Enstoa's Colonnade Digital Transformation Educational Track: 4 Tips to Jumpstart DT
Senior Director of Education Solutions
Since you're not living under a rock, you have certainly heard about digital transformation and know that it can make an organization more efficient. What you may not know is how to take advantage of that for your organization. At Enstoa, we have helped organizations across all types of industries — such as healthcare, oil & gas, engineering & construction, and public infrastructure — digitally transform their processes and culture. No matter the industry, we've seen that there's always one massive misconception before we start: people always expect DT to be a huge project that you have to do all at once. They think only big corporations with tons of money can accomplish digital transformation. The good news is that's not true.
Digital transformation is not one big project that takes three years and multi-million dollars to complete. You can still envision and plan a three-plus-year path, but if done properly, you can get dramatic results in a fraction of that time by breaking it up into several smaller projects. Start with an area that you know will drive a lot of impact and focus on it first. See how it fits within your organization, make adjustments, and keep going from there.
Top 4 tips to get you started
If the words “digital transformation” still sound daunting to you, here are four tips for getting started:
- You’re not just transforming your processes and technology; you’re transforming your people.
When people think of digital transformation, they usually equate it with taking paper or low-tech processes and making them digital. Sure, that's part of it, but all your new technologies won't mean anything if your team is not able or willing to use them. So, ensuring your team has the right baseline knowledge to be effective in the digital journey is key. If you need help on that, check out Colonnade, our collection of virtual classes geared toward getting your staff skilled up on core foundational concepts to strengthen their digital savvy journey.
- Rethink processes, don’t discard them.
Don’t jump into a digital transformation project and automatically throw away everything you’re doing today. Take a step back and evaluate your current processes with a critical eye. Empower your people to talk openly about the processes and encourage them to brainstorm new ways of performing them. Your organization needs to understand why you do things the way you do and why the individual processes are important to your business. Only then can you identify areas that could be streamlined and discuss the tools that could be put into place to help.
- Integrate your systems.
Digital transformation starts with good data, but good data can be tough to come by when you have one system for managing financials, another for managing projects, another for managing bids, and so on. If these systems don’t share data with each other, that’s not only inefficient, but you’re asking for data discrepancies. Setting up data integrations builds a strong foundation for your digital transformation. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do this yourself from scratch. There are tools, such as Adapters, that allow you to set up your data integrations in one day – no coding skills needed!
- It’s okay to ask for help.
Although you will have an internal team working on this transformation, it’s important to include an outside resource in that team. An external resource provides a different perspective and can help guide the team through the potential pitfalls. Many times, internal teams working alone are so stuck in what they are doing today that they can't see past it to envision and enact change. An outside resource provides fresh ideas and helps your team think differently. Plus, they come with a lot of experience and existing frameworks that you can leverage to drive the quickest, most impactful results for your organization.
Afraid of change?
You could follow these four tips and do everything right, but change scares people at the end of the day. People often resist change because they are comfortable with how things are. The best way to combat this fear of change is by getting people from all levels of your business involved in the digital transformation process from the beginning. Facilitate open dialogues with your staff about their current processes and how they could be improved or made easier. By doing that, they will be quicker to embrace the changes that come with your digital transformation because they'll feel like they helped you get there.
Digital transformation brings real, quantifiable value to an organization. It allows your teams to operate more efficiently by reducing your operational costs, gaining real-time visibility into their projects, and ensuring every team is a high performing one. It enables your organization to make data-driven decisions. Plus, it empowers a remote workforce to work together better. These are benefits that aren't just nice to have in today's business landscape, they're critical to success. So don't let it scare you because you think you don't have the time or money; make sure you understand what’s involved, and then get started!
Want to make sure you have a solid understanding of what’s needed for proper digital transformation? Check out our “Digital Transformation for Leaders” Colonnade course.
Author Bio
Karla Watts, Senior Director of Education Solutions, is responsible for professional education across Enstoa’s portfolio of projects. With over 20 years of experience working in corporate education, as well as project and product management for high-tech software companies, Karla is an expert at aligning employee and customer needs with business strategies by implementing fun, innovative professional training programs.
