How digital transformation impacts the customer journey

By Genefa Murphy, chief marketing officer, Micro Focus

Over the years, the customer journey has been depicted as everything from a clear linear path to a Chutes and Ladders game board, and most recently as an infinite loop. Marketers and business leaders alike are constantly looking for ways to optimize and refine the customer journey to ensure maximum returns on investments. 

It would be difficult to come across an enterprise today that isn't going through a digital transformation — with the goal of optimizing and improving the customer journey and experience.

But before starting to optimize the outward experience, it's critical to look inward. Data shows that without the correct strategy and execution model, digital transformations often fail. Here's what you need to know to do it successfully.

Prepare to transform while continuing operations.

In today's enterprise, the reality is that organizations need to run the business while transforming it at the same time — there's no pause button or clean slate. Similarly, most companies are not starting fresh when it comes to the technology stack that supports the customer journey. The majority of companies have made previous IT investments creating layers of technology that have built up over the years, from traditional mainframes to modern-day cloud and container-based infrastructure.

Rethink what 'customer journey' means.

Businesses need to accept that looking at customer engagement as a "journey" is outdated. A journey implies that there is an end point, but the customer journey doesn't end after the purchase. It includes the buyer's opinion of the product, the service, and the company long after the purchase has been made.

Prioritize your transformation outcomes.

Through years of working with enterprise customers, Micro Focus has come to develop an approach that we refer to as "smart" digital transformation. In order to succeed, it's critical to take a thoughtful and pragmatic approach, which allows you to balance risk and reward. Smart digital transformation comes down to four key outcomes:

1. Speed — Deliver at high speed with low risk.
2. Agility — Leverage hybrid technology to simplify your IT transformation.
3. Security — Secure what matters most.
4. Insights – Lean on data and analyze in time to act.

It's important for the business to prioritize which of these initiatives yield the highest return right now. That focus will show success and quickly enable you to move onto the next challenge rather than trying to do everything and failing.

Identify critical IT functions.

Make sure to optimize the end-to-end processes that support IT. Consider what are the critical functions, which integrations and data exchanges matter most, and how is it possible to optimize end-to-end feedback loops to deliver a structured and scalable approach that enables digital transformation (DX) while also ensuring IT costs don't spiral out of control.

The IT4IT framework maintained by The Open Group provides a blueprint for enterprises wanting to scale smart digital transformation by helping them identify which value streams in their organization are the most costly and which could stand to be optimized either through tool rationalization or integration.

Automate, analyze, and secure at every opportunity.

Automation is the foundation for success. It may take time to develop and identify whether it's in testing, deployment, or production and remediation, but automation will ensure that when the time comes, the business can scale quickly and efficiently.

Similarly, mining data at each phase of your DX program will help drive the insights needed to facilitate effective and efficient decision making. Embedding security across identities, apps, and data from the beginning of the transformation will also result in a lot of saved time down the line, ensure customer safety, and protect business-critical data while creating a trusted experience.

Work with open source information and partners.

At the core of smart DX is pragmatism. Don't try and build it all alone. Any customer who has rolled out any IT project big or small will say open and integrated is the way to go. Leverage the eco-system of commercial and open source.

Given that DX is never a one and done, building an open architecture will not only provide scale, but will help ensure the longevity of what is being built and will allow the business to pick the approach and solutions that will work best for it.

Partners and alliances are also available to help drive success. While at first it may seem costly, down the line the ROI will likely speak for itself. DXs often fail because of employees' unwillingness to change. Sometimes a shift in culture needs a jolt, and that can often be best administered from a third party.

Remember — before you start a digital transformation to power the modern customer experience, take a step back. Pause, be pragmatic with clear priorities, a blueprint to guide you, and long-term objectives. Inward reflection will ensure your DX also transforms your customers' DX. Now more than ever, organizations must contemplate their current processes in order to deliver outstanding customer experiences and keep customers coming back for more.

Learn more about how Micro Focus can help your company go digital.

This post was created by Micro Focus with Insider Studios.