“Global software decision-makers reported that more than 40% of their organization’s software spending in 2021 went to new software licenses and new custom software solutions. DAPs are emerging as catalysts for managing digital transformation, with purpose- built features to enable users to do more with enterprise applications.”

– New Tech: Digital Adoption Platforms, Q2 2022, Vasupradha Srinivasan, Senior Analyst, Forrester.

In Forrester’s New Tech: Digital Adoption Platforms, Q2 2022 report, WalkMe was included in the pure-play and product insight platform functionality segments.

What’s in the report?

DAP transforms how global organizations operate

In the report, Senior Analyst Vasupradha Srinivasan discusses how DAPs empower enterprise organizations to get more out of their software and drive successful adoption of their applications. According to Srinivasan, DAPs have been essential for mitigating the operational challenges during COVID-19, and have since matured to include a more robust solution for employee onboarding, employee experience (EX), change management, and other digital workplace needs.

Forrester states that DAPs can be leveraged to:

• Improve adoption and usage of enterprise applications.
• Streamline digital transformation efforts.
• Boost usage of employee-and-customer-facing technologies.

The report recognizes 17 vendors, ranging from Pure-Play DAPs to Content & Learning Platforms and Product Insight Platforms. Vendors are categorized by their maturity (stage: late, growth, early) in terms of financial strength, DAP offering maturity/solution expertise, scale and investment. 

Find the right platform to support your digital adoption journey

The widespread focus on digital transformation in recent years has highlighted the need for new custom software solutions like never before. But while everybody wants to be digital-forward, organizations are often met with operational challenges that hinder their ability to actually do more with their technology and make good on their digital promise. 

Are you considering DAP as a strategic investment for managing your digital transformation? Learn how DAPs empower organizations to get more out of software and explore how you can improve your overall employee experience. Download the full report.

There is no denying that the world is racing headlong into the next normal and a digital-first culture that shows no signs of slowing down. Businesses are moving away from clunky legacy systems and adopting new, innovative technologies to have a fighting chance in the technological rat race.

The truth is that nobody could have predicted the massive switch to digital that we’ve seen take place over the last decade. The rate at which global digital adoption has taken place has shocked even the hardest of techies and goes to show how fast the industry is moving. 

To stay ahead of the game, businesses need to think strategically and carefully implement IT transformation frameworks into their overarching business strategies. These policies should work in unison with digital transformation strategies to disrupt business practices and move outdated business processes into the digital sphere.

Automation platforms, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotic process automation (RPA) are all being utilized by businesses that recognize the benefits of investing in new and innovative tech. The long-term functional advantages of IT modernization are unparalleled. Keeping up to date and invested in the latest tech is a surefire way to future-proof your business against the ever-evolving—and often volatile—technology market.  

In this definitive guide, we will teach you how IT modernization can digitally transform every aspect of your business. We will go over the burgeoning technology ecosystem and supply you with the tools you need to effectively disrupt internal and external processes, taking your business to the next level.

Successful IT modernization projects don’t come cheap and require effective planning, strategy, and a degree of measurable implementation that’s autonomous and independent to truly provide long-term digital benefits. But, when businesses get things right, they can expect next-level productivity, an enriched customer experience, and an overall boost to employee satisfaction. 

We will also teach you essential foundational knowledge that’ll help you identify and evaluate key considerations for your own personalized IT modernization journey. We’ll develop your skills and knowledge base so that you can easily identify the exact IT building blocks that need to be upgraded. Finally, we’ll show you the value change management provides during digital transformation and demonstrate how to circumvent complex technical challenges in the face of adversity. 

What is IT modernization? 

IT modernization is a broad term that details the efforts an organization undertake to adapt, adopt, or upgrade its current technology and processes. IT modernization projects are crucial for businesses that want to achieve digital transformation goals. They bring with them an opportunity to dissect outdated business processes and apply innovative technological solutions. 

The specifics of IT modernization projects are generally related to an organization’s industry, budget, market, customer expectations, and employee needs. Because IT modernization projects work in tandem with digital transformation, it’s important to gauge the specific stage of digital development to effectively modernize your organization.

In a nutshell, IT modernization projects concern an organization-wide determination to switch away from old mundane technologies and replace them with innovative tools that streamline, simplify, and automate crucial processes that keep the business going. 

