Digital transformation is nothing new. Over the past twenty years, organizations of all sizes have allocated millions, if not billions, of dollars into digital transformations. Though, at its purest, digital transformation will always be centered around the alignment of people, processes and technology, the ongoing pandemic is continuing to push the discipline in new directions.

With this in mind, we recently sat down with Russell Ollie, Vice President, Transformation, AT&T to discuss how the past 18 months have shaped digital transformation for years to come as well as just general best practices for ensuring success. For those looking for more pearls of wisdom from Russell, please note that he will be presenting on “Actioning Enterprise Transformation” at the Work Management & Process Discovery virtual event taking place September 21-23, 2021. You can either watch his session LIVE at 9AM ET on the 21st or, later that week, ON DEMAND at your convenience.

The Customer Experience Reinvented

One of the key goals of digital transformation is to not only optimize the customer experience, but create new digitally-enabled offerings and services. Though, in the past, some organizations have hyper focused on generating cost-savings and slashing overhead, organizations who’s digital transformations boost the bottom line by upwards of 9 figures devote just as much, if not more, attention to creating new revenue streams. 

“I think the pandemic has accelerated the opportunity to think differently. To finally do some of the things the business may have wanted to do for years, but thought they had constraints or guard rails around that said you couldn't do it. Russell tells us. “ For example, at AT&T, we were already talking about how we could help our customers do more self inservice or self install of the products before the pandemic hit. We had these ideas, but we didn't feel we had the permission or impetus from the customer, and then the pandemic came along and suddenly people didn't want service technicians in their house. So it allowed us to accelerate, and that in turn changes how we should think about delivering service and products to the customer.” 

However, rethinking the customer experience, as with any transformation, does require a substantial shift in mindset not to mention upskilling and technology enablement. As Russell explains, “culture transformation should go in conjunction with any sort of process, systems, transformation as well, right? And so how does our culture need to evolve? What are the things we're trying to get out of our culture and what are the things we're trying to bring into our culture? So not just thinking about a key process indicator or a metric or a KPI, but also key behavior indicators. Also, don’t just talk about change, but model and show it. 

Otherwise, you'll just get some projects and programs, and then you're kind of done. And then you're falling and falling back in the marketplace again.”

Balancing long-term and short-term goals

It’s an age old question: how do you balance quick wins with long-term strategy. While collective quick wins are critical for establishing trust and boosting team morale, you can’t lose sight of your long-term objectives. 

“Short-term we have to think about making sure we are pointing these tools at the strategic gaps that the corporation has. And that we can actually, in a matter of a few months, start providing proof points. And so the general model is, yes, digital transformation takes multiple years but here we’ve provided proof points. 

This allows us to pull instead of a push which is important, because, at the end of the day, people aren't going to change how they work because we tell them to. They'll change when they see with their eyes on evidence that this made a difference. "

Want more? Watch Russell's Session ON DEMAND HERE