5 Signs that your Digital Transformation journey is on track

Going digital has become the answer to every complex problem, and with good reason. Virtually every challenge can be addressed digitally. Digital solutions are also quicker, easier and cheaper. But only if we deploy the right digital solutions. Predictions that digital solutions would result in accelerated economic growth have been on-point. Even when poor political leadership or global health pandemics slow economies and pose severe restrictions, those who had invested in digital solutions fared the best. Particularly during the pandemic, digital pioneers and digital-first companies had a clear advantage. As an African-based company, 4Sight witnessed first hand the benefits realised in emerging markets. Yet, despite overwhelming data that shows how digital solutions benefit companies, I still run into digital sceptics. Why? The converse is also true. Many companies that implemented digital solutions still face many of the same problems. 

Here are my five criteria against which you can measure the success of your digital program

1.  Remote Capabilities

At the height of Covid, offices were empty. We stayed home to ensure employee safety, but what happened to your company's output? Disruption to physical production was unavoidable, but what about the performance of knowledge workers, data centre employees and control and monitoring personnel? If you have IT-based functions that require personnel to be on site, then your digital transformation journey is not yet complete.

2.  Efficiency Up - Costs Down

Automation and control solutions have long been drivers of greater efficiency. The mantra: "More for less" is the benchmark. Digital transformation should deliver greater efficiencies not only on the plant floor or production site. All your costs should be coming down, and all your performance metrics should go up. This metric should also apply to call centres, financial workers, and your marketing team. Truly leveraging digital capabilities should increase your return on expenditure at an annually increasing rate. Your company should see relative and adjusted costs decreasing while all yields increase.

3.  Increased Resilience

Most organisations think of resilience as the ability to recover from a setback. The slower your response to circumstances beyond your control, the greater the impact. This always translates into financial or reputational damage. Digital solutions not only enable employees to take action faster, but in many cases, you can exclude human intervention from the solution altogether. Smart connected devices that have been set up and configured correctly will take action automatically or escalate incidents to the correct individual within seconds. This greatly increases the speed of your response. Industrial AI and machine learning algorithms are often better than humans at fault finding and solution implementation. If your company takes too long to discover and react to a disaster or other problems, you need to re-look the digital solutions you have implemented and maybe those you have not yet implemented.

4.  Sustainability & ESG Targets

Increases in efficiency almost always contribute toward reaching your sustainability goals. Remember that sustainability has morphed in ESG (Environment, Social and Governance). Digital solutions should help you implement and track all your sustainability targets and ensure better measurement and visibility across your entire operation. All resource reductions and gains in efficiency contribute toward sustainability. Also, consider increases in production and safety that result from advances in industrial AI and Machine Learning. Digital solutions are the primary enabler of sustainability. If your organisation is not achieving its goals or not tracking progress, you need to re-evaluate your digital strategy.

5.  Crisis Management

Digital solutions make managing crises simpler and more effective, though this closely ties in with resilience and remote capabilities, I consider it a separate category. With Covid winding down, employees are increasingly returning to the office. Emergencies, however, occur at all hours and often when key role players are out of the office. The ability to gather a team and respond immediately to a given crisis is critical. This cannot be achieved unless far-reaching digital communications and control solutions are in place.