Since you're not living under a rock, you have certainly heard about digital transformation and know that it can make an organization more efficient. What you may not know is how to take advantage of that for your organization. At Enstoa, we have helped organizations across all types of industries — such as healthcare, oil & gas, engineering & construction, and public infrastructure — digitally transform their processes and culture. No matter the industry, we've seen that there's always one massive misconception before we start: people always expect DT to be a huge project that you have to do all at once. They think only big corporations with tons of money can accomplish digital transformation. The good news is that's not true.
Digital transformation is not one big project that takes three years and multi-million dollars to complete. You can still envision and plan a three-plus-year path, but if done properly, you can get dramatic results in a fraction of that time by breaking it up into several smaller projects. Start with an area that you know will drive a lot of impact and focus on it first. See how it fits within your organization, make adjustments, and keep going from there.
Top 4 tips to get you started
If the words “digital transformation” still sound daunting to you, here are four tips for getting started:
- You’re not just transforming your processes and technology; you’re transforming your people.
When people think of digital transformation, they usually equate it with taking paper or low-tech processes and making them digital. Sure, that's part of it, but all your new technologies won't mean anything if your team is not able or willing to use them. So, ensuring your team has the right baseline knowledge to be effective in the digital journey is key. If you need help on that, check out Colonnade, our collection of virtual classes geared toward getting your staff skilled up on core foundational concepts to strengthen their digital savvy journey.
- Rethink processes, don’t discard them.
Don’t jump into a digital transformation project and automatically throw away everything you’re doing today. Take a step back and evaluate your current processes with a critical eye. Empower your people to talk openly about the processes and encourage them to brainstorm new ways of performing them. Your organization needs to understand why you do things the way you do and why the individual processes are important to your business. Only then can you identify areas that could be streamlined and discuss the tools that could be put into place to help.
- Integrate your systems.
Digital transformation starts with good data, but good data can be tough to come by when you have one system for managing financials, another for managing projects, another for managing bids, and so on. If these systems don’t share data with each other, that’s not only inefficient, but you’re asking for data discrepancies. Setting up data integrations builds a strong foundation for your digital transformation. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do this yourself from scratch. There are tools, such as Adapters, that allow you to set up your data integrations in one day – no coding skills needed!
- It’s okay to ask for help.
Although you will have an internal team working on this transformation, it’s important to include an outside resource in that team. An external resource provides a different perspective and can help guide the team through the potential pitfalls. Many times, internal teams working alone are so stuck in what they are doing today that they can't see past it to envision and enact change. An outside resource provides fresh ideas and helps your team think differently. Plus, they come with a lot of experience and existing frameworks that you can leverage to drive the quickest, most impactful results for your organization.
Afraid of change?
You could follow these four tips and do everything right, but change scares people at the end of the day. People often resist change because they are comfortable with how things are. The best way to combat this fear of change is by getting people from all levels of your business involved in the digital transformation process from the beginning. Facilitate open dialogues with your staff about their current processes and how they could be improved or made easier. By doing that, they will be quicker to embrace the changes that come with your digital transformation because they'll feel like they helped you get there.
Digital transformation brings real, quantifiable value to an organization. It allows your teams to operate more efficiently by reducing your operational costs, gaining real-time visibility into their projects, and ensuring every team is a high performing one. It enables your organization to make data-driven decisions. Plus, it empowers a remote workforce to work together better. These are benefits that aren't just nice to have in today's business landscape, they're critical to success. So don't let it scare you because you think you don't have the time or money; make sure you understand what’s involved, and then get started!
Want to make sure you have a solid understanding of what’s needed for proper digital transformation? Check out our “Digital Transformation for Leaders” Colonnade course.
Author Bio
Karla Watts, Senior Director of Education Solutions, is responsible for professional education across Enstoa’s portfolio of projects. With over 20 years of experience working in corporate education, as well as project and product management for high-tech software companies, Karla is an expert at aligning employee and customer needs with business strategies by implementing fun, innovative professional training programs.
