03 Oct What is Digital Maturity?
Glenn Griggs, our CEO and expert on Digital Maturity, explains why assessing your organisation’s Digital Maturity will set you on a course towards a more secure, resilient and efficient workplace.
Digital Transformation is a universal phrase. But how accurate is it? Transformation describes something finite, radical and instant. When you break it down, Digital Transformation promises a result, not a process. So it’s no wonder 70% of organisations fail at the first attempt, digital change isn’t as instant as it appears.
In reality, adapting to the digital world takes time. Staying ahead is a never-ending pursuit, Digital Transformation is a worthwhile concept, but we believe organisations need a longer-term plan. In our view, it’s the era of Digital Maturity.
What is Digital Maturity?
Commonly, Digital Maturity is described as an organisation’s ability to respond and adapt to technological trends. Amongst industry analysts and thought leaders, there’s a consensus that Digital Maturity is a process rather than an end goal. It unfolds over time and is certainly not something that you ever fully achieve and mark off your to-do list.
In simple terms, it is similar to how humans reach maturity. There’s milestones, but the end result isn’t always defined, it can stall, follow different paths, and it takes a lifetime. The only difference is organisations can accelerate digital maturity and reach milestones quicker.
To start thinking about Digital Maturity, you need to identify where your organisation is on the journey and how you can reach the next milestone.
Why is Digital Maturity important?
Nowadays, Digital Maturity isn’t just about sharpening your competitive edge. Global challenges, like conflict and climate change, have raised the stakes. Assessing Digital Maturity and taking action to improve is about resilience, agility, security and even long-term survival.
Inside organisations, the temperature is also rising. Your employees now expect flexibility powered by digital technology. They want intelligent tools and technology that help them do their job better. In fact, a recent study of ours revealed that 65% of UK office workers would welcome some element of AI or automation into their role.
And in the shadows, cybercriminals are seizing the opportunity to wreak havoc. An alarming 20% of breaches in 2021 were caused by lapses in security during remote working. Also, cybersecurity experts now believe in 93% of cases an external attacker can breach network perimeters and gain access to local network resources.
But all this isn’t meant to sound like scaremongering. It’s a rallying cry.
Monumental change poses great opportunities for organisations willing to look boldly at their position and into the future. By gauging your maturity level, you can start the process of change, opening the door to a more secure, efficient and resilient workplace.
Complete your Digital Services Maturity Indicator today.
What makes a Digitally Mature organisation?
Once you have used our Digital Services Maturity Indicator to ascertain your current position, there are three central facets of Digital Maturity. With a strategy for each, you will optimise the value of digital investments and set a strong future for your organisation.
Organisational transformation
Leaders are central to formulating an organisational strategy for digital maturity and play a big part in the success or failure of any digital project. Good leaders will have a clear vision of the path the organisation must take, inspire employees to work towards it and ensure digital is a priority from the top down.
While they’re focused on doing the work, they’ll also have their eyes firmly on the horizon, scoping out the future and potential challenges down the road.
Technology transformation
Becoming digitally mature is more than finding an isolated problem and fixing it with automation or a software platform. To create holistic digital maturity, you need to invest in technology in five critical areas.
Think of it in terms of building your workplace. You need solid foundations and a space designed to meet the needs of people.
IT infrastructure, networking and cybersecurity are the foundations. When the foundations are secure, stable and trusted, you can start building layers of technology that give you intelligence, optimisation and efficiency. These are your digital workspace, digital experience and business process automation tools.
While looking through this lens, you need to keep people and experience firmly on your radar.
People transformation
Psychologically, when humans are faced with new ideas or initiatives, our first instinct is to resist. It’s in our DNA. So, employee buy-in and adoption are critical to the success of any digital project. You need a clear view of how your people are feeling, how they work, the daily challenges they face and their perspective on technology.
When it comes to implementation, it is essential that ample training and demonstration are available to ensure adoption. And for large-scale rollouts, change management might be necessary to soothe any initial teething problems. Ultimately, you need to get your people on your side.
Discover how we can help
We don’t know what work will look or feel like in the future. But we do know organisations that put their digital strategy at the heart of what they do will be better prepared for the challenges and expectations of tomorrow.
If you’d like to understand more about your organisation’s digital maturity, our Digital Services Maturity Indicator is a free, no-commitment tool to help you move forward.
For more reading about Digital Transformation and Hybrid Workplaces see our further articles below;
