What is Digital?
Digital Transformation
Digital is when a customer needs to interact with various technologies and channels to transact with that organisation.
By customer, this term can be interchangeable; the customer refers to someone beyond the business unit running the set of services (or transactions) and is usually the recipient of the transaction or the person wanting to transact on behalf of someone else.
Various technologies and channels are when multiple software and hardware components have to work in synergy seamlessly for a customer to interact. A customer may need to use an app (software) on a mobile device. Some transactions are extended to a desktop device (laptop/PC) for a person to move from the mobile device and complete the transaction via the Internet. This seamless approach of moving around the various channels is known as Omni-Channel.
Transaction is a collective term summing up all the interactions a customer may have with the organisation. Within the Digital environment, professionals can also refer to individual interactions as either products or services.
With digital having a transaction at its core, it is by proxy a means of foremost being a process engineering activity. Many assume digital is about the technology or how a person interacts with the service. However, customers want to easily, quickly and transact with the organisation to achieve their desired outcome; process engineering first, aiming for full automation or 'straight through processing'.
Predicting, understanding in advance and documenting how various groups interact with multiple technologies is challenging. Therefore, delivering a digital solution that works is a social science. It requires a team of people to observe how various customer cohorts interact. Having digital involves research, understanding customers' wants and needs, prototyping, monitoring and testing a solution before sending it out for all to use.
Products, services and transactions are often what the organisation is famous for; it is one of the main reasons the organisation exists. With technology and customer expectations continually evolving, digital delivery is continuous for all organisations; what moved from paper-based form filling in to the Internet in the early 2000s became a mobile app by 2010 and will eventually move to audible speaker devices in the 2020s. Who knows what the 2030s will bring?
Digital Transformation is the continuous adaptation of transactions from one channel to another; Digital Transformation takes customer feedback and builds these observations into how a customer interacts with the technology and channels to interact and transact effectively.
Can all transactions become Digital?
In theory, with enough simplification of rules, unlimited time, and budget, the quick answer is yes. However, there will be circumstances whereby a transaction is complex, has complications, and may infrequently happen and therefore not justify the expense to digitise. In these circumstances, organisations automate as many simple, high-value transactions as possible and may develop a strategy to digitise low-value complex transactions partially.
Digital Transformation Principles
Principle 1: Commit to 'Digital by Design, Digital by default first
Principle 2: Understand Our Customer's wants and needs, enhance the process
Principle 3: Launch smaller and faster. Enhance the 'Service Offering' iteratively
Principle 4: Organise Information and Services by Customer Needs
Principle 5: Present Customers and Staff with all the Information and Tools they require to act immediately
Principle 6: Access anytime, anywhere – Provide online services and information through the web, mobile, audible-friendly channels and devices
Principle 7: Enable and move to a 'single view' of all transactions across channels - Omni-channel
Principle 8: Ensure high-value priority transactions can be completed end-to-end in the digital channel
Principle 9: Seek customer feedback for continuous improvement
Principle 10: Ensure the integrity of data in every transaction; make it safe, make it secure