Journey
Digitalisation is happening on a scale and at a speed that can be both threatening and promising. Not all companies are at the same stage of the journey. Some are still planning their route whereas others may be well on their way and looking to maintain or enhance their competitive advantage. We break the digital transformation journey into four parts; Explore, Build, Implement and Protect.
Explore
The first step of a digitalisation journey is to understand what digitalisation means to your business. Identifying which technologies will work best for your business is a complex process and depends on your organisation’s industry, competition, and maturity. You’ll need to explore the options and understand the challenges that your business faces to identify key areas of legal and tax risks and opportunities that may affect options for future plans. Amongst other things, consideration will need to be given to how your plans affect how you treat your data, regulatory requirements and the evolving legislation affecting new tech such as AI and cloud.
Build
Once you have identified the key challenges for your business, you can evaluate the digital transformation options available to you. Key decisions need to be made. Do you develop existing capabilities or buy new ones? Or do you mix and match? Whatever your decision, you will need to ensure that the commercial arrangements involved in your digital investment represent the optimum outcomes for the organisation. Whether you are developing existing systems or processes, acquiring new capability or outsourcing, there are a number of key aspects that must be thought through including IP rights, tax structuring, attracting and incentivising talent and data use and protection.
Implement
Successful digital transformation rests upon integration and adoption of digital platforms across the business. The end result needs to be beneficial, sustainable and cost-effective. Poor implementation can increase cost and legal risk, which can lead to a negativity towards future digital projects. Your implementation needs to be compliant with regulations and clear data governance is essential. The biggest influence on implementation, however, will be your people. Ensuring a digital mindset across the business is critical in helping you to deliver on your digital promise, as is facilitating personal development and engendering a culture of digital curiosity and confidence.
Protect
Operating in an increasingly digital environment presents new risks and challenges which must be understood and mitigated. Perhaps the biggest threat lies in your data. It may be your greatest asset but can turn into your biggest liability if not managed correctly. Appropriate measures must be adopted to protect your systems and to ensure your third and fourth party suppliers have robust policies in place to protect the data they receive from you. Collaborations between companies and movement of talent increase the risk of unauthorised people gaining access to your IP, trade secrets and business information. It’s critical to ensure your technology, network and data are protected and do not expose the organisation, its customers, people, and partners to unnecessary risk.
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