What Does a Digital Transformation Specialist Actually Do?
In our modern world, digital technology advances incredibly quickly. From the introduction of the World Wide Web just over 30 years ago to now keeping small computers in our pockets, our society has seamlessly moved into an era of tech.
Digital technology is drastically changing the face of businesses around the world – for the better. Whether you’re taking your first steps towards a career or you’re making an exciting career change, a profession moving businesses towards substantial growth and success is incredibly rewarding.
And a career as a digital transformation specialist is an excellent route to take. But what is digital transformation? And what does a digital transformation specialist even do?
Looking for something specific? Jump to section:
- Digital Transformation: What Is It and Why It’s Important
- Digital Transformation Challenges
- Different Stages of Digital Transformation
- The Role of the Digital Transformation Specialist
Digital Transformation: What Is It and Why It’s Important
Digital transformation is the adoption of digital technology by a business or company to improve its processes, customer experience, and innovation within its industry.
It’s a task that’s been around since the start of the internet, but it didn’t really catch on until the early to mid-2000s. The process is a reimagining of business in this new digital age. In doing so, businesses are equipped with the proper tools to keep up with their competitors and meet the ever-changing market requirements.
Digital transformation moves past just sales and marketing. It’s more concerned with how businesses think about and interact with their customers.
Ultimately, digital transformation helps businesses stay current in this technological era. It aids in their efficiency and competitiveness in their industry. It also opens doors for incredible growth by allowing the organisation to better their customer experience and even branch out into parts of their industry that weren’t possible before.
As a digital transformation specialist, you’re working to keep businesses relevant in today’s society, which makes your role massively important!
Working with businesses and organisations to incorporate a digital transformation in their business model opens doors for significant growth opportunities. It will help them with their customer experience, especially as more and more people look for ways to connect with businesses through technology. Moreover, it will improve a business’s efficiency and competitiveness in their industry.
Digital Transformation Challenges
Few things in this world are without challenges. And the field of digital transformation isn’t exempt.
With access to countless businesses around the world, thanks to keeping the internet, customers are relying on experiences more than ever before. Whether it’s an experience through online shopping or social media, technology lies at the core for most businesses that are currently operating.
This means that businesses that are up to date with new trends and digital technology are seeing massive growth in their companies. On the other hand, those that are slower to adopt new technologies are losing out on those same growth opportunities. That’s because customers are losing out on customer experiences.
This is proving to be the biggest challenge when it comes to digital transformation for companies.
The other biggest challenge businesses are facing is that of being unprepared. Digital transformation is a major transition to undergo. It’s exhausting and requires a lot of effort on everyone’s behalf, whether it’s higher-ups making larger decisions or employees acquainting themselves with new tools and processes.
Different Stages of Digital Transformation
For businesses and digital transformation specialists alike, you’ll need to know the 4 main areas of digital transformation.
These are the 4 overarching stages of the digital transformation process:
Stage 1: Process Transformation:
In this first stage, you’ll work with a team to modify elements of an organisation’s processes in order to achieve new goals that are set. Starting this transformation will modernise the processes that are currently in place. It’s the first step to integrating new technology. Plus, it’ll save the business money.
In this stage as a digital transformation specialist, you’ll work with a team to:
- IDENTIFY THE OVERALL GOALS OF THE TRANSFORMATION
You and your team, along with the business, will need to establish the need for the transformation in the first place. Is the company working to upgrade older systems? Add new technology to existing systems? You’ll determine the answers to those questions at this point.
- GATHER BASELINE METRICS
You and your team will need to gather existing data to estimate what level of success the transformation can bring.
- MEET WITH ALL STAKEHOLDERS.
Your team will need to meet with any decision-makers and anyone involved in the current process to gather their feedback on what’s worked well so far in the business’s process and what they hope to see out of the new one.
- PLAN FOR THE BEST SCENARIO POSSIBLE
You’ll use specific tools to create an ideal workflow that includes new human and system tasks that need to be implemented.
- MAKE THE TRANSFORMATION AND MONITOR
You and your team will then introduce the new processes in small batches to monitor the success rate and any other progress.
Stage 2: Business Model Transformation:
To stay relevant in this digital era, many businesses are using technology to completely transform their traditional business models. A great example of this? Netflix moved from mailing out DVDs to now streaming on an internet-based platform. Or grocery stores offering online shopping with a delivery option where you no longer need to leave your house.
