When it comes to Digital Transformation, there are many ways to do it right… and sadly, many ways it can go sideways or terribly wrong.

Consider these 15 different “mistakes”. While some may seem like common sense, too often, the details are either glossed over by over-enthusiastic salespeople or over-eager consultants.

1. No plan: investments are made in a disconnected, usually suboptimal fashion. It is very hard to align strategy with a “let’s do it organically” approach, while also mitigating risk.
2. No benchmarking: What are other organizations doing, both within your industry and outside of it? More than looking at vendor case studies, benchmarking provides a wider understanding of the possibilities in digital transformation… and the risks.
3. No Journey Mapping: Digital transformation involves optimization and automation of process. Journey mapping is the tool used to trace the touchpoints that stakeholders experience as they interact with the organization. A successful digital transformation must focus here first – not on the technology or the branding.
4. Thinking of it as a tech exercise, not a strategic one. Digital Transformation cuts across so many silos of the organization, yet unlike implementing a technology like Microsoft Office, it is has strategic implications. Technology choice both open possibilities… and close them. Marketing, HR, and Operations have as much a stake in the outcome as IT. (I still remember one C-level leader complaining that they had licensed an expensive enterprise software platform, thinking it would “transform” the organization. Nope.)
5. Proprietary platform: This will lock you in with one vendor – and expose you to risk if they choose to abandon the platform in the future. While all-in-one might make sense in certain cases, in many cases the “best practices” that are built in will only limit what can be done… to what everyone else on the platform is doing.
6. No data-driven platform: Some web platforms are built from the ground up to support and drive social, collect data on users, and support an omni-channel experience. Others are tack-on at best.
7. No built-in SEO: It is far better to “build in” SEO to a website, than to pay for optimizing a site forever.
8. No mobile-first strategy: While the desktop website might be important, most stakeholders are now using mobile. Mobile-first means that all digital experiences are designed and optimized for location and mobile first, and then the desktop. Secondly, a mobile-first strategy means that the possible value and functionality of a mobile and tablet app has been fully explored.
9. No cloud: Older systems typically run on servers, while current ones are delivered on the cloud as a software-as-a-service, often through an app. Cloud-based systems never have version problems, and are available everywhere. A related mistake is not fully exploring the underlying cloud infrastructure to ensure that issues of data sovereignty, up-time service level agreements, and the providers’ history with data breaches are addressed.
10. No security infrastructure: No security infrastructure means that your client and supplier data – and your reputation – are at risk. Security means firewalls, intrusion detection, multiple redundant back-up systems, and most importantly, active monitoring.
11. Inadequate resourcing: While budgets are clearly important, “cheap” often means shortcuts that prevent the integration of any one part of the system with others, or put security at risk. Or it may mean building a system that can do what is needed, but because there is inadequate resourcing, little or no training, no support, or little staff interest, the system is never fully exploited. It may be reasonable to ask staff members to work a bit harder during a short implementation, but it is unreasonable to expect a successful digital transformation unless there is dedicated time to make it happen. A related mistake: vastly underestimating the amount of training and support that is required.
12. Captive Vendors: Not every organization has the experience or knowledge of best practices, so doing the strategy and implementation internally is fraught with risk. Yet, using a vendor or agency whose goal is to “sell gear” (their own technology, advertising, SEO, and other services) is also problematic. Choosing a partner with breadth and depth of knowledge – and independence – is critical.
13. Old-style project management: Instead of old-style “waterfall” project management, using an Agile approach means easier mid-course corrections, faster delivery, and better end-user buy-in.
14. Poor implementation team: The quality of the team that “sells” the digital transformation project is rarely the team that delivers it, and is rarely the team that does the training. If any of these three teams is not excellent, the project will suffer. Due diligence at the individual team member level is critically important. (Hint: there should only be one team – not three!)
15. No measurement: Digital transformation shouldn’t be measured by the huge number of statistics that come from the system, but rather by the Key Success Factors approved by the board which justified the system in the first place.

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