Business Success With Digitalisation

The second figure is the more interesting one, because it is not a claim about efficiency at all.

What digitalisation actually means

Digitalisation, digital transformation, business transformation — the labels are interchangeable and the substance is not complicated. It means identifying what is not working as effectively as it could, and introducing change to address it.

That definition is deliberately unexciting. It puts the emphasis where the value is: on the problem being solved, rather than the technology doing the solving.

The most reliable approach is to look for the process that generates the most complaints, internal or external.

The numbers

Digital business transformation drives improved operational efficiency by around 40%, and digital-first companies are 64% more likely to achieve their business goals.

The second figure is the more interesting one, because it is not a claim about efficiency at all. It says digital-first organisations are better at doing what they set out to do — which is a statement about responsiveness, not cost.

Where the efficiency comes from

• Removing duplicate effort, where the same information is entered more than once
• Removing waiting, which in most processes is the bulk of elapsed time
• Removing the search, because people spend a surprising share of the day finding information the organisation already holds
• Removing rework, by getting things right the first time rather than correcting them later

Note that none of these is "doing the work faster". The gains are in the space between the work.

Starting in the right place

The most reliable approach is to look for the process that generates the most complaints, internal or external. Complaints are free research: they identify the places where the organisation is already failing, and they come with the evidence attached.

Fix one of those properly, measure it, and use the result to fund the next.

Why most transformations stall

Research suggests fewer than a third of digital business transformation initiatives succeed. The reasons given are consistent across studies: a lack of employee engagement, poor alignment with goals, and poor communication — not the technology itself.

Two kinds of buy-in matter, and they are not the same thing. Senior management buy-in secures the resources, the mandate and cover for the disruption a transformation causes. Employee buy-in secures actual use of what gets built. People need to understand why something is changing, what it means for their role and what is expected of them — being told change is coming is not the same as being brought into it.

Communication is what connects the two. Regular, two-way updates from planning through to implementation and follow-up keep people informed rather than anxious, and anxiety is where resistance comes from.

What makes it stick

Three things separate transformations that hold from those that quietly revert:

Ownership by the business, not by IT alone. Measurement from the start, so improvement is demonstrable rather than asserted. And an appetite for changing the process, not just the tools it runs on.

Organisations that get those right see results with fairly ordinary technology. Organisations that do not, will not see them with excellent technology.