In this stage, you’ll work with your team to reinvent and add to current, traditional business models. By doing so, you’ll allow companies to open their doors to significant growth opportunities.
Stage 3: Domain Transformation:
Domain transformation is when a business can slide into another industry seamlessly, thanks to digital technologies. For example, Amazon is primarily known as an online shopping marketplace. But they quickly saw an opportunity to stream movies and television shows. And thus, they launched a streaming platform through Amazon Prime.
New technologies can completely redefine a business’s products or services. They can create new opportunities for non-traditional competitors and obscure boundaries between industries.
Domain transformation can offer incredible opportunities for businesses to create new value for their products and services. In this stage, you and your team will work with companies to help them do just that!
Stage 4: Cultural and Organisational Transformation:
A large part of the job description is working directly with digital technologies. However, you won’t be able to leave it at just that.
There’s more to digital transformation than just adopting new technological processes and reimagining products and services. These new systems will need to integrate and align with the internal values and behaviours of the company, otherwise, it can negatively affect the organisation’s culture.
You and your team will develop a clear vision of transformation and effectively communicate it throughout the entire organisation.
The Role of the Digital Transformation Specialist
So as a digital transformation specialist, you’ll have a direct hand in bringing businesses and organisations up to speed in today’s digital age. But what does the role look like and how can you get there?
We’re breaking it down for you so you can better determine if this is the right fit for you.
What Does It Involve?
A digital transformation specialist focuses on digitization opportunities to help businesses overall performance. A specialist is outfitted with the education, experience, skills, and determination to help businesses take their internal processes, services, and products to the next level.
A business will want to work with a team of digital transformation experts so they can upgrade existing or even upcoming technologies to help them stay ahead of the curve or compete with other businesses in their industry.
You’ll work with a team to help organisations expand their own capabilities and provide a vision for what their future might look like.
What Are Some of the Different Digital Transformation Jobs and Responsibilities?
Digital transformation specialists may vary from business to business depending on what they need as they integrate new technologies into their processes. There are many different moving parts when it comes to taking a business from a traditional analogue business model to a modern, technology-based one.
That means there are plenty of different roles someone can pursue as a digital transformation specialist. And they all play a part in the greater digital vision. Some of the most popular ones (that you might not have even known as a digital transformation specialist) include:
- Content Writers – storytelling is one of the best ways to communicate in a way people understand. Businesses may want to look at content writers to help shape the message of the business’s new technological endeavours.
- UX Designers – these designers will review client or customer-facing software to make sure everything is running smoothly and effectively.
- Organisational IT Leaders – these leaders will determine the entire range and scope of smaller digital projects within the overall transformation process.
- Training Managers – these managers will help staff and employees in a business integrate and implement new processes once the digital transformation has taken place.
What Skills and Education Are Required for the Job?
Ideally, a degree is required for a role in digital transformation. You may want to look at a degree in information technology, computer science, or something related. These will help you develop the skills required to do a job well done in the industry.
For certain roles, such as a UX designer, skills in programming languages like Java, C++, or SQL will be beneficial in the workplace. Understanding HTML and CSS will also come in handy, as you’ll be working with online platforms quite often.
Ultimately, a role in digital transformation will be great for you if you’re analytical and are a great problem solver. You’ll need to be able to apply critical thinking skills as you work with businesses on developing entire plans to move into the digital sphere.
What Competencies and Skills Can You Improve to be a Good Digital Transformation Specialist?
If you decide to get a degree, you’ll work on many skills to be the best digital transformation specialist you can be! Certain skills will grow as you work through your curriculum. Some of those skills are:
- Analysing data and metrics
- Critical thinking will grow as you work through your curriculum.
- Your ability to communicate processes clearly and effectively which will be necessary as you work with your team and your clients.
In the meantime, you can also improve hard skills like coding and programming to be better prepared for the digital transformation roles and responsibilities.
What Resources and Courses Will Help You in This Role?
Whether you’re pursuing a degree currently, or you’re looking to add to an existing one, there are plenty of resources and courses available to you to help you in this role.
Certificates are available which can help boost the marketability of your current degree you already have. And if you’re wanting to elevate your expertise in digital transformation, you can obtain a master’s degrees for it, as well.
A career in the digital transformation industry is nothing short of rewarding. You’ll help businesses reach their potential, especially as we continue progressing in this digital era. If you’re looking to move into a digital transformation specialist role, but you’re not sure about the first step towards it, we can help you! Learn more about our digital transformation courses here or check the specific courses below:
