Over the last few years there’s been a push for businesses and organizations to start digital transformation initiatives – but what does digital transformation mean?
What is Digital Transformation?
According to Gartner, digital transformation refers to anything from IT modernization to digital optimization, to the invention of new digital business models.
For many, digital transformation refers to the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business or organization, resulting in fundamental changes to how the organization operates and delivers value to its customers. The benefits of digital transformation for businesses and organizations are numerous, including:
- Improved efficiency: Digital transformation can automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, allowing employees to focus on more value-added work.
- Enhanced customer experience: Digital tools and platforms can be used to provide more personalized and engaging experiences for customers, resulting in increased loyalty and satisfaction.
- Increased agility: Digital transformation can enable organizations to respond more quickly to changing market conditions and customer needs, allowing them to remain competitive in a rapidly changing landscape.
- Cost savings: By streamlining processes and reducing inefficiencies, digital transformation can help businesses save money on operational costs.
- Data-driven decision-making: Digital transformation can provide access to real-time data and analytics, enabling organizations to make more informed and strategic decisions.
“It’s a three-legged stool,” said Deborah Rojas, Chief Information Officer for Charter Oak Financial, referring to the tenets of a successful digital transformation. “You can’t really have any of those legs longer or shorter than the others. Balance is important.”
When Charter Oak replaced its aging ticketing system with TeamDynamix, Rojas and her team knew they were addressing the “technology” and “processes” legs of the stool. The team didn’t fully realize how much of an impact the software would have on the “people” component as well.
Sharing the view from her seat, Rojas said, “The financial services sector ultimately wants to be on the bleeding edge of technology. If you don’t have a good way of handling project management, hearing the voice of your customers, quickly resolving customer issues, and staying inside the regulatory box, I think you’re at a big disadvantage.”
TeamDynamix became the solution for Charter Oak, offering automated workflows and seamless integrations with enterprise software. “TeamDynamix is allowing us to innovate more than we’ve been able to in the past,” she said.
Rojas leads practice optimization efforts for Charter Oak, and TeamDynamix has allowed employees to realize the vision suggested in this name by redesigning and streamlining key business practices, which has led to greater employee engagement.
“What I’m finding interesting is the staff engagement,” Rojas observed. “We’re able to focus on culture by engaging and igniting the team because we’re focused on leveling up our internal processes. As we redesign processes, we collaborate, we learn together.”
What’s Needed for a Successful Digital Transformation?
While measuring the success of digital transformation initiatives varies depending on your industry and company, there are a few tips and best practices that are common when it comes to implementing a digital transformation strategy. Investing in the right tools and platforms is top of that list, as well as proper training for your organization and properly communicating all changes.
To successfully carry out a digital transformation, businesses and organizations often require:
- Cloud-based IT Service Management (ITSM), Project Portfolio Management (PPM) and automation and integration (iPaaS) tools: Investing in cloud-based, low-code tools are often a great starting point for kicking off digital transformation initiatives. They can enable your IT teams, and even technical resources outside of IT, to integrate and update legacy systems to provide better user experiences and improve and automate processes.
- Big data and analytics: Big data and analytics should be part of any ITSM, PPM or iPaaS tool you use. Having access to data and analytics can help businesses collect, analyze, and visualize large amounts of data to inform decision-making.
- Collaboration and communication: Having integrations through your ITSM to tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams can help businesses communicate and collaborate more effectively, both internally and with external partners. In addition, setting up workflows and automations using iPaaS to send out notifications can help to break down silos and provide better transparency to changes happening within your organization.
No matter the tools you bring in to help facilitate your organization’s digital transformation, it’s important to carefully assess your business requirements and choose the right tools and technologies to support your goals and business objectives.
“Everybody talks about digitization like it’s this fairy godmother who’s going to wave a wand and make everything better,” Rojas said. “That really doesn’t account for the learning that people need to go through, the struggle of understanding the ‘why’ behind the process change.”
Strong communication and change management processes have helped make digital transformation easier at Charter Oak, and the TeamDynamix implementation process has also helped. Not only did Charter Oak have an implementation specialist to answer questions and offer advice, but the training sessions were also recorded and archived for viewing at any time.
“It’s almost like a movie you want to watch a couple of times,” Rojas said. “When I come back to some of the recordings to see if I’m thinking about the design elements correctly, I find the training videos are robust and meant to be enjoyed multiple times. You can learn so much each time you go back and look at the resources.”
Using TeamDynamix is enabling Charter Oak’s practice optimization team to reimagine key business processes and improve the user experience—which positions the company better for success.
Understanding the Role of iPaaS and IT Service Management Tools in Digital Transformation
iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) and ITSM platforms can both play important roles in digital transformation initiatives.
iPaaS is a cloud-based platform that enables businesses to integrate different systems and applications, both cloud-based and on-premises, using pre-built connectors and APIs. By leveraging iPaaS, businesses can more easily connect their various systems and data sources, which can help improve operational efficiency, enhance customer experiences and drive innovation. For example, iPaaS can be used to integrate a company’s e-commerce platform with its back-end inventory management system, enabling real-time inventory tracking and order fulfillment.
ITSM platforms, on the other hand, are designed to help businesses manage their IT operations, from incident management and problem resolution to change management and service request fulfillment. By using an ITSM platform, you can streamline IT operations, improve service delivery and ensure that IT resources are aligned with business objectives. For example, an ITSM platform can be used to manage the rollout of a new digital service, ensuring that it meets user requirements, is delivered on time and within budget and is properly maintained over its lifecycle.
Together, iPaaS and ITSM platforms can help you drive digital transformation by enabling your company to:
- Integrate and streamline various systems and data sources, both within IT and across the business as a whole.
- Automate processes and workflows, reducing the need for manual intervention and improving operational efficiency.
- Enhance collaboration and communication between IT and your business, improving alignment and driving innovation.
- Improve service delivery and customer experiences by ensuring that IT resources are properly aligned with business objectives.
Ultimately, iPaaS and ITSM platforms are two key components of a digital transformation strategy, helping you to connect various systems and data sources, streamline your IT operations and deliver more value to your customers.
Want to learn more about how TeamDynamix can help you achieve your digital transformation goals with a single, codeless platform for ITSM, PPM and iPaaS? Check out: No-Code Automation Reducing Toil, Improving IT Service Delivery, or our latest eBook: Automate IT – A Playbook for Supercharged ITSM to read stories from businesses and organizations across industries.