We live in a ‘Digital’ world, and Digital Technologies have become a part of our lives. Digital transformation is global in nature and utilizes digital technologies for internal operations and external functions. Digital Transformation has impacted all sectors, industries, and businesses. The opportunities for digital transformation in an organization relate to various dimensions such as transformation of processes, business model, domain, and organizational culture.

Digital transformation could enhance the experience of customers, delivery of services, improved analysis, maintenance of electronic records, and creation of new business models in the specific business sector. 

While there are numerous opportunities for digital transformation across organizations around the globe, various challenges or barriers exist in its implementation. These include challenges due to absence of a clear vision and strategy, lack of acceptance, limitations in available infrastructure, inadequate skill-sets, security concerns, and barriers created due to mind-set and cultural issues. Critical success factors for successful implementation of digital transformation in an organization include leadership with a digital mind-set, top management commitment, employee capability enhancement, empowerment of people, and adoption of latest technologies and tools. Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Internet of Things, Augmented Reality, and Robotics have resulted in the development of new trends in digital transformation. 

The worldwide spending on digital transformation technologies is expected to  reach $1.97 trillion by 2022 according to IDG sources. Now the frequently asked question is how to start the journey and how to be successful throughout the journey. To begin with, have a good digital transformation strategy for your organization in place so that it could serve as a blueprint towards the journey. Moreover, it will answer the important questions and minimize the gap between the present state and the expected state in the transformation journey. It also helps to locate the barriers to transformation and the means to overcome them.

At present 70 percent of companies either have a digital transformation strategy in place or working on one and it is always recommended to set a digital transformation strategy  in the beginning to have a focused journey. Again many organizations are prioritizing digital transformation to a larger extent to enjoy its benefits.  Digital transformation has its inherent advantages wherein the overall operational efficiency gets enhanced in the first place. Secondly for enhance customer satisfaction and robust decision making .According to various study it is evident that 85% of enterprise decision makers believe that lagging behind on digital transformation will directly hit their bottom line.

The primary aspects of digital transformation include the following and not limited to:

1. Business transformation strategy and roadmap
2. Identifying key technologies
3. Data management and Analysis
4. Automated operations
5. Planning and Execution

Businesses need to build a digital transformation strategy to connect various aspects like data, information, technologies, process, human resources, and much more.

To conclude, I would recommend that organizations vision for the future must include digital transformation in order to grow and compete effectively for better sustainability and go with the saying “Shifting Mind-sets Fosters Implementation”.