A complete guide to digital transformation

• Digital transformation involves replacing manual and paper-based processes with modern, cloud-enabled digital systems. While early efforts focused on going paperless, contemporary digital transformation encompasses a broader scope, including automation of processes, the integration of advanced technologies, and continual evolution to stay ahead of industry changes.

• Successful digital transformation addresses four main areas: Updating tools with advanced technologies, automating and improving processes, managing the impact on people and job roles, and enhancing offerings to improve products, services, and customer experiences.

• Common challenges include a lack of vision, overambitious goals and focusing solely on technology without considering the human element.

Digital transformation is a constant. What was once modern can quickly become old school. This makes it vital for decision makers in every organization to understand how to recognize the need for, implement, and manage digital transformation projects.

Digital transformation is the replacement of manual, paper-based and asynchronous business processes with modern, cloud-enabled digital processes.

When the idea of digitally transforming business processes first entered the scene, the term was essentially synonymous with “going paperless.”

Today, however, many organizations are well beyond the conversion of paper to electronic documents, yet their digital transformation journeys are far from over.

Because technology continues to evolve, the digital transformation journey is never really complete. There will always be incremental improvements to be made, new solutions to try and disruptive challenges to overcome.

Different organizations follow different journeys toward and through their own digital transformations as they work to adopt and implement the technologies that meet their own unique needs. These enhancements will expand their information management ecosystems and improve their operational processes.

Digital transformation is dependent on the technologies that support it, but it is not comprised of the technologies alone. A true digital transformation encompasses four primary areas within an organization: Tools, processes, people and offerings.

1. Tools

Updated tools, in the form of new solutions and advanced technology implementations, are applied to old processes and able to complete them more quickly and accurately than when it was paper-based and/or manual. In some cases, the technology render some processes redundant and unnecessary.

2. Processes

Entire business processes can be automated with a digital transformation strategy. While these changes can drive efficiencies in workflows, they can sometimes also impact the work that people do within the organization. Organizations need to consider how their digital transformations will modify all aspects of their operations, organizational structures and budget allocation.

3. People

Although some aspects of certain jobs may become casualties of digitization, the World Economic Forum found in its Future of Jobs Report, 2023 that organizations don't expect technology to displace jobs. Of 28 types of technology adoptions, only two were identified as job displacers: Humanoid and nonhumanoid robots (drones, for example).

The large share of organizations surveyed predict technology will create jobs, with net job creation impacts of:

• 58%, big-data analytics

• 43%, encryption and cybersecurity

• 41%, digital platforms and apps

• 34%, cloud computing

• 25%, artificial intelligence

Leadership can prepare their workforces for the changes digital transformation will bring to the workplace by understanding and communicating how employees’ time will be reallocated and what new value their contributions will bring to the organization.

4. Offerings

The benefits of digital transformation mean little if organizations don’t use their newfound time and human capital to improve the products, services and experiences they offer employees, partners and customers. The intent of digital transformation is to provide humans with the freedom to perform uniquely human tasks, like creative problem solving, developing new ways of connecting with the people they serve, and bringing innovative new offerings to market.

Digital transformation is important because it grants organizations the agility to accelerate, pivot and thrive in environments of innovation and uncertainty.

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1. Speed and agility to adapt rapidly to industry and technology changes with minimal disruption.

2. Enhanced compliance and security, thanks to automated retention and regulation tools.

3. Employee experience improves due to an enhanced freedom to do work that feels valuable and meaningful.

4. Efficiency, including the elimination of many process bottlenecks with automated workflows.

5. Faster, more informed decisions made by leveraging insights derived from up-to-date information.

6. Accessibility, as digital processes are available to users (both internal and external) from anywhere via connected devices.

7. Customer experience improves with optimized tools and accessible platforms focused on user needs and experience.

8. Centralized data including customer information, market intelligence and digitized content.

9. Transparency and collaboration as information silos are dismantled across the enterprise.

10. Increased profits resulting from improved productivity, better business decisions, and customer appreciation.

Noridian Healthcare Solutions, a healthcare administration company and early adopter of a strong digital transformation strategy, was able to shift nearly seamlessly into an entirely remote work environment when the pandemic hit. In just three days, it shut down its in-person operations.

Noridian began its digital transformation journey by implementing Hyland's OnBase platform in 2002. That early move away from manual and paper-based processes (and continued evolution) positioned it to react quickly and effectively to the changes necessitated by COVID-19.

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> Read more | Noridian Healthcare Solutions

Digital transformation initiatives succeed when there is a holistic approach to standardize the way information and content is managed, used and shared across the organization.

That means even the most transformative technologies won’t move the needle without the support of an outcome-based strategy.

“Just because you’re implementing AI or RPA doesn’t mean you’re doing digital transformation,” says Valt Vesikallio, senior vice president of global services at Hyland. “That’s just another IT project.”

Begin the next phase of your digital transformation journey

1. Identify the primary business problem your organization needs to solve. Perhaps your customers regularly report friction with one specific aspect of your product or service.

2. Define a clear value proposition based on the business problem. It isn’t enough to want to “make that aspect better for customers.” Figure out how, how much better it needs to get, and what success will look like.

3. Determine which current processes contribute to the perpetuation of that problem. These are likely the processes you’ll need to dismantle and rebuild with the support of new transformative technologies.

4. Create a plan for use case identification and project execution. Likely, this will involve a cross-departmental group including leadership, the IT department and appropriate knowledge workers.

