A valuable method, which takes place in particular before transformations, is an own position determination. This involves using relevant criteria to check how far or close you are from a certain status. As a result, a classification is made and evaluated with a maturity level. If you are rated very well, then you call yourself best-in-class, or in the opposite case, beginner, novice, or laggard (straggler).
The goal is to be aware of one’s own weaknesses and strengths (actual situation) and, on the other hand, to know which improvements need to be made in order to increase the maturity level. This is particularly relevant in the first phase in order to link the strategic goals with the right improvement dimensions and the corresponding measures. Transformation is often thought of in terms of strategy, organization, processes, people, and systems, in order to make comparisons with benchmarks, peer groups, or market trends and draw appropriate conclusions for transformation.
The Digital Maturity Assessment allows the questions available for digital transformation to be answered in advance. These are to be discussed in particular with the relevant teams in order to be able to implement the relevant transformation steps in the following.
– How do I position myself as a company in a dramatically changing market environment?
– What is my value proposition?
– How can I digitize my business model?
– How great is the potential threat from changes within and outside the industry?
– How will I compete against agile digital newcomers?
– What else can I use to differentiate myself in the future?
– What digital skills and core competencies do I need?
– What is the optimal depth of value creation for my company?
– What partnerships do I rely on?
– How do I leave well-worn paths and adapt my business model to create innovation?
– How do I ensure that I continuously transform good ideas into value-creating innovations?
– How do I create a consistent customer experience for my customers across all channels?
– How do I efficiently incorporate the multitude of social media channels into my operating model?
– How do I intensify the dialog with the customer without significantly increasing service costs?
– Am I adequately protected against cyber attacks?
• …
Here are some examples. The complexity and variety should not be underestimated. All stakeholders should be consulted accordingly, and it takes a bit of courage to raise all issues – even the uncomfortable ones.
To reduce complexity and gain more transparency in the current situation, a structured, methodical digital status determination is recommended. A common variation to identify the right question, and dimensions, is to analyze the market, business model and IT.
– Market-related analysis: By means of a detailed industry structure analysis, the threat potential on the market side is identified and evaluated. This involves a detailed examination of the extent to which standard industry business models are changing as a result of digitization. It also shows how the industry structure is changing structurally, e.g., due to new digital newcomers, and how this is increasing the intensity of competition in the industry. The objects of investigation are, for example, economies of scale, product differentiation, capital requirements, switching costs, number of suppliers, availability of substitutes, differentiation opportunities, forward and backward integration potential, number of customers, switching costs, customer cost share in the value chain, customer profitability, number of competitors, industry growth, fixed leap costs, degree of specialization, product loyalty, switching costs, expiring patents/licenses, price/performance ratio of substitute products, aggressiveness of substitute product manufacturers.
– Company-related analysis from a business point of view: By means of a structured company-related analysis, the business-related strengths and weaknesses, incl. the business-related weaknesses, are identified. Optimization potential identified. The objects of investigation include customer knowledge/analytics and customer segmentation, digital vision, value chain positioning, digitization strategy, business model, share of digital services in the overall portfolio, governance structures, digital marketing management, multichannel management and customer experience management, degree of digitization of the operating model, process digitization and maturity of process management, digital organization, corporate culture and openness or resistance to change, corporate communication and collaboration, training/organizational learning, transformation and project management skills. – Company-related analysis from the IT perspective: Subsequently, a structured company-related analysis is used to identify the IT-related strengths and weaknesses, incl. the IT-related risks and opportunities. Optimization potential identified. The objects of investigation here are interoperability, IT security, big data and connectivity. Each of these topic blocks is in turn subdivided in terms of IT management/governance, IT resources/skills, IT processes, IT architecture and technology.
Basically, different models of analysis can be found here and it is not meant to be a slavish fixation. In principle, however, at least a rudimentary structure should be selected in order to have a methodologically, clean result available for discussion.
