Digital Transformation is a process organizations adopt to change their business operations using new digital tools and solutions. It is not an easy task to transform the whole functioning of an already operational system. Therefore, companies have to go through a challenging phase while upgrading their systems digitally. 

Let us first find out why Digital transformation is difficult to adopt.

Digital transformation is an innovative way of carrying out traditional business operations that are core to your business. It helps you adopt new software, technologies, and processes that are automated and thus more efficient. 

Before you take up the digital transformation initiative you need to consider many factors. These factors include people’s reactions to change, the impact on customer relations, the effects on your business goals, the cost incurred on transformation, and so forth. 

Undoubtedly, digital transformation helps businesses to reach new heights and offer tough competition to other market players. But it’s easier said than done as digital transformation statistics suggest that 70 percent of digital transformation programs fail.  

What Digital Transformation Challenges do Businesses Have to Face?

Digital Transformation offers seamless opportunities for companies to grow. But before starting a digital transformation project, you must take into consideration the following challenges you might face- 

  1. Dealing with Complex Software and Technology: Any organization’s software system is extremely complex therefore adopting new technology can be very intimidating. Digital transformation is a big challenge for companies be it from the implementation, data integration, or user-experience perspective. Considering the above factors in the initial stage of digital marketing enables company leaders to find the most intuitive and integrated systems. 
  2. Adopting New Digital Tools and Processes: Operating through new digital tools and processes is a major challenge due to many employees’ resistance to change. It is so because most of the employees feel comfortable working in conventional ways. To implement new software successfully, companies must train their employees and offer constant support to help employees adopt new technology quickly and with ease. 
  3. Lacking in Digital Transformation Strategy: You won’t taste the fruits of successful transformation unless you have a pre-planned Digital Transformation Strategy. Before implementing a digital transformation strategy, you must have answers to the following-
  • Why are you shifting manual processes to a digital system?
  • Do you have a strategy to implement such advanced and complex systems?
  • Is your business ready to migrate from conventional systems to new digital systems?

            You must start the transformation process from the areas that need upgradingand improvement.

  1. Having teams that lack IT Skills: The success of your digital transformation process largely depends on the highly-skilled and productive IT team. In the current scenario, there is a shortage of tech workers in the industry which is in itself a big challenge for organizations. According to a survey, 54 percent of companies couldn’t succeed in their digital transformation endeavor due to a lack of technically-skilled employees. Lack of IT skills includes lack of skills in cybersecurity, application architecture, data analytics, software integrations, and data migration. But you can cope with this lack of IT professionals by hiring experienced IT consultants to help you bridge this gap.  
  2. Budgeting Constraints: Digital transformation is a costly investment initially. Organizations that do not have a strong digital transformation strategy find it harder to cut down on costs related to the process. Therefore, it is important to know your long-term goals and the ROI you want to achieve from a digital transformation strategy. This would help you to overcome the budgeting constraints in the long run. 

How to Overcome the Digital Transformation Challenges

To reach your digital transformation goals you must formulate strategies to face the challenges exposed to your business. Given below are a few tips you can consider while shifting to new digital systems and software-

  1. One of the most important steps to successful transformation is to invest in a digital adoption platform. DAPs provide companies with no-code tools to create in-app content to allow onboarding, training, and support to your employees. 
  2. Find out the most influential, innovative, and productive employees in your workforce and bring them together to form a cross-functional team. Assign them the responsibility of creating a digital transformation process that aligns with your business objectives. 
  3. If you are skeptical about taking the digital transformation charge into your own hands, you can always opt to outsource the whole process. You can hire a professional company that offers digital transformation services and IT consultation to work on your internal team’s behalf. 
  4. It is crucial to the success of your business to align its long-term goals with your digital transformation strategy. It should aim to make your employees more constructive and improve the overall customer experience. 
  5. When you take up a digital transformation project, you must be ready to accept digitally enhanced tools and processes. You must teach your employees to leverage new technology by adopting new practices and giving up on old ones.

It is not easy to take up the digital transformation process but with the right mindset, you can always achieve it successfully.