5. Develop a change management plan for internal and external stakeholders. Ensure you communicate any applicable changes to affected customers well ahead of time, and avoid “frozen middle” syndrome — resistance that comes from middle management — well ahead of time by communicating the value behind the initiative.

6. Think ahead to how you will scale your digital transformation initiatives beyond pilot mode. Use the momentum you gather with the success of this initiative to drive additional digital transformation initiatives across the enterprise.

Effective digital transformation is dependent on a uniquely tailored combination of the following advanced (and still advancing) technologies:

1. Content capture

Gain control over incoming information, no matter where it’s located or what format it comes in. Capture content right at the source and organize it — and the data it contains — into a single system with minimal human interaction.

2. Content management

Manage content and digital assets organization-wide. Simplify how users interact with the information they need by keeping it organized and accessible, so they can focus on getting their jobs done rather than managing folders and files.

3. Cloud computing

Provide secure, scalable access to the information your people need, when and where they need it. When IT leaders were surveyed about the biggest advantages of cloud-based enterprise solutions, they cited benefits that directly relate to the advantages of digital transformation, including disaster recovery, data availability, cost savings, incident response, security expertise, geographical disbursement and expert access.

4. Process automation

Make your business processes better, not just faster, with smart process automation. Technologies like intelligent document processing (IDP),  robotic process automation (RPA) and hyperautomation optimize your structured processes while delivering meaningful exceptions to the right people.

5. Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) uses supporting technologies like machine learning and intelligent data analytics to drastically boost organizational productivity, uncover hidden insights and inform your business strategies.

6. Customer communication management

Improve the customer experience by embracing powerful tools for customer communication.

7. Collaboration

Enable sharing and collaboration without sacrificing control with simple, secure, easy-to-use ways of sharing information.

8. Case management

Effectively manage customer relationships, documents and processes with smart case management tools. Get a complete view of all the related, relevant information in a case while ensuring continuity, increasing productivity and optimizing collaboration.

9. Reporting and analytics

A single platform to manage date relationships, documents and processes can support the dynamic and often unpredictable processes involved in real-world operations.

10. Intelligent enterprise search

Quickly find the exact information you need, when you need it, even within the massive volume of content at your organization. High-powered and intuitive enterprise search capabilities allow you to access cross-system results, seamlessly and immediately.

11. Secure information governance

Automate the secure retention and destruction of documents and records from the beginning of the content lifecycle to the end. Reduce security and compliance risks with intelligent, automated and federated information governance.

Digital transformation thrives in organizations where modernization is prioritized, mistakes are seen as catalysts for growth, and the business is committed from the top down.

“When I’ve seen digital transformation go well, executives have been deeply involved,” says Vesikallio. “They provide clarity to the business case, remove barriers and play a key role in change management. Because a successful digital transformation involves just that — transformation — organizations and industries that are traditionally slower to adapt may face greater hurdles than those that have historically prioritized innovation and customer experience."

Here are three common digital transformation challenges to look out for:

1. Lack of clear vision

Approaching digital transformation without a business-aligned strategy or without big-picture drivers is a recipe for failure. Combat it by asking tough questions throughout the planning and implementation processes, like:

• Why are we undergoing this transformation?

• How will this transformation change the business?

• How extensive could this transformation be in terms of changing job roles?

• How extensive will this change be in terms of changing processes?

2. Trying to do too much, too fast

Successful digital transformations start small.

Trying to transform everything at once can be chaotic and more disruptive than helpful.

Try beginning with a process that should quickly and easily show ROI. Examples include:

• Implementing an intelligent capture solution in a department with paper-based intake

• Automating mindless, time-consuming steps in a business-critical process

• Introducing cloud-based document sharing for remote workers

The initial success and tangible ROI can make the entire vision much easier to sell to stakeholders.

3. Focusing only on technology, not on people

"People” often come up as the leading roadblock to successful digital transformation initiatives. Organizations that successfully overcome this challenge say the key to solving it is to get all relevant players' buy-in on the strategy of the transformation.

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When you’ve been on your digital transformation journey for a significant amount of time but still feel like you have a long way to go, how can you measure your progress?

Look at how your organization interacts with its information. Here are three things to look for:

1. Content drives itself

When you have fully transformed, content will start to drive itself throughout the enterprise. Once captured into a central repository, it will find its way to the appropriate personnel, wherever they might be, with specific business criteria automatically pushing it through its journey.

At this stage, any predictable queries should be answered by technology. This includes questions like, “Who should this document go to for approval?” or “Is there a related document already in our systems?”

2. Content speaks to those who need it

A milestone on the digital transformation journey is when systems send notifications to the appropriate staff or audience when something has changed, such as someone submitting a form. Moreover, as someone needs to review or act on a piece of content, that content should find its way to that user — through notifications that give them all they need to complete the task at hand, including all related content.

3. Content transforms in accessibility

Digital information, meaning information stored in a computer rather than a filing cabinet, does not equal digital transformation.

Consider an old, handwritten contract that’s scanned, labeled correctly and stored as a PDF in a digital folder with other contracts from the same year. You can read it on your computer or other device, but you can’t extract the text, use it to find related contracts, or share it with a colleague without downloading the PDF and emailing it to them. The contract is available digitally, yes, but that’s about it.

A sign of a digitally transformative process is the accessibility and usability of information across formats and in different contexts. The solutions you use to foster your digital transformation should put context around content and utilize tools that make that content useful beyond storage in a repository.

Feeling good about your digital transformation initiatives?

We hope so! But no matter what, your transformation is never really complete.

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