Three Components of a Digitalization Strategy

Technology is constantly evolving and so are the expectations of customers who interact with it. If a company has an outdated website, what are the chances of a potential customer losing confidence in their capability? If a restaurant lacks an online ordering platform, how many people might consider ordering elsewhere? And if an employee struggles with inefficient internal software, could that eventually affect their morale and decrease productivity? It’s questions like these and more that make it apparent that one-and-done digital implementation has a direct impact on an organization’s ability to grow. So, how do companies ensure a brighter future? Prioritizing a digitalization strategy.

What is a Digitalization Strategy? 

When you think about a digitalization strategy, you are considering how a company incorporates technology into every aspect of the business as a central driving force. A digitalization strategy is a plan to build or improve digital products (i.e. websites, mobile apps, web applications)- after making informed decisions through research and validation- and execute a seamless launch that makes it easy and intuitive for users to adapt to the technology available. In short, a digitalization strategy is the rationale to support the purposeful use of effective technology to help an organization grow. 

The Three Components of a Digitalization Strategy 

To build the rationale behind the use of technology to drive a business forward, you need to form three distinct sub-strategies: data, product, and team. A data strategy encompasses everything from how the organization accesses and validates data to how it’s used. Product strategy is a well-informed plan that turns goals into better-than-imagined realities. Finally, team strategy answers the question of who is going to support the technology and continue driving innovation forward. 

Data Strategy

An organization’s technology team or an external technology consulting firm first needs to lay out what is beneficial to know in starting their digitalization strategy. The amount of information that can be acquired through data acquisition is often surprisingly robust if you know where to look. 

It’s a common struggle for businesses to capitalize on the data available to them without a plan in place for access, validation, and use. First, the sources of data that are valuable to an organization can be highly diverse. To harness the information output from technology, a plan is established to not only identify and organize the data coming in from multiple sources but to homogenize it as well. This last step is what separates accumulating data from creating a data strategy. By standardizing how data is interpreted, organizations carve a much clearer path toward answering questions that help them grow their business. 

Data Standardization 

Keeping in mind that a data strategy is a subsection of an overall digitalization strategy, how do we implement standardization? A technology team will take a look at the different systems that are collecting data (think website analytics, CRM system, ad insights, etc.), find the commonalities, and integrate them into one cohesive data landscape. By doing so, the organization is one giant step closer to automation, which points directly to the overarching goal of applying technology as a driving business force. 

Gathering and organizing data provides insights. It’s the sophisticated use of the data to improve workflows that makes it part of a digitalization strategy. 

Product Strategy

A product strategy can take on many forms. It can be a plan to build something completely new, from scratch. It could also be a roadmap that defines feature releases in the future. Finally, it can be a framework for reinventing or invigorating an existing product. No matter the form your product strategy takes, it is a process of building, testing, and refinement. 

Product Build

The build of a powerful digital product is undoubtedly a team effort. The team behind your digitalization strategy consults researchers, designers, and development architects on the tools and concepts to bring a business goal to life. Teamwork between people who (1) know how to find out what users expect of technology, (2) can conceptualize a visual path toward helping users get to where they want to go, and (3) comprehensively understand the reality of the tools and resources available to carry out a goal serves as the foundation on which to build a thoughtful framework. 

Product Testing

Research interviews, ideation sessions, prototyping, and usability testing are some of the ways in which a digitalization team documents the effectiveness of a product build. Throughout the testing process, documentation is made that supports future decisions about things such as features, style, data storage, and more. Without testing, there is a risk of developing a product that wows and impresses but falls short of functioning in a way that drives business success. By incorporating product testing into an extensive, overall strategy, organizations can see the potential of digitalization before it happens. 

Product Refinement

The first product is never the final product. Oftentimes in a digitalization strategy, there is thoughtful consideration of what can be released now, later, and in the end. Part of a product strategy is prioritization and that involves launching technology that reaches organizational goals, one core business need at a time. 

As you can see, it would be a challenge to execute impactful technology by simply thinking of ideas and then building them out. Product strategy plays a vital role in thinking of a digitalization strategy as a building block rather than a static project.  

Team Strategy

The responsibility of the team behind a digitalization strategy is to advocate for data-driven, product-focused decisions, coach those within the organization on utilizing the technology, and orchestrate a continuous evolution of the digitalization strategy as products are used. The team can be composed of internal employees or a digital technology consulting firm team who have expertise in coordinating relationships between departments, digital products, and data. 

As mentioned earlier in this article, automation has the power to be a huge driving force behind business success. The digitalization strategy team plays a fundamental role in identifying actions that are tedious, repetitive, and time-consuming. From there, they work with key players within the organization and the developers who propel its digital products to create automation capabilities that increase effectiveness and efficiency. A digitalization strategy doesn’t stop with the technology it outputs. It provides a focus on the human attention that really helps businesses grow.  

Your Personalized Digitalization Strategy  

When it comes to accelerating your business through the implementation and use of thoughtful technology, there are no one-size-fits-all answers. Considering the three components of data, product, and team will help set your thinking on the right path toward a digitalization strategy of significance. To help fill in the rest, Wolfco is here to help.