IT modernization is a necessary component for businesses that wish to survive and thrive in the era of the new economy. This means that organizations need to meticulously plan, design, and structure modernization policies in line with current needs and future goals.

When IT modernization projects aren’t managed correctly, they can create serious financial implications that hurt businesses’ long-term strategic objectives and their bottom line. When digital disruption occurs it’s usually positive, but when vital processes are disturbed without a contingency plan in place, it can cause serious problems and even harm a company’s reputation and business integrity. 

The core areas of IT modernization 

It’s important to remember that IT modernization affects many different areas of the IT ecosystem. Everything from network solutions to end-user devices and storage infrastructure are all crucial areas of IT that need to be evaluated and monitored.

In the following sections, we will discuss some of the ways that businesses can enhance operational capacity, customer satisfaction, and the employee experience. Understanding the crucial processes behind these practices enables businesses to upgrade technologies using an outcomes-based approach that delivers future-proof results. 

Everything you need to know about infrastructure modernization 

One of the most crucial elements of IT transformation and modernization is upgrading infrastructure. Put simply, IT infrastructure is the core aspect of vital operating environments that store data, applications, tools, and resources. Nevertheless, modernizing IT infrastructure isn’t as simple as replacing on-premises servers with a cloud-based environment. Here’s why. 

Modifying and adjusting hardware to meet fresh business needs mandates identifiable approaches and platforms that best suit workloads, compliance needs, security requirements, and budget constraints. This means that businesses need to take an evaluated approach and consider what processes are better suited online versus those that should be left on-premises. 

That being said, in the early stages of IT modernization, most businesses opted for a hybrid approach that incorporated the use of both public and private clouds and on-site infrastructure. 

IT infrastructure modernization is one of the biggest feats a business will take on and it’s a key step in delivering vital digital transformation initiatives. Upgrades to infrastructure are integral to adopting solutions that merge with the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), business process automation (BPA), robotic process automation (RPA), and edge computing.

The above-mentioned technologies help businesses to grow and expand their offerings, visibility, the value of data, and automation potential. This enables focused, data-driven decision-making to take place, which encourages businesses to venture into new, unexplored territory. 

Everything you need to know about data center migration 

One of the most talked-about topics when it comes to IT modernization is data center migration. Migration efforts can, and do, involve cloud adoption, but it’s also important to realize that traditional, on-premises storage can be replaced and rebuilt using better, more productive, and high-performing alternatives that enhance ongoing business objectives.  

Some of these platforms include: 

• Converged Infrastructure (CI) – A converged infrastructure is simply a system that allows storage, networks, and computation to take place in a single compressed system. When specific fractions of IT infrastructure are synthesized in this way, it enables the owners to streamline management processes and increase dexterity.

The use of converged infrastructure systems makes infrastructure more manageable and easier to scale. Converged infrastructure is also easier to repair than models that separate storage from vital networks and computers.  

• Hyper-Converged Infrastructure (HCI) – Hyper-converged infrastructure works by merging multiple systems for efficiency, centralization, and scalability. The main difference between (CI) and (HCI) is that the latter is built and optimized for much smaller workloads that require less input.  

• Conventional Data Centers – There may be any number of reasons why organizations want to keep valuable data on-premises. The main reasons tend to be security, safety, and protection. Keeping existing hardware up to date and efficient is the best way to secure valuable data and keep data breaches to a minimum. Regularly upgrading on-site hardware also enables businesses to run more efficient workloads and boost agility.

The steps needed to facilitate successful data center modernization: 

1. Adopt a workload-first approach.
2. Develop a manageable and logical strategy.
3. Confirm stakeholders are kept in the loop with any potential upgrades.
4. Have a contingency plan in place to minimize the impact of unforeseen circumstances or threats.

What is network modernization?

It’s not surprising that legacy enterprise networks lack the agility and dexterity to fulfill the needs of modern, fast-paced businesses. The ever-evolving landscape has an emphasis on digital-first processes and includes transitions to innovation-led solutions such as software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN).

However, these transitions can be difficult and time-consuming if connectivity solutions aren’t put in place to simplify and streamline your network environment. 

