Even if you’re ready to accelerate with digital transformation initiatives, your company structure may not be set up for success—here’s how a digital center of excellence can help.Since business is changing at an ever-accelerating pace, innovative infrastructure is no longer solely reserved for cutting-edge technology companies. Digital capabilities such as artificial intelligence, big data analytics, cloud computing, mobile technology, etc..., are making their way into the mainstream and many businesses are struggling to keep up.In order to compete, businesses need to transform multiple aspects of their company to the point where digital strategy isn’t relegated to one team or department, but thrives across functions of their ecosystem.For traditional businesses, a key organizational capability to best enable and accelerate this transformation is by creating a Digital Center of Excellence (DCoE).
A business model isn’t the only thing that may change in a digital transformation—your employees, technology, and operational processes typically need to change as well. This is where a DCoE can help. Your company will need a strong, structured team in place—a team of digital leaders and digital evangelists. These individuals will work together to bridge the gap between physical and digital operations across the organization, with the goal to organically grow and infuse digital throughout the organization.This team is typically spearheaded by a Chief Digital Officer (CDO)—someone who, at the C-suite level, can ensure all aspects of the business are represