‘Most firms do not have Digital Transformation strategies in place’
Published on : Monday 30-11--0001
Sunil Joshi, Founder & CEO of DGTRA Consultancy Pvt Ltd.
While most companies are today talking of Digital Transformation, do all of them have effective strategies in place for implementation?
Today, we see a lot of flux in the Market Place and “Digital” has become the new frontier for sales and brand positioning of companies. We see companies talking about Digital Transformation because of the following key reasons:
Peer Pressure – This is where companies get super-excited about what their peers are using and without getting into details of what is needed for them, they jump into deploying the Digital Transformation technologies. This is very similar to “self-medication”, without consulting a doctor; it works sometime but it can kill you most of the time.
Self-Realisation: This is where few companies are looking inside-out to find out what are the inefficiency pockets in their business processes and then look at solutions to address them. These firms are on the right track for deploying Digital Transformation processes and technologies but here implementation becomes a risk if they fall in the trap of software firms.
To sum it up, most of the firms do not have their Digital Transformation strategies in place. Sometimes, we have seen few jumping into it first and then build strategies on the Go.
What are the impediments in the process of Digital Transformation in the Indian context? Is RoI the key concern?
“Digital Transformation” is like a “Healthy Weight Loss Program” which requires discipline, focus and adherence to certain basic rules, involves changing habits and mind-set and most importantly a lot of patience and perseverance. “Patience” is the biggest impediment in the Digital Transformation process. Customers expects results very fast and practitioners who have to build on their revenues end up committing the moon without emphasising on the challenges involved. Also, most western templates of RoI calculations does not work in the Indian context as the market is not obsessed with saving of man-hours but more inclined towards production savings, enhanced time to market, saving through capital optimisation.
As one of the main drivers of the economy, is the SME sector ready for this transformation?
Absolutely yes. The answer would have been very different if this question was asked 10 years back. Today, due to the explosion of cloud technologies, low entry cost, subscription business models and mobile technologies, the need for heavy investments on hardware and software, which were pre-requisite in the past have been eliminated. SMEs are well placed to leverage these opportunities and adopt this transformation.
How should the SMEs prepare for Digital Transformation?
My advice to fellow folks is very simple. Divide your business processes into two broad parts:
Direct Tasks – Everything that is to do with your business directly.
Indirect Tasks – Everything required to support your business.
For most companies, Indirect tasks keep sucking up the major mindshare and remained a Challenge. It will always be a safe bet to start leveraging the Transformation in the indirect tasks first, set-up your learnings and then move towards the bigger challenge.
Are privacy and cybersecurity concerns regarding the cloud exaggerated?
Privacy and Cybersecurity are peripherals that will grow along with the increase in the transactions and size of digital data we handle today. Most concerns are valid however often exaggerated. Some basic information, customers’ needs to know before they sign up with Software firms:
- Where is your Data residing? Location of Data Centres
- For what purposes are you allowing the software firm access to your database
- Understanding instances, possibilities of Data breaches, and
- How vulnerable is your own IT environment? Get it audited.
Sunil Joshi is the Founder & CEO of DGTRA Consultancy Pvt Ltd. He is passionate about Digital Technologies and how it can bring about a paradigm shift in the way we deliver projects. By Training, he is a Civil Engineer with post-graduation in Business Management and a RICS certified BIM Professional. After 15 years of Corporate Career catering to Markets across US, Europe, APAC, India and ME, he founded DGTRA with a vision to help Construction Industry in their Digital Transformation process. He is also a Visiting Professor and a Member of Board of Studies at MIT School of Management.