Modern networks offer a whole host of benefits that include: 

• Automated management and orchestration.
• Expanded visibility to bolster security.
• Stronger connections between distributed sites.
• Dependable access to applications that drive productivity.

The above benefits are particularly important for large organizations or businesses that are planning to adopt flexible or hybrid workforce approaches. Single location businesses have far fewer network needs than businesses that emphasize remote or hybrid working models.

Evaluating what needs to be modernized and to what capacity is a strategic business decision that should be approached cross-departmentally to gauge the most effective results. 

What is application modernization? 

It’s no secret that useful applications can help to establish, build, and solidify connections amongst both employee and customer bases. Increased engagement is wonderful, but it becomes more of a challenge when businesses try to maintain, support, and scale apps as they grow, age, and inevitably become defunct.

These management barriers lead to frustratingly low-quality user experiences that confound customer interactions and limit internal employee collaboration. This is particularly applicable to younger generations who have become accustomed to seamlessly integrated tech. 

When crucial applications that see daily use receive a modernized overhaul, businesses can finally solve legacy application issues as well as make the shift to cloud-based, data-driven platforms that are created with coordination and scalability in mind.

Modern systems that enable one another based on principles of composability are being utilized by businesses who want wiggle room to grow, change, and scale. Application modernization protocols make it easier for businesses to deliver memorable, customer-centric experiences whilst maintaining customer numbers and focusing on building internal talent. Once applications have been modernized and future-proofed, it negates the need to make such costly changes down the line. 

What is device modernization? 

Productivity and collaborative applications use devices that majorly impact employee experience. For example, if end-user hardware is underperforming, buggy, reaching its end of life, or is failing to adapt to hybrid working models, then it might be time for a device refresh. 

While new devices can be finicky and take time to learn, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. Proper device modernization enables businesses to significantly boost performance, mobility, and productivity whilst keeping core hybrid teams engaged, committed, and immersed. 

Limitless devices, complex configurations, and regional hardware have proven to be a major pain point for businesses implementing device modernization strategies. One method of combating this problem is by employing a choose your own device (CYOD) approach, which puts the power back into the hands of the employees by enabling them to choose from a pre-approved list of hardware. This approach drastically increases flexibility whilst allowing the IT department certain management controls over hardware systems. 

What is lifecycle modernization? 

If you thought that IT modernization was limited to upgrading platforms and hardware then think again. A major mistake that businesses make during the early rollouts of modernization policies is not incorporating lifecycle modernization. It’s as important to reshape internal operational processes as it is to implement change to hardware and software. The IT lifecycle sets out key exercises for keeping endpoints as functional as possible and qualified to meet constantly shifting changing business requirements. 

Streamlining, facilitating, and simplifying these processes is are key features of IT modernization. They help to enhance digital transformation efforts and secure resources by optimizing and shifting business priorities using data-driven techniques. 

The hardware lifecycle 

The hardware lifecycle represents a holistic, interconnected approach to managing IT hardware and devices. It enables businesses to evaluate, analyze, and measure the projected lifetime of a piece of hardware and gauge its effectiveness.

Servers, for example, have a five-year life span of optimal performance. After this time the server will still be operational but will be subject to faults and deficiencies. This can prove problematic for digital-first businesses that conduct the majority of their work in the online space. They need to have fully-functional, accessible servers around the clock to operate effectively. 

Businesses can use the hardware lifecycle to identify and map out a recurrent journey that includes the following stages: 

• Planning 

This is the phase that IT leaders use to examine, evaluate, and analyze the current state of the hardware lifecycle. Effective planning means that the hardware lifecycle is incorporated into future objectives, forming a synergistic strategy that blends the two together.  

• Procurement 

This phase describes the process that a business must go through to purchase products, devices, components, and hardware. Procurement processes can be easily improved by partnering up with providers that offer flexibility, dexterity, and autonomous self-service tools that streamline areas such as warehousing, leasing, and financing. 

• Configuring 

The next stage is configuration. Once new hardware has been purchased it needs to be provisioned through asset tagging, staging, knitting, and imaging. This stage focuses on how to manage the various hardware components that affect overall system functionality and performance. 

• Deployment 

Once hardware components have been properly provisioned, they are passed on to end-users who have the option to either self-install or have the overarching IT team take care of it. This provides hybrid workers with several installation options such as virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and cloud-based deployment which help to streamline sometimes complicated processes, especially for remote workers. 

• Management & Maintenance 

When teams start to engage with new devices, they will inevitably run into barriers along the way. Having a physical repair and maintenance policy helps businesses to quickly get employees back on track when hardware breaks down. Using modern approaches that accelerate productivity and minimize wasted time is the foundation to successful hardware management.  

• End-of-Life 

Businesses know that hardware doesn’t last forever. There comes a point in every hardware lifecycle where components become outdated and unusable. Businesses can use end-of-life policies to ensure effective recycling practices that allow for the disposal of devices without compromising data security or the environment. 

What is security modernization? 

One of the central concerns regarding IT modernization is the increased risk of data breaches and cybersecurity attacks that come with upgrading and overhauling security protocols. CIOs and other executives have long feared the introduction of new technologies because of the increased cybersecurity risks associated with them.

In recent years, however, cloud-based security policies have been put in place that utilize encryption technology and applications to protect virtualized IP, data, services, and associated cloud infrastructure.

Cloud security enables businesses to divert traffic to the cloud instead of being directly routed to servers. The hybrid cloud then examines and analyzes traffic, only allowing legitimate users to gain access. If the cloud doesn’t approve traffic, it will block access to the server. These innovations in cloud-based security have opened up the market for large numbers of businesses to effectively modernize their security protocols.

Innovative technologies such as cloud security have revolutionized the tech industry and are proving to be easier to manage and maintain than outdated legacy systems that have security gaps and require a fragmented approach to threat defense. 

IT modernization strategies should coincide with compliance regulations and security protocols for digital transformation to truly drive progress towards a centralized, manageable, and assertive attitude towards cyber threats. 

What is modern IT management? 

Although IT modernization reduces long-term complications, it also requires an assortment of management solutions for ever-evolving devices, applications, infrastructure, and users. Much like eclectic cybersecurity strategies, digital transformation initiatives that incorporate management processes open up a world of tools and approaches that are more centralized and simplified. 

Data management is an area of particular importance as businesses develop, grow, and evolve to meet the ever-changing demands and pressures associated with the digital economy. 

Businesses that enhance control and visibility over vital data are crucial to optimizing processes, strengthening compliance, and adapting to customer-centric expectations. IT management is particularly important to businesses who adopt innovations to widen information pools such as the internet of things (IoT), cyber security, and cloud computing. 

Modern IT management solutions and practices enable businesses to store, manage, and analyze valuable data from numerous sources to effectively and efficiently build protocols that are more secure, defensible, and stable. 

Challenges of IT modernization

In the age of digital-first, businesses must recognize the challenges that come with IT modernization. The needs of digital-based businesses are expanding quicker than expected, with exhausted IT departments often juggling considerable competing projects.

Long-term digital transformation strategies sometimes take a back seat to what are seen as more pressing needs. It’s important to factor in long-term transformation requirements into overarching modernization plans so that processes remain robust and efficient as they are disrupted. 

Another major challenge of IT modernization is managing cloud sprawl. Multiple applications and cloud services are proving difficult for CIOs to get to grips with. The growing number of complex services are proving to be a hindrance for businesses that want to simplify processes, reduce costs, and increase security.

According to a report published by McKinsey, companies estimate that 30% of their outlays on cloud spending are wasted. Many C-level executives and IT leaders have expressed frustration in ever-expanding cloud services that are growing beyond their control. This means that inventive solutions need to be capitalized upon in order for IT modernization to have its desired effect. 

Outcomes of IT modernization 

IT modernization is one of the most cumbersome undertakings any business will face in the age of digital-first. Much like digital transformation, IT modernization is an imperative process that secures a lasting future-proof capability and long-term digital success. When businesses adopt innovative technologies across IT infrastructure, it disrupts business practices and accelerates workloads by establishing a foundational system that incorporates data management, streamlined processes, and automated tasks. 

When businesses upgrade, reform, and enhance devices, applications, and networks it facilitates better employee and customer-centric experiences. This then drives brand loyalty, increases productivity, and decreases staff turnover. Proper IT modernization mandates patience, resources, and the expertise of cross-functional teams to deliver future-proof strategies that stave off legacy code and take advantage of new and innovative technologies. 

