Our sister consultancy, Nemetos Tanasuk, asked different global manufacturers about their biggest predicted challenges heading into 2023.
Digital transformation lands in the top biggest challenges expected by respondents at number three, with cybersecurity threats and rising costs of raw materials tied in second and supply chain disruptions, first.
They looked at over 200 companies and assessed their digital maturity based on a number of key factors. Unsurprisingly, those with low digital maturity sold less through digital channels. Those companies with a higher level of digital maturity are already successfully prioritising customer experience (CX), so it’s no surprise that this appears top of manufacturers’ list.
Get a copy of this whitepaper to discover more about challenges, digital change, customer experience, expansion, and ROI.
Eliminating friction to remain competitive
Removing as much friction as possible with the supply chain—making it easier for suppliers to add new products to the stack and giving customers access to the products is key.
Many times, the change in your selling system often starts the search for a more robust technology, but looking at what your entire business needs from sales, operations, marketing, customer service, and virtually everywhere you have a customer touchpoint is critical. And for a successful digital transformation, data consolidation should be a priority when implementing new tech.
Let’s explore 4 threats companies may experience during a digital transformation, plus some creative solutions.
1. Transformation as an island—If one team is seen to own the transformation, there is a big risk that other teams will feel left out, which will impact user adoption and can bring down such a project.
🔧 Solution: Identify your key stakeholders, and make them inclusive. The skill here is to ensure they feel part of the transformation team, naturally building trust.
2. Visibility—A successful transformation should make many aspects of the business more visible. Pulling information together into dashboards enabling teams and the executive team to easily monitor company performance in real-time, is a must. Transparency and consistent reporting can be a concern to some, yet it is crucial for any business to succeed.
🔧 Solution: This is not always easy, and you may need help to show that transparency is beneficial and not a threat. This is where it’s invaluable to bring in a consultant who can see the bigger picture and has a great deal of experience working with multiple teams with many different needs and across different areas of the business.
Commit to a cadence of “show & tell sessions” through live or project progress webinars. Having delivered projects across many time zones, it’s also very important to record each session to ensure all your users are included. Open feedback loops so your users can ask questions and make suggestions.
3. Experiencing overwhelm—It is easy to only see the big picture and become overwhelmed by the potential size of a transformation project. So focus on the now but keep an eye on the future.
🔧 Solution: Start by reviewing the top three challenges in the business, make sure you understand them and then simplify each of them. Demonstrate how you can achieve success for each by making the needs very clear, demonstrate how they can be deliverable, and then use a continuous delivery model reviewing how each challenge has been addressed. Our team has worked on projects across a multi-global sales team who needed mobile access to their CRM so they could update meetings and respond to sales in real-time. The CRM project was implemented as part of a wider transformation, included a mobile app out of the box, and with some minor configurations was delivered.
4. Project futures—Don’t be afraid to share your transformation project roadmap. You need to keep the future in your sights. Needs change, and your transformation project will change.
🔧 Solution: Share your project roadmap, seek feedback, and encourage votes on ideas for your roadmap to ensure you are keeping up with changes that are relevant to the business’ vision.
Individual organisations are challenged to create a unique strategy based on market position, segmentation, competition, and overall demands. Having a strategic road map will guide your digital transformation and push forth business innovation and growth. When combined with a greater focus on communication, cross-functional collaboration, and exponential talent, any business can truly transform itself.
Unify data consultancy can build a “roadmap for success” to ensure your digital transformation optimises your business with actionable outcomes and streamlined operations. Unify is here to guide you through the process of selecting, implementing, and customising a manufacturing CRM.
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We are Unify, CRM, Data and Analytics specialists for enterprise-level organisations. We work with companies who have started or about to start their Digital transformation and help customers to use their data to drive actionable outcomes and drive business efficiency. Contact us today to find out how we can help your digital transformation programme or to conduct a customised data and operational process audit for your business.