Digital experiences are the building blocks, not a bolt-on – report

According to new findings from Forrester, IT departments are still not considered part of the wider business which is holding back the delivery of the digital business.

Organizations recognize the need to drive transformation strategies and ensure technology is at the forefront of the business, though implementing this idea is seemingly more difficult than most executives assume. The research highlighted only 20% of the respondents viewed the IT department as a partner in the business, with the majority seeing the team more as a supplier. IT being viewed as a disjointed part of the business is by no-means a new challenge, though in a digital-ecosystem, where technology defines the success of an organization, this could be viewed as a major roadblock to the implementation of an effective transformation strategy.

“You would think with all the change going on in the world, a digital transformation strategy would be at the forefront of any 21^st century business, but this isn’t always the case,” said Forrester’s Principal Analyst Nigel Fenwick at Huawei Connect 2016. “This isn’t always the fault of the executive though as technology is evolving so fast it is often difficult to keep up.”

The research states only 25% of companies who participated have a digital transformation strategy, which defines how the organization will evolve to create new sources of customer value as a digital business. 48% have a strategy which will add digital elements to the existing business model, and 25% are in the process of developing a strategy to add digital elements to the existing business. For Fenwick, only the first 25% are effectively managing the digital experience, as digital experiences need to be built from the inside out, as opposed to bolt-on, to meet the demanding expectations of a digitally enabled customer.

The digital experience now needs to be a key component of every product and service built by an organization, though for this to feel natural, the component needs to be incorporated from the very beginning.

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