Rearchitecting legacy applications gives businesses the chance to enhance flexibility and agility whilst important business requirements and growth opportunities are maximized. It relies on intelligent strategies that challenge, question, and disrupt vital processes to push businesses into new and innovative spaces.

Introduction 

Digital tools and automation are being utilized globally by businesses who want to secure their digital futures. CEOs,CIOs, and other thought leaders are building digital-first strategies that reimagine and reset outdated business practices. Businesses are purposely disrupting processes to ensure lasting digital innovation in an effort to make the most out of new burgeoning technologies. 

The world of digital-first marketing is expanding quicker than ever before. With inbound marketing expenditures costing 62% less than traditional outbound marketing, and a 55% increase in web traffic for those businesses that take advantage of new media tools such as content hubs, it’s not surprising that businesses are pushing towards an inherently digital-first culture with an emphasis on digital disruption. 

Digital-first is a critical philosophy in which business leaders and CIOs are investing heavily. It’s essentially a mindset that drives digital transformation and innovation in a way that relies on technological solutions. This means that businesses have the opportunity to unlock a range of benefits including a customer-centric approach, better commercial performance, and future-proof operations.

In this article, we will define what digital-first means, explain how it coincides with digital adoption, and provide a wealth of advice and guidance on what you can do to streamline your digital-first approach to maximize beneficial disruption in your business. 

First, let’s define digital-first

Digital-first means approaching any new challenge or opportunity with the assumption that the solution should be as digital as possible.

Consider in advance, “What can I do to ensure as many aspects of the service that I am creating as possible will be used by customers in digital mediums?” Then, determine how as much of the service as possible can be powered by digital platforms.

Early criticisms of the digital-first approach

In the early years of digital adjustment, some employees criticized digital-first practices and were hesitant to jump on board and fully commit. This is most likely because of several challenges that arose during the early philosophical stages of the digital-first ideology. Most significantly the need to adopt new practices, manage data, and track viewership was what worried people the most. 

It’s hard to imagine now, but during the transitional period of the digital revolution, people didn’t quite know where this movement was headed. Prospects of change fostered fear, resulting in a period of stagnation. One glaring case of this appeared as traditional publishers feeling uneasy about publishing content online before publishing it in paper media first—a.k.a “What? This is how we’ve always done this.”

The digital media revolution 

It wasn’t until the onset of the digital media revolution that businesses first started to realize the full potential of the rapidly expanding internet. This was further fuelled by the adoption of handheld smart devices that gave consumers the ability to access virtual electronic data from anywhere in the world for the first time. 

The digital media revolution taught us that digital disruption happens very rapidly. The print newspaper sector is a perfect example of an industry that had to adjust quickly to disruption. Before the digital revolution, newspapers held 32.7% of the advertising market share, whilst today it’s plummeted to a meager 9.4%. This is purely down to the sudden and rapid rise of the internet which forced newspaper publishers to concentrate their content strategies in the digital sphere.

The global magnitude of digital-first 

Changes to social norms, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and increasingly divergent financial markets mean that organizations are going through long-term digital transformations and by doing so are creating unique experiences for global businesses. Savvy businesses that embarked on their digital transformation journeys ahead of time are now acknowledging that the wants and needs of their customers are driving and accelerating the digital transition. 

The growing digital-first culture is helping cement the importance of global digital transformation. Ever-changing customer behaviors are becoming more complex with a growing desire for personalized communications. Customers are more demanding than ever before and businesses are taking advantage of customer-centricity to fully realize the potential and capacity of digital transformation.

The modern digital-first approach attempts to dismantle old ways of working and requires that businesses understand the need to offer their consumers ongoing and innovative digital customer engagement in order to truly succeed. 

How to pivot into the digital-first stratosphere 

Digital-forward businesses have made huge advancements by adapting their business models and adopting global digital-first strategies. They have moved far beyond the boundaries of their more-traditional counterparts and are innovating at an incredibly fast rate to cultivate long-term digital transformation strategies that disrupt business processes and upend business practices. 

