Charting your digital strategy

Transforming people, processes and business technology

One of the biggest myths about having a digital strategy is that it’s all about technology.   Technology transformation is part of it, that’s true, but a complete digital transformation strategy is about people, processes and technology.

Transformation of business technology is necessary for the digitization of business, which, in turn, modernizes how people use processes and systems so that you can always be innovating for improvement and digital differentiation.

Key benefits of a digital strategy:

• Stronger ability to align people and other resources to a single vision and plan
• Increased speed of execution for overall strategy
• Enhanced collaboration among teams
• More effective allocation of resources
• More visibility and data analytics for better decision-making

Most middle market companies are positioned for improvement through digitization, which creates opportunities for sustainable growth and potentially digital differentiation. Digitizing is just the start of digital transformation– essentially catching up or getting into the game. It is operationally focused and creates efficiency and cost reduction through automation.

The goal of digital transformation is to change the way the game is played – or play an entirely different one – by using technology to create new services or even new industries to disrupt a traditional industry model.

While every situation is different, there are three basic ways to get to digital transformation:

1. Do it on your own. You select the vendors, plan the new process design and implementation, and then take on the responsibility for security, and compliance, data migration, training, change management and long-term maintenance using your in-house resources.
2. Do it with technology vendors. You use technology vendors to deploy your new applications and infrastructure and rely on them to build the new system and migrate your data. With this option, your vendor is knowledgeable about one thing: the application they’re installing.
3. Do it with a consultant. An outcomes-focused consulting firm like RSM can help you review your current processes and systems for gaps, select the best options to implement from several solutions and implement a long-term plan.

RSM digital transformation framework

RSM’s technology consulting services use a proven framework to help you understand and evaluate various solutions in the context of your business’ technology transformation. Our framework covers five business domains:

1. Customer engagement: How you leverage technology to engage your customers and stakeholders
2. Business operations: Using the right technologies and systems to transform how you operate, creating higher levels of efficiency and accuracy in day-to-day activities
3. People enablement: Giving your teams the digital tools, capabilities and culture to be more effective and increase value contribution
4. Data and integration: Capturing and using data to create better insights, deliver more personalized experiences and improve decision-making
5. Secure and stable technology: The people and processes necessary to maintain your systems, infrastructure and security

A collaborative approach is essential for digital transformation success, so we spend a lot of time learning about your organization’s people, processes and technology, as well as your goals and strategy, before guiding you through the creation of a digital road map.

The right third-party consultant can offer deep knowledge into emerging technologies alongside industry- and business-specific knowledge relevant to your organization. During your consulting engagement you’ll get a jointly conducted evaluation process and an outcomes-based approach that aligns with strategy.

RSM’s digital road map takes into consideration where your organization is in terms of business technology maturity for each domain of the digital transformation framework. You don’t need to replace all your systems to use transformative business technology. In fact, most organizations have some of what’s needed already in place in some of the five key domains listed above. Here’s a closer look at the five levels of digital maturity:

Level 1: Non-existent. There’s little to no use of technology to facilitate daily operations.

Level 2: Basic. There’s a limited use of digital solutions to perform specific tasks (typically with additional manual effort).

Level 3: Market contender. Most day-to-day tasks are facilitated through technology and managed through current systems.

Level 4: Industry leader. Competitors and similar organizations view your organization as the

benchmark for digital maturity.

Level 5: True innovator. Your organization is on the cutting edge of technology and recognized as a digital pioneer.

The RSM Difference

No matter where you are along the digital maturity curve, RSM can help you reach the next level toward owning the game. Our business technology consultants go well beyond implementing new software. We align people, processes and technology for a successful ERP implementation with:

• Support for multiple best-in-class ERP and CRM solutions
• Complete implementation services to minimize disruption of and drain on IT resources
• Change management and training to ensure rapid time to value
• Deep industry knowledge and experience in multiple verticals
• Fully integrated industry-specific solutions to maximize efficiency

Take the next step in your digital transformation journey by investigating all of the technical consulting services RSM provides. Let us help you get to the next level.

To learn more about RSM’s approach to digital transformation, download the full e-book.

Drew Faries