Article

Making the case for digital transformation

Jan. 6, 2022 · Authored by Cindy M. Bratel, Dave DuVarney, Amanda E. Klein

In order to thrive in today's landscape, your organization needs to adapt to the constantly accelerating pace of change. Digital transformation is critical to preparing yourself for what's next, but digital transformation goes beyond just implementing new tools and technology. By conducting a financial assessment, creating a business case and building a road map, your organization can make the financial case for your digital transformation.

Recent economic environment

While the U.S. economy has endured ups and downs over the last two years, the broader 10-year picture shows a positive upward trend. Apart from the pandemic, the last decade-plus has featured steady growth for U.S. companies and the market. The trendline since 2010 displays an overwhelming positive climb that has allowed technological progress to flourish.

A 2019 technology study by Accenture examined the correlation between revenues of technology leaders and technology laggards to find that technology leaders (the top 10%) had approximately two times the revenue growth of technology laggards (the bottom 25%).

A similar survey in 2021 concluded that technology leaders had approximately five times the revenue growth of the laggards displaying the rising importance of adopting technology in the post-pandemic economic climate. The time to start your digital transformation is now.

What does this mean for you?

Simply put, digital transformation is no longer something you might want to do, but something you need to do, in order to survive and thrive in today’s current environment.

The cost of inaction is significant. Nokia, for example, used to be a global leader in mobile phones. Due to their focus on hardware over software, within a few years, they were on the verge of extinction. Nokia did not prioritize adapting to the technological needs of its customers and suffered greatly because of it.

From an organizational standpoint, the first question to ask yourself is: Where are we today?

As you can see from the maturity model below, your organization will likely fall somewhere on a 1-to-5 scale – with one being a company that exists mostly on paper and five being a company using technology to create fundamental change in your operations and functionality. No matter where your organization is today in this maturity model, identifying where you are is immensely important in order to get to where you want to be.