These are the critical steps that businesses should follow in order to accelerate digital-first-based digital transformation: 

• Always focus on customer experience (CX) & develop a customer-centric culture in all major business processes.
• Integrate deep-rooted global readiness into products, services, and offerings to bolster innovation.
• Make sure that content is delivered throughout multiple channels and is accessible worldwide.
• Create, build, and establish new innovative business processes that support and strengthen digital transformation. 
• Use data and analytics tools to measure the success of your digital transformation strategy.

The strategic steps mentioned above will help businesses to remain focused and broaden their customer base. Being a truly global business is about offering digital services across sectors, countries, and international boundaries. Focusing on areas where content distribution could be improved is a fundamentally important strategic move that will see businesses become worldwide digital powerhouses in the not-too-distant future. 

Digital-first alignment 

In terms of strategic development, digital-first can be executed and enforced cumulatively because digital-first seeks to expand and enhance a business’s current digital offerings. Each phase of the digital-first process helps to cement integration for global features and support to develop a more engaged and consumer-centric experience. 

Truly innovative digital-first alignment happens when customers get full, unrestricted access to local content that increases the flow of information available to them. This creates a transactional experience that supplements touchpoints and puts the power back into the hands of the consumer. Forward-thinking companies are using this approach to analyze the needs and demands of their customers as they evolve. The constant shift towards digital innovation means that businesses can now respond more quickly to the changing needs of their global customer base. 

Digital-first statistics 

We have compiled a list of some of the most important statics related to the growth of a digital-first economy: 

• 92% of businesses surveyed say that now is a unique time to accelerate digital-first transformation (Harvard Business School) 
• 86% of businesses surveyed agree that user retention is amongst their main priorities in 2022 (Harvard Business School) 
• 58% of businesses asked use product analytics, surveys, web analytics, and business intelligence to gain a competitive advantage (Harvard Business School) 
• The digital transformation market is expected to grow at a compounding annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23% from 2019 onwards to $3.3 trillion by 2025 (Gartner) 
• 89% of businesses surveyed have already adopted a digital-first business strategy or plan to do so (Gartner) 

How can CIOs establish measurable digital-first strategies? 

Forrester Research has predicted that as much as 20% of the Fortune 500 companies will not survive into 2023. Businesses are trying their hardest to transition in a time of uncertainty post-pandemic. CIOs are emphasizing the importance of launching intelligent automation initiatives to flourish in the ever-expanding world of digital-first operations.

To build a landscape that incorporates the multifaceted aspects of digital transformation, businesses are figuring out how to meet customer expectations economically whilst simultaneously prioritizing internal areas of focus and investment.

Employee experience is becoming a hot topic for businesses that want to provide their workers with the essential tools to operate in a digital-first environment. This poses a challenge for organizations that aren’t investing enough in employee satisfaction.

To promote long-lasting change and development, businesses need to capitalize on the long-term evolution of their employees and facilitate a digital-first culture that’s at the very heart of executive decisions and business objectives. According to Forrester Research, 30% of an employee experience score is defined by technology and the way that technology empowers them. 

Addressing digital-first leadership  

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic thrust unprepared businesses into the void and tested their limits to the max. Organizations have had to adapt in ways that were unthinkable as little as five years ago. True business resilience derives from executives and CIOs that take the same approach to change as the entire organization. 

For business leaders to thrive in the digital sphere, they need to take advantage of the following key traits that have been identified as essential in establishing a true digital-first culture: 

1. Empathy 

During the pandemic, compassionate CEOs understood the financial, health, and psychological constraints that their employees faced. Employee empathy is a key driver of innovation and enables employees to react quickly because they have ingrained purpose-driven values that are shared throughout the organization.  

2. Purpose 

Making sure that employees are engaged and connected to the business’s broader purpose reinforces the collective mindset that their efforts are helping to accelerate the long-term goals, ambitions, and digital-transformation efforts of the business. The most tactile and supportive leaders focus their efforts on finding new ways to articulate and model purpose and integrity. 

3. Driving imagination 

A digital transformation requires the focus, commitment, and drive of the entire organization to succeed. The only way a business can become truly digital-first is by finding new and innovative ways to engage, apply, and connect with digital technologies. It’s important that organizations embody the whole process and not just leave key aspects of digital transformation to the C-suite or IT department to truly deliver ingenuity.  

