The first step in delivering value – and profitable business transformation – through digital technology is to understand your company’s digital maturity. You risk making high-cost, low-value decisions or investing in initiatives that your current technology can’t support if you don’t understand your business’ present state before putting a plan in place.
Digital maturity is the ability to promptly respond to or take advantage of market opportunities based on current tech stacks, staffing resources, and digital technologies. It’s a company’s ability to embrace digital transformation not just in terms of technology, but across the board, encompassing people, culture, and processes, to meet business goals. Knowing your digital maturity level can help you spot chances for expansion as well as assess the risks and challenges that come with larger, more complex automation.
Importance of digital maturity for businesses
The COVID-19 epidemic drove leaders to embrace digital transformations earlier than predicted, leading to an unprecedented use of digital technologies. Companies with a high baseline of digital maturity were able to adapt better and faster to accomplish these rapid digital transformations, offering them a competitive edge. When assessing digital maturity projects, keep in mind that digital maturity is not the final objective; rather, it is a means to that end. The following are the major digital maturity characteristics: access, automation, customer-centricity, efficiency, flexibility, innovation, efficacy in operations, insight, and quality. Digital maturity drives outcomes that fuel corporate growth, from better efficiency to improved quality.
The COVID-19 epidemic drove leaders to embrace digital transformations earlier than predicted, leading to an unprecedented use of digital technologies. Companies with a high baseline of digital maturity were able to adapt better and faster to accomplish these rapid digital transformations, offering them a competitive edge. When assessing digital maturity projects, keep in mind that digital maturity is not the final objective; rather, it is a means to that end. The following are the major digital maturity characteristics: access, automation, customer-centricity, efficiency, flexibility, innovation, efficacy in operations, insight, and quality. Digital maturity drives outcomes that fuel corporate growth, from better efficiency to improved quality.
Within each digital maturity model, there are multiple stages that act as a framework to guide goals and evaluate success.
Incidental: The Requirement For A Solid Foundation
Activities that promote digital maturity are done on the spur of the moment and are not planned or strategic.
Intentional: Building A Digital Strategy
In this phase, digital transformation efforts have a purpose and strategy, but only in certain, not all, business domains.
Integrated: Digital Transformation Efforts, Streamlined And Supported By Leadership
At this level, companies successfully integrate digital transformation initiatives across several business sectors in a simplified manner, with the support of the leadership.
Optimized: Digital Maturity At Its Final Stage
The cream of the crop, these businesses have completely embraced digital transformation and have made it a part of their corporate culture. When the market shifts, they can turn on a dime.
Thus, reaching an optimal level of digital maturity requires a solid foundation built on stakeholder support and cutting-edge technology.
How can businesses cultivate and improve digital maturity?
It is important to choose a framework with a practical approach that supports your objectives and against which you may measure your digital maturity.
The journey to digital maturity begins with an IT roadmap, which will help you understand where you are on the continuum and how to get the most out of digital technologies. The roadmap will show you where you are now in terms of digital maturity and which gaps need to be addressed most urgently.
Cloud technologies and automation, which are routinely utilized to deliver corporate value, necessitate an IT infrastructure that can handle these systems. It’s also worth noting that the further you get into digital technologies, the greater the cybersecurity hazards to your company: From the start, cybersecurity must also be a component of your strategy.
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