Digital Strategy 2015 - Execute faster, better and cheaper

Digital Transformations are enabling Organizations to Differentiate at the front ( sells, marketing services) & standardization at the back (increase efficiency and profitability through operational efficiency and process simplification).

Digital Strategies are executed at 3 levels, i.e. Business, Operations and IT. I call them the Holy Trinity.

While digital Transformation initiatives vary in shape, size and complexities, it is important to align all 3 layers to execute Digital Strategy:-

1. Business strategy- CEO, CMO, CSO driven - For example RBS wants to be the number 1 bank based on NPS by 2020; Delivering a world class Omni-channel customer experience through Self-service, mobile banking, social customer service etc .

2. Operations & Infrastructure strategy- COO driven - For example Barclays want to reduce Total Operating cost in Billions through TRANSFORM Program, A Large Bank implementing Global standards for customer on-boarding, A large credit card issuer - adopting Agile Infrastructure strategy using CLOUD to reduce time to market .

3. IT & architecture and technology strategy - CIO driven -For example large Global Bank wants to reduce IT footprint by 50%, a Large South African Bank wants to standardize Channel and Integration Architecture to delivery better and cheaper .

The success of digital strategy lies in putting together a TOM (Target Operating Model) to set up the right environment and KPI's and measure them at all levels. Unable to do that results in Initiatives getting lost in translation. Hence, while executing Digital strategy one should consider following aspects to deliver faster, better and cheaper:-

1.       Business case Creation and prioritize initiatives

1.1.     Deep Market research -   External stakeholder interview, customer & marketing analytics, CRM analytics, multi-channel analysis, market trends, surveys, competition analysis

1.2.     Idea generation based on persona driven framework for different customer segments and products

1.3.     Start small - POC, Lab services for rapid innovation

1.4.     Portfolio assessment, prioritization, ownerships and sponsors

1.5.     Business value streams defined with Success criteria, KPI, milestones, budgets

2. Operation & infrastructure alignment

2.1.     Gap analysis to understand Business process and Operations  change - Optimize business process, reduce manual interventions, improve automation and STPs

2.2.     Measurement & analyze operation KPI - Monitoring, alerts, reporting, continuous improvements etc

2.3.     Agile infrastructure strategy - Private, Hybrid or Public CLOUD infrastructure. On-demand infrastructure provisioning, charge back and administration policies

2.4.     DevOps strategy - IT and Operations alignment - set up an Infrastructure for an agile development process

2.5.     Operation work stream defined with success criteria, KPI, milestones, budgets and Service Owners

3. IT alignment

3.1.  Gap analysis of technical architecture to meet the needs of the business plan and roadmap across IT platforms - Online portal, mobile, social media, customer service, collaboration, web

analytics, marketing optimization, content & campaign management, Integration & API strategy, Business process simplification and Payments (Cash & Liquidity management, Sanctions Screening, alternate payments etc.), real time customer & marketing analytics and offer generation (Big data)

3.2.     SDLC Process alignment - set up a Agile development process

3.3.  Clear Rent-Buy-Build strategy - RENT - SaaS, BPaaS platforms; BUY - Lending, payments, cards, savings, trade, derivatives etc; Build Strategy - Architecture for channels, Integration, BPM, Information, Big data design standards

3.4.     Set a Design and Architecture Governance model

3.5.     IT work streams defined with success criteria, KPI, milestones, budgets  and Program owner

Achieving a synergy among Business, Operations and IT ensures there is an end to end visibility and transparency, it also increases the ability to course correct when things go wrong, ensure equilibrium among Holy trinity to execute faster, better and cheaper.