So your organization has a global presence. Traditional organizational operations and structures have worked well for you. But global presence also brings global competition along with the challenges of global business phenomena like digitization.  Your organization’s growth depends on its digital maturity. In a day and age of Omni channel business activities, your organization’s digital presence is what sets it apart from the rest of the competition. Financial services, retail, healthcare or any other industry, no matter which sector you belong to, your digital maturity quotient is the deciding factor for your future. Customers prefer those who move with the time, because they themselves are sure doing so. The market keeps updating with the customers’ digital maturity, so, businesses have to follow the same trend.

What makes your company digitally mature? There are a few parameters to determine that:

  1. Social media integration
  2. Customer experience management
  3. Seamless integration of operations
  4. Efficient information management
  5. Effective digital marketing

Deciding factors of digital maturity:

Organizational Readiness: One of the greatest challenges emerging digital architecture has to face is the existing organizational structure.  Sometimes when it comes to replacing legacy modules with newer digital architectures, organizations are not ready enough. Mind-sets that might be too attached to the ‘old ways’. In a scenario like this, digital maturity is slower than those who have been developing a digital friendly outlook for quite some time now.

Flexibility:  Is your existing infrastructure flexible enough to accommodate digital growth? Are your people digital friendly? These are the key questions that need to be answered when it comes to creating digital maturity.

IT Strategy: Different companies have different IT strategies. The degree of digital maturity will depend on the strategy your company takes. Your company’s capability to grow digitally depends on your strategies.

For example Nike started building digital maturity in silos. Then they introduced transformation management intensity to link the silos and launch new capabilities. Asian Paints took a different path for digital maturity by creating vision, governance and IT capabilities to become a more unified company.  There on they kept building on its digital capabilities to transform its customer engagement, internal operations and business models.

Capabilities: Every company has some core capabilities established before the digital framework starts its work. These include existing digital skills and capabilities, digital friendliness of the people hired and existing systems and tools to achieve digital capabilities. The more adaptable the capabilities, the sooner digital maturity can be established.

Investment: Once built, the digital architecture will reap benefits for the company and ensure ROI. But this will require quite a bit of IT investment. Building digital intensity should be looked upon as business strategy instead of an IT cost and companies should be willing to invest in it in order to start enjoying the benefits.  According to a survey conducted by the Harvard Business review, 57% of the respondents found that IT investments drove innovation and growth.

Digital assessment test

Organizations which have reached a level of digital maturity are significantly outperforming their competitors in today’s digital-first market. They are reaching their customers sooner and in multitude of different ways, giving them an added advantage. All who have strategically developed and devised digitization need to test its growth to find out the level of maturity. This would help them with a clear picture of their current digital dexterity status and help them develop plans for further digital integration based on the results.

Why take it?

Is your organization mature enough to take on the challenge of global competition? The earlier you know your digital maturity quotient, the faster you’ll be able to take control of how to improve it or facilitate its growth.  Because digital approval matters.  So, are you a beginner or performer? Find out now.

Areas of digital competence:

Social Media: People are connected, people are talking. Social media is making and breaking brand images. Where does your company stand at this point of time? How important is social media for you? Is it completely integrated into your system? Do you have dedicated teams?  Find out your social integration quotient.

Customer Experience: How well do you know your customers? With the right level of digital maturity and customer management system integration you should be able to track customer segments, develop better digital marketing strategies targeting those segments and build better brand image. Your digital ecosystem should make it easier for you to provide more individualized services for customers and drive better revenue.

Analytics: With the growing number of data sources finding the right data at the right time has become a challenge. Advanced analytics and smart data discovery are the integral part of digital quotient that can make it easier for you to get the required data. Real time based analytics available on various devices makes decision making timely and efficient.  Integration of analytics with your data sources also provides you with data security and digital architecture scalability.

Mobility: Digital maturity lends you mobility to reach customers through all channels everywhere. It enables standard Omni channel experience to customers.  Is your business mobile friendly? How mature are you mobility wise? Are you reaching the customers everywhere on time across platforms? These are the questions you need answers to for deciding you digital maturity quotient.

Cloud:  To meet the challenges of organizational integration you have to start with getting your big data, mobility and cloud into place. The efficiency of the implemented cloud technology is a key element in digital maturity. To complete the digital architecture you need to integrate cloud technology.

Future is for the Digitally Mature

Have you been digitized? Have you started organizational change based on digital and not only technological? In this era of digital-first mindset those who are digitized hold the future in their palms. It doesn’t matter whichever industry you belong to, being digitally mature is the need of the hour and a necessity for future growth and profitability. (Check out for Stu’s interview with Finny Chellakumar on “Stu Taylor on Business”- Interview 1 & Interview 2).