The digital-first eCommerce experience 

In a nutshell, the digital-first commerce experience refers to the ever-developing need to be, imagine, and cultivate innovative transactional experiences with a digital-first perspective. This approach helps businesses to recognize the expanding digital landscape and realize that buyers’ habits and expectations are changing beyond recognition.

Businesses are working round the clock to keep up with changing consumer demands and are innovating at a record pace to maintain a competitive advantage. 

You might be wondering, “Why are businesses putting such an emphasis on digital-first operations following the pandemic?” Digital-first and digital transformation strategies are particularly important to online retailers and merchants at the moment because of the sudden change in shopping habits. In order to compete in an oversaturated market, businesses are using digital spaces to create seamless shopping experiences that keep customers engaged and inspired. 

The introduction of virtual spaces has also seen businesses with a digital-first approach capitalize on the burgeoning metaverse. Keen CIOs identified a trend and saw potential in investing in something that wasn’t fully understood by the public. This has resulted in the introduction of new technologies such as unique, stylized NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) that can be purchased digitally. These new ideas and innovations are only possible when organizations are willing to adopt a digital-first approach. 

The future digital-first enterprise 

The introduction of digital-first works brings with it a digital-first economy. A bona fide digital-first economy will enhance and intensify the impact of digital technologies to the effect of 65% GDP. This means that future economies will be shaped by the innovation offered and achieved by digital-first enterprises. We have seen a seismic shift in the digital-economy, post-pandemic, with shopping habits expected to remain fluid for the next three years. This presents an expanding spectrum of global challenges that will produce permanent shifts in the way that we work, live, play, and learn. 

It’s predicted that consumers in a future digital-first economy will be shaped and characterized by ecosystem-led innovations. More than one-third of businesses have already united with ecosystem partners to share knowledge, insights, applications, and data more often as a result of the pandemic. This had a direct impact on the creation of new products, services, and experiences. Businesses are prioritizing and using ecosystem collaboration to modify and reduce risk through the opportunities gained via transformational business models. 

A digital-first mindset 

The thing that sets digital-first companies apart from those that haven’t been as successful is the mindset. Businesses that can visualize their operations at a 360-degree spectrum that incorporates end-to-end digital experiences are most likely to win the race for the digital future.

Experiences should be digital-first in order to effectively and efficiently adapt around customers’ wants, needs, and future desires. An easy way to ascertain such a digital mindset is by defining it not as something you do, but as something that you are. 

These are the five pillars of the digital-first mindset: 

1. ‘Digital’ is a complete business model 

Digital-first businesses focus on delivering innovative products and services to their customers in a quick, efficient, and measurable way. This business model works in tandem with digital technology instead of merely using it for the sake of appearing digitally-savvy. Complete integration creates faster digital rollouts with less friction.

Truly digital-first businesses can’t operate in an analog fashion because they have adopted new technologies and innovations that make it impossible to function without them. 

2. Digitization needs to take place as a core function.

Successful executives, leaders, and especially CIOs focus their digital transformation efforts on core business functions that impact businesses on a global scale. Customer-facing functions, product development, service delivery, and supplier relationships are all vital areas of business where digital-first initiatives matter the most. They enable enterprises to optimize key experiences whilst minimizing discord, thus allowing them to focus on product and service delivery.

3. Digital capabilities need to be scaled.

Digital-first companies that are expanding further into the digital sphere need to take into account growth and survival. The defining focus should be on how far to expand while continuing to deliver faster and more intuitive customer experiences. 

A digital-first mindset means that you will incorporate every aspect of the business into the digital ecosystem. It’s about putting digital at the foremost of your priorities and structuring your business around it. 

4. Impact must be measured.

Digital businesses 

Digital-first businesses are primed to get the most value out of digital transformation initiatives. This is because the success metrics for digital are the same for business and include revenue growth and decreases in customer churn, service cost, and cycle time. The reason why digital-first businesses can easily use these metrics to their advantage is that they operate at a large scale and incorporate hybridized business models that utilize robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, and analytics.

Analog businesses 

Analog businesses have a hard time determining success metrics because they have no way of accurately measuring results. They instead rely on salespeople, customer service representatives, and customer retention teams to deliver core business functions while having to guess and justify why digital processes are better than their analog counterparts.

