Adopt New Acceleration Patterns to Maintain
Digital Business Momentum
Adopt New Acceleration Patterns to Maintain Digital Business Momentum
If you are looking to accelerate digitization and maintain momentum, you are not alone and I recommend reading the latest Gartner survey: Gartner Digital Business Acceleration Survey, which gives an interesting comparative view on digital businesses during the last year.
This executive survey was conducted by Gartner during 2020 to “Inspire new acceleration patterns by engaging with business leaders and influencing decisions on customer engagement, culture, strategy, talent and IT strategy”.
For some respondents, digital initiatives were planned well in advance of the pandemic and continued throughout. For others, digital development was clearly kicked off by COVID-19. Despite the crisis, 50% of respondents not only “continued their digital efforts but they also increased their investments to focus on digital business” Gartner.
Four key takeaways from the survey are:
- “Digital accelerators are using this moment to transform, not just optimize. ”
- “Two out of three enterprises reported increased productivity as employees worked from home, relieving concern that the opposite would happen. But insufficient resources and employee fatigue loom as unsolved challenges”,
- “Enterprises that accelerated digital business last year were much more likely to increase digital sales and improve net profit”.
- “Executive commitment is more important than ever. Enterprises that accelerated digital business were much more likely than others to have the CEO and COO support.”
If we look into the recommendations: CIOs should take three steps to maintain and leverage digital business momentum. For instance:
- “Adopting new acceleration patterns in customer engagement, culture, strategy, talent and IT strategy”;
- Prioritizing key initiatives and efforts;
- And last but not least developing digital expertise among executives.
According to Gartner without “digital dexterity among executive laders, acceleration will struggle to maintain momentum.”
It is very clear, according to Gartner Survey : “Half of the Respondents Increased Their Investment and Focus on Digital Business in 2020, Over one- Third Did Not.”
CEOs, CIOs and COOs of digital accelerating companies “are using this moment to transform, not just to optimize” their business.
The survey three directions in which digital business is accelerating and should be considered if you didn’t do so until now:
- Digital products
“data- and tech-enabled products can be used to pursue new
market opportunities. Most Gartner surveys show few CEOs or CIOs taking a truly
transformational path like this.”
- Customer experience
“the digital accelerators are rapidly shifting to virtual
customer engagements. What’s really transformational here is that this drives net
profit improvements, not just a higher Net Promoter Score (NPS).”
- New digital business models or missions
“data and tech-enabled business models
could drive entirely new revenue streams. As with digital products, most Gartner
surveys show few executives pursuing new digital business models.”
Resulting into more sales: “Digital accelerators were much more likely to report an increased percentage of digital sales and improved net profits.”
The survey also shows that “changes in customer engagement approaches were common for digital accelerators as well as for companies that did not accelerate. But digital accelerators are also tackling and changing culture and strategy to execute these new patterns.” so Gartner.
In fact “Having insufficient IT-business resources is the most common barrier to digital business success, followed by insufficient digital skills.”
And “weak management sponsorship of change is more common in organizations that are not accelerating digital business.”
At Pitcher we have seen it so many times. Digital business is not only the responsibility of the CIO or the IT unit but it requires an entire organization, technology and clear KPIs to monitor and people and teams’ incentives.
According to Gartner “Accelerating digital business correlates with an executive team that is a strong advocate for digitalization. “
A change in culture and strategy across the organization is very important to help accelerate digital business and invest more in customer experience and new digital products, and ultimately, increase digital sales.
For many, COVID-19 has kicked off digitization, but for the majority, this process started long ago as a result of changing customer needs and behaviors. Businesses are adapting customer journeys fast to include all new channels, enabling them to offer better engagement and build on valuable interactions.
Download your copy of the Gartner Survey, “Adopt New Acceleration Patterns to Maintain Digital Business Momentum”, and use your momentum to promote digital transformation within your organization and secure support for your executive team’s digital initiatives.
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