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Succeed With Digital Strategy Execution

Building a digital strategy is only half the battle: create a systematic roadmap of technology initiatives to execute the strategy and drive digital transformation.

  • Rising customer expectations and competitive pressures have accelerated the pace at which organizations are turning to digital transformation to drive revenue or cut costs.
  • Many digital strategies are not put into action, and instead sit on the shelf. A digital strategy that is not translated into specific projects and initiatives will provide no value to the organization.
  • Executing a digital strategy is easier said than done: IT often lacks the necessary framework to create a roadmap, or fails to understand how new applications can enable the vision outlined in the strategy.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • A digital strategy needs a clear roadmap to succeed. Too many digital strategies are lofty statements of objective with no clear avenue for actual execution: create a digital strategy application roadmap to avoid this pitfall.
  • Understand the art of execution. Application capabilities are rapidly evolving: IT must stand ready to educate the business on how new applications can be used to pursue the digital strategy.

Impact and Result

  • IT must work with the business to parse specific technology drivers from the digital strategy, distill strategic requirements, and create a prescriptive roadmap of initiatives that will close the gaps between the current state and the target state outlined in the digital strategy. Doing so well is a path to the CIO’s office.
  • To better serve the organization, IT leaders must stay abreast of key application capabilities and trends. Exciting new developments such as artificial intelligence, IoT, and machine learning have opened up new avenues for process digitization, but IT leaders need to make a concerted effort to understand what modern applications bring to the table for technology enablement of the digital strategy.
  • Taking an agile approach to application roadmap development will help to provide a clear path forward for tackling digital strategy execution, while also allowing for flexibility to update and iterate as the internal and external environment changes.

Succeed With Digital Strategy Execution Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should have a structured approach to translating your digital strategy to specific application initiatives, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

1. Parse digital strategy drivers

Parse specific technology drivers out of the formal enterprise digital strategy.

2. Map drivers to enabling technologies

Review and understand potential enabling applications.

3. Create the application roadmap to support the digital strategy

Use the drivers and an understanding of enabling applications to put together an execution roadmap that will support the digital strategy.

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About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 3-phase advisory process. You'll receive 6 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Parse digital strategy technology drivers
  • Call 1: Review your digital strategy document: an analyst will review your existing digital strategy documentation to identify gaps or areas for improvement.
  • Call 2: Discuss critical technology drivers: we’ll identify potential technology drivers and their implications from your strategy.

Guided Implementation 2: Map to enabling technologies
  • Call 1: Map drivers to applications: we’ll discuss how your drivers relate to possible top-level solution categories.
  • Call 2: Discuss application taxonomy: based on the categories identified in the preceding call, we’ll deep-dive into enabling applications for your digital strategy.

Guided Implementation 3: Create application roadmap for digital strategy
  • Call 1: Build the roadmap: your advisor will work with you to shortlist a roadmap of key applications and/or other initiatives for your digital strategy.
  • Call 2: Socialization and measurement: we’ll explore what KPIs to set for roadmap execution and how to socialize the roadmap.

Author

Ben Dickie

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