How to Measure the Success of Your Digital Transformation Journey?

Several organizations paved the way to adopt digital disruptions and implement the use of data analytics across various operational procedures. However, while every CEO was quick to realize its importance, the real business value of digital transformation is still lost on several of them.

It’s easy to list the ways to incorporate digital transformation within your company, such as revamping the technical infrastructure to meet changing needs. But it’s not as easy to put a number on the impact they are creating.

You may have succeeded to take off several initiatives – but is that translating to your technology metrics like revenue, market share, profitability, and overall operational efficiency?

Organizations make trillion-dollar investments in digital transformation with two goals in mind — to create more opportunities and increase customer value. However, research shows that more than half (70%) of these initiatives will not succeed in reaching their goals.

At this point, it’s fairly common for leaders to invest even more in re-strategizing the direction they want to take. The onus to drive real growth lies on the CEOs to ensure the digitization is materializing into real, measurable gains. Hence, it’s important to

– Understand the hurdles in your process.

– And identify holistic, cross-organizational metrics that monitor your progress.

Let’s take a look at where the problems arise when it comes to implementing digital transformation.

You’re not working together as a team

The best way to achieve your digital transformation KPIs is through good, old teamwork.

You have to ensure your entire company, and not just the team, is on board with the transformation process.

Unfortunately, when teams struggle to communicate and collaborate, they will not be able to deliver their transformation initiatives.

It leads to creating an isolated work system where employees end up more time trying to trace emails or other administrative tasks.

Systems of record are absent

Whether it is the financial systems of record for SAP and NetSuite or the sales, IT, and HR record, every organization needs to have a system in place that lets them know where they stand. However, there is a lack of record that shows the progress of investments and the results to show the technology metrics of success.

If a company is stuck using old methods of the organization such as spreadsheets and tracking emails, they will likely lose sight of the most critical initiatives that need to take place. A lack of visibility of where you stand on achieving the outlined initiatives makes it next to impossible to envision the next step. It also makes it more challenging to even modify the current course you are on when needed.

Now let’s explore the key technology metrics and digital transformation KPIs you can use to measure your success.

3 metrics to measure success on your digital transformation journey

Measure your performance from the get-go no matter what the scale and complexity of your project are. This will ensure that you know whether your investment is enhancing the business performance in the way you had planned. Here’s a list of key metrics you should prioritize.

Getting an adequate return on investment

Your priority with all digital investments is to ensure you are avoiding any kind of loss in terms of your investment. Ask yourself if the digital initiatives are offering value to your overall organizational goals and whether you have a competitive advantage.

The best way to maximize your returns is to take one business domain—either the customer journey, consumer good, customer service — at a time. This could either be your marketing functions that focus on increasing the consumer base, customer retention, or even your pricing.

Concentrating your efforts on each domain individually will save your organization time and money. This is because you collect data sets, solutions, and the best processes that you can replicate for other functions.

For example, you identified that you want to enhance the customer experience for consumers who visit your stores. You can use the geospatial data to personalize the product placements and focus on the capital expenditures that you need the most. It also helps to get a team on board that provides solutions simultaneously on other functions.

The number of top talents, recruited and retained

This is one of the most important digital transformation KPIs because it indicates the long-term success of your organization. Being able to attract top talent, especially tech, and train them enough to retain them in the company benefits all stakeholders of the company.

During the initial phases of your transformation journey, it’s important to hire senior tech talent including data engineers, analytics, and those with ample knowledge of user experience, core technology, and design. As a leader of the company, it should be on your radar to drive more growth by getting more disruptors and builders on board who are not just willing to sustain your growth but elevate it.

Business unit heads incentives to build value

As a CEO, you should ensure that you have distributed the accountability for the digital transformation initiatives across all business heads to ensure they are driving value. Align the incentives along with the help of your organizational heads namely the chief information and technology officer.

The chief technology officer is responsible for outlining and mobilizing the business objectives and ensuring all protocols are met. It’s important to ensure that they take the initiative to oversee products, develop new technology and work productively so this efficiency trickles down to the rest of the domains and business unit leaders as well. Encourage our technology heads to be agents of change and take accountability for risk-taking. They should be motivated to create more value consistently and realign the incentives as and when required. It will help to create a culture within the organization that prioritizes your overall organizational growth.