Misalignment among stakeholders in digital transformation.

Digital transformation is no longer a trend when it comes to business competitiveness and positioning. However, implementing and adopting new technological solutions is an organizational challenge for any company. Thus, the alignment of the stakeholders involved is key to this transformation. Misalignment can generate delays, inefficiencies and, in the worst case, the failure of the project. 

Stakeholders in digital transformation

In a digital transformation process stakeholders include:

Stakeholders in digital transformation.

• IT: Technically responsible for implementing and maintaining the technological solutions, ensuring the security and compatibility of the new tools with existing systems. 
• Operations: Responsible for ensuring that day-to-day internal processes are not disrupted during implementation and for identifying areas where technology can optimize workflows and improve efficiency. 
• Marketing: Responsible for improving the customer experience and data analysis through technology.
• Human Resources: Responsible for leading change management by designing training programs to ensure that employees adopt new technologies. They need to be involved from the beginning to ensure that the transformation is not only technical, but also cultural.
• Finance: Responsible for assessing the economic viability of the project (costs vs. ROI), balancing strategic needs with budgetary realities. 
• Executive Leadership: Responsible for leading the digital transformation  and fostering collaboration and alignment between departments to ensure project success.. 

Finding a common language among these groups is essential to overcome functional silos and build a unified strategy that maximizes the impact of digital transformation.

Causes of misalignment

1. Lack of communication: Departments work in silos that make communication difficult and prevent having a holistic view of the needs of each area in the digital transformation. 
2. Divergent objectives: Departments have conflicting needs and interests:
   • IT: It prioritizes secure and scalable solutions, and seeks to minimize technical risks and ensure operational continuity. Its technical approach may be perceived as too conservative for departments such as Marketing or Sales, which are looking for speed and flexibility.
   • Operations: They may oppose solutions that are perceived as disruptive or complex, slowing down adoption.
   • Marketing: They prioritize agile tools that facilitate personalization and real-time data analysis. Their need for innovation may clash with IT concerns regarding security or Finance budget constraints.
   • Human Resources: They prioritize tools that are intuitive and easy to use that facilitate adoption. 
   • Finance: Their focus on cost control may conflict with IT or Marketing's demands for more innovative or farther-reaching solutions.
   • Executive Leadership: They seek rapid implementation that demonstrates tangible benefits in the short to medium term. Their urgency to see results may put pressure on IT, Operations or Finance to accelerate processes, compromising the quality or sustainability of solutions.
3. Resistance to change: Some teams may feel threatened by automation or perceive the change as unnecessary.
4. Lack of leadership: The lack of a project manager is one of the main causes of this misalignment, with direct impact on the project in terms of time and cost.

 

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Strategies to avoid misalignment

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1. Identify the issues: Executive leadership must bring all stakeholders together to understand the needs of each department and build a solid foundation for collaboration. This step not only builds trust, but also helps to be aligned from the start.
2. Create consensus: Once the needs of each department have been identified, it is necessary to assess their impact and priority in order to set the strategic objectives of the project, both globally and at the departmental level. 
3. Define objectives: Defining specific, measurable and time-bound objectives determine the teams' upgrade lines and  provide a framework for evaluating project progress. 
4. Develop the strategy: Each objective should be accompanied by a roadmap that includes the steps necessary to achieve it. This strategy should assign responsibilities, establish clear deadlines and be flexible enough to adapt to changes not contemplated at the start of the project. 
5. Apply the strategy: Implement the strategy with constant and transversal communication among the teams and coordinate periodic meetings to review the status of the project, solve problems and keep everyone aligned to avoid friction or delays.
6. Monitor progress: evaluate the impact of the digital transformation through relevant metrics such as adoption rate of the new tool, integration time, impact on operational efficiency and productivity or satisfaction surveys (NPS) to measure impact on both team and customer experience. 

 

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Conclusion

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Digital transformation is not just a technological change; it is a cultural and strategic change. However, implementing and adopting new technological solutions is an organizational challenge for any company. Thus, defining a comprehensive digital transformation strategy that involves all stakeholders not only avoids misalignment, but maximizes the value of the new technology solution even before it is implemented. 

Do you have the right technology partner for this digital transformation?

Do you have the right technology partner for this digital transformation?













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