5. The C-suite team should share ownership of digital operations across the board.

In digital-first businesses, C-suite executives share the same motivations and enthusiasm as the rest of the organization. For a business to successfully become a digital-first company, it must incorporate input from the entire organization. This means that CEOs and other executives need to make sure that the entire organization is on board, or at least has knowledge of what the collective digital transformation goals are. 

Whilst scaling the business is an executive-level role, it’s down to the core business force to enact often complex digital-first principles. When business leaders take ownership of digital transformation in a way that doesn’t involve input from a variety of outside teams, the implementation of digital-first processes can unfold in an unorganized and confusing way. 

Conclusion 

There is no doubting the fact that digital-first is here to stay. In the age of the digital revolution, it’s impossible to ignore or disregard it as a tech fad. Changing consumer habits, the introduction of Web3, and the advancement of digital technologies have shifted the way that businesses operate in the digital sphere. The constant evolution of digital technologies has made it possible for businesses to react quickly to problems and build hard-wired contingency protocols into their business strategies. 

This makes for a more robust and vigorous ecosystem that champions innovation, digital transformation, and an essential digital-first mindset. The benefits of disruptive digital-first innovations are vast and include cost efficiency, ease of design, audience insights, flexibility, deeper storytelling, and an accelerated digital transformation. Only when businesses truly adopt every facet of the digital ecosystem will they see the real benefits that digital-first can bring. 

Editor’s Note: Rafael Sweary, President and Co-Founder at WalkMe, was recently interviewed by Vmblog.com and shared his thoughts and predictions for 2022, as part of their 14th annual series exclusive featuring top industry executives and experts. Here are his top 3 predictions:

The year of extreme technology overload

More and more software will be marketed to organizations of all sizes, creating a technology overload on employees. Given the large number of startups that have been able to raise money over the past 2+ years, we will see more offerings available for organizations to add to their tech stacks, resulting in a: “There’s a system for every problem,” kind of problem. And as we saw during the pandemic, organizations bought. A lot. 

This technology overload was driven in large by the necessity of a digital-first approach due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And the rise of digital transformation and increase of IT investments are not likely to die down. In 2022, it’s estimated that spending on digital transformation will reach 1.8 trillion U.S. dollars, according to Statistica.

Organizations will start investing in even greater scrutiny, and as a result, a hybrid-approach will become the new norm. Then, we will start seeing more of a focus on seeing a return on investment (ROI) to justify their IT spend.

The shift to analytics on all tech investments

In 2022, we will see organizations analyzing and measuring those investments they made to their technology stack. What’s working? What’s not? It’s time to reap the benefits. It’s no longer going to be ok to have shelfware. For years, organizations have been running analytics on their websites but not doing the same for their other tech platforms, software, and apps. The shift to the need, and mandate, for analytics on all tech investments is coming, if not already here. No one can justify spending millions without proving its worth through strong analytics.

Then, in terms of measurement, there is no one-size-fits-all definition for the success of a new system. Companies must come up with clear definitions regarding success, once they have implemented a new software. What metric is most important to track? Is it the number of users using it? Does it achieve key business objectives? These types of questions need to be answered, and we can really tailor measurements to fit business needs.

The relationship between the digital and the human-user

As part of the “measure what you got” stage, organizations will use analytics and data to see how well employees are using the technology platforms provided to them. Organizations will be able to see where employees are being held up, if their tech investments are proving productive, and where improvements can be made.

When those areas have been identified, this is where automation can come in. In recent years, we have mainly seen organizations centered on “back office automation,” which includes connecting systems together to help streamline operations. What is more essential for many organizations is “front office automation,” which is focused on making employees more efficient in their roles and focused on assisting versus replacing. This will help solve key pain points and lead to overall better user experience.

In 2022 and beyond, we will see organizations measuring their IT spend and tracking their success. The user experience will become paramount for true digital adoption that will lead to greater return on organizations’ technology investments. And while technology is indeed digital, the user is human. Those organizations that bridge the gap between the digital and the user will achieve greater ROI. 

For more 2022 insights, read our latest predictions from industry leaders and analysts.