Digital Transformation Consulting Services: Guideline for 2020
The term ‘digital transformation’ has been widely used lately and it is, in fact, one of the major challenges and opportunities for many businesses.
Digital transformation can help enhance customer experiences, encourage collaboration across various departments, improves efficiency, provides better service both internally and externally, moreover, digital transformation may optimize a variety of processes to minimize the cost and maximize the throughput. 
Therefore, many business owners and executives are willing to adopt digital transformation into their business model, but not every internal team has enough experience or time to achieve this objective.
This is when digital transformation consulting services become really handy.
Digital Transformation Consulting Services
But first of all, let’s get into the definition of digital transformation consulting to know about your alternative aid to transforming success. Digital transformation consulting is a service that enhances a company’s technical performance by establishing digital strategies and putting digital technologies into practice.
Digital transformation consultants (DTCs) can bring multiple values and benefits to organizations to overcome the challenges by analyzing companies’ infrastructure and finding key gaps in the service. Their focus is on their client’s short-term and long-term performances.
Secondly, let’s understand the importance of DTCs in this fourth world industrial revolution, where everything is shifting due to digitization and technology, but not everyone has enough knowledge and experience to complete their business transformation.
DTCs provide anything one business needs to effectively transform, and they assure the digital technologies and strategies of that company are connected.
A DTC often offers assistance to these following services:
- Formulating digital transformation strategy and road map
- Integrating digital technologies to reduce the workload and expense
- Increasing processes’ productivity and effectiveness
- Improving workplace satisfaction for employees
- Allowing companies to expand and emerge into new businesses and channels
Because DTCs have been working with heaps of clients, they can bring an outsider's perspective to the table. And it is important to have an outsider’s perspective in organizations’ related projects plus culture when it comes to business transformation.
They also bring extra value via human resources and experience. While it is expensive and difficult to attract digital experts back to your company, digital consulting companies increase their workforce through acquisitions.
Despite the values being brought to the team, some companies are afraid of their strategy and secret being exposed. This shouldn’t be the case in digital transformation projects. Because all companies are trying to digitize and automate their working processes so there is little to non-specific secrets involved. Plus, both parties can always sign an NDA to lawfully protect their company’s information.
But in this competitive industry, there is more than one option to go with, regard to transforming consulting support, and it is, to be honest, a bit daunting because the success of one project will predominantly depend on choosing the right DTCs.
But there is always a formula for anything. Here is a guideline for any businesses wanting to seek external help:
UNDERSTANDING THE DECISION
It is crucial to understand the decision leading you to outsource since it will influence how you choose your potential significant assistant.
Some decisions come organically because executives or employees identify an opportunity for improvements or solutions. Some decisions come when companies look for an outsider’s opinion to simplify a landscape or to evaluate some promising opportunities.
At this phase, an outsider’s perspective is highly valuable since DTCs have a wider view of what’s going on in your industry and they can help you to estimate both strategic and tactical implications.
RELEVANT EXPERTISE
When looking for a business consultant, you should always review the CVs of individuals who will work with you to assure that they have the necessary skills relevant to your projects. Analyzing consultants’ previous projects is also a good way to see if they have the right expertise, including technical, process-specific, and industry-specific.
INDEPENDENT OR BIG COMPANY
There are two different options and five factors you should take into consideration when hiring a consulting firm. You can either go with big consulting firms who will deliver a strong team of consultants with more project-oriented methodologies and frameworks, or a smaller team with a more flexible manner with a set of unique experiences that they own compared to big companies.
But before making any decisions, you should give thoughts about these five factors: experience, fit, reputation, size, and cost. You should keep in mind that if your consulting team works for some specific technology vendors, they will be more likely to be biased towards that vendor’s solutions.
Unlocking the Key to Digital Transformation success
The success of digital transformation starts with the right talents, and since DTCs will help to transform businesses to some extent and add value to it via its human resources; the other factors defining the success of transforming are strategies and strong leadership.
The business transformation itself is hard, but the digital one is even harder. Here are some tips for unlocking the key to success in digital transformation.
What does transformation success mean to me?
This is the question every manager should ask him or herself when investing in digital. Sometimes there will be some disruptions or lack of sufficient profits, but if you have followed all the steps, then you should keep in mind that ‘one size doesn’t fit all’.
There are many factors affecting the transforming progress: the management board, employees, company’s vision, strategies, core values, and so on.
Some people view a decline in public engagement as a failure rather than a chance to improve their performance and initiative, but some people view it as an opportunity.
The almost-perfect way (because there is always an exception) to approach would be the cycle of outlook - decision - execution - evaluation and heaps of comprehensive reviews and analysis of the entire scenario.
Customers will learn and know more and more about what they want, and businesses will learn how to provide them.
Business owners can either go with learning first, and then investing in a digital strategy or do it at the same time, but both need absolute patience.
Although it might look like taking a risk when relying mainly on digital technology and eventually put an end to all traditional methods, the action is compulsory in this new world. In future trends like IoT and AI, managers should be more cautious and be prepared for new technological innovations.
It is essential to have knowledge and understanding before jumping on the ship to transform your business since talents are the core factor for a booming business transformation.
Your team internally and externally should be equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge, and authority to make decisions.
Especially the in-house executive staff. They should be ready to support and drive the project from the inside along with your offshore technology outsourcing team.
Choosing the right technology partner and DTCs with the relevant skills and knowledge are crucial. They can help you investigate the advantages and disadvantages of certain strategies, as well as analyzing your business field before implementing the projects.
All of these will bring you and your stakeholders' confidence in investment and excitement in trying to engage in the digital world.
Anyone who is in charge of transforming their business should understand what those technologies can offer, analyze their impacts on different areas: markets, distribution channels, services, so forth. The decisions shouldn’t be influenced by media hype, competitors’ strategies, or anyone who says you should do this or that because it’s ‘how leaders think’.
The end result should always be about the customer, or client-oriented. Customers are right, but not always right. At the end of the day, the purpose of establishing or transforming a business is to provide for needs.
However, in this fast-moving world, your customers or clients don’t always know what they want. If you keep focusing on answering all of their questions and needs, you will get lost and lose your own culture. Instead of putting them high on the pedestal, try to treat them as a friend, a family member whom you will give guidance to optimize their experiences but still stay true to your core values.
CONCLUSION
Digital transformation does matter in this world. It provides a priceless opportunity for businesses, supports them to focus on wider opportunities and employees to be more effective.
Every company is now a technology company, but not everyone is a successful one.
Having a guideline to know more about your options leading you to success and unlocking your transforming potential is crucial. Digital transformation is no longer an unfamiliar concept, it isn’t new, but it is definitely different and essential for a booming business.
