk)

Stu: Digital Transformation is clearly overhyped in the market today. What must it mean for companies next in line to the Fortune 500s?

Finny: Over the years, digital transformation has gained traction leading to a ‘do or die’ situation in the market. You would agree with me that we live in an era where it’s not the “big fish that eats the small fish” but it’s the “fast fish that eats the slow fish.” Digital is the reason why half of the Fortune 500 companies have disappeared since 2000 and it is going to continue to happen. By acknowledging and embracing key digital trends, next in line businesses get an opportunity to engage with potential customers at the same level as Fortune 500 companies and thereby accelerate growth, optimize operations and create value throughout their organization.

Stu: What are the driving forces of digital transformation and how big is the role of data in this?

Finny: As far as the driving forces of Digital Transformation are concerned, I would say it is the ability to get your customer to Engage, Empower and Experience. And, data plays an important role in all the three aspects. It engages through content personalization, empowers users with context specific actions and finally improves the overall experience with assisted decision making capabilities.

From a technology perspective, there are five critical areas that are driving the change in today’s enterprises; they are Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud Hosting and IoT.

Stu: According to Forbes, only 1 in 8 companies are getting digital transformation right. So if I were a CXO of a company, how do I make sure that I am leading my company to the right place?

Finny: I will recommend that the CXOs start with a systematic study of their businesses to understand how they can adapt to the challenges of digital disruption. Never think of Digital Transformation as a Big bang approach, my 2 cents would be to start small and be consistent in bringing about change.

Aspire System’s Digital Discovery is a great place to start where you create the vision you want to achieve and translate it to various executable processes by coming up with a road map.

Stu: Companies are finding it difficult to adapt to newer technologies. Once they think they are done, something faster and better comes along. What can companies do about this and how can they find the right technologies that will work for them?

Finny: Yes. I would recommend that before starting on the Digitization journey, companies must invest in a discovery phase where their existing capabilities and digital assets, their vision, the drivers, their existing infrastructure etc., are assessed to identify what will work for them and how we could translate their digitization vision into executable digital systems. We come up with simulated models to see what works for them and what does not and then lay the final road map on how the change is going to be implemented.

Stu: Some companies are doing amazing things in their front end. The right use of technologies is clearly transformative and spins out brilliant customer experiences. Is this one of the outcomes companies can leverage on once digital discovery has been done?

Finny: You are absolutely right, there is a lot of investment in making the front end look great. UI rejuvenation has become a hot commodity. However, Customer Experience is not just constrained to a sleek looking website or a modern looking channel; it’s much more than that. It’s how you leverage the data to achieve content personalization, maintain a consistent experience across all the channels and more importantly, equip you workforce to scale up to the expectations of customers. So to conclude, Customer Experience is not just skin deep as it’s perceived to be and for this the fundamentals can only be built with the right discovery phase.

The show was aired on Money Matters Radio, Boston, WBNW AM 1120 (www.moneymattersboston.com) and rebroadcasted on BizTalk Radio Show on 18th May, 2016

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