A Business Transformation Maturity Model
As everyone around the world knows all-too-well, we truly do live in interesting times. In fact, I’m typing this article at a homemade stand-up-desk that’s set up in what was once a storage room on the second story of my house. Like so many (lucky) people, I’m about 4 weeks into the work from home stage of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Interesting times, indeed.
Despite the strange new reality, I consider myself incredibly fortunate. First – I still have a job. Second – I have the ability to do my work with relatively little interruption from the comfort of my home. Third – I work for a company that delivers products and services that are genuinely helping businesses around the world cope with the today’s unprecedented changes. Not many people are as lucky.
Recently, iGrafx has delivered quite a bit of content in the form of blog articles, webinars and other tailored tools aimed at assisting with business continuity and resiliency. Three decades of laser focus on process-centric business modeling provides a unique and informed perspective. And it is all right in line with what we had been talking about six months ago, before most of us had any clue about Corona Viruses, or the fact that a “novel” one was about to make an unwelcomed appearance.
Prior to our current situation, we talked primarily about business transformation, which is a superset of what’s involved with the overly hyped goal of “digital transformation.” As I’ve mentioned before, “transformation” means “change.” Simple as that. And in the context of business transformation, it means all kinds of change; both planning for the kind you desire, as well as reacting to the kind you don’t. In order to effectively execute any kind of business strategy that creates a new operational reality, there are a series of steps that best-in-class organizations go through, starting with operational excellence, moving to business modeling and ideally arriving at strategic transformation.
In other words, enterprises start by working on how to do things better/faster/cheaper, then progress to monitoring and measuring the impact of operational change, and finally graduate to legitimate digital transformation initiatives involving customer experience and detailed workflow automation.
In the short video below, iGrafx head of product marketing, Robert Thacker, explains the six key use cases that businesses need to solve for as they mature along the continuum: 1) Operational Excellence; 2) Quality Management; 3) Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC) & Data/Privacy Management; 4) Performance Management; 5) Digital Transformation/Automation; and 6) Customer Journey & Experience. Whether already a major corporate initiative with a dedicated Center of Excellence, or a new priority spurred by the need to mitigate new, previously unforeseen risks, now is always the right time to optimize and transform your business.
Life interesting. Things change. Companies disrupt one another. Be ready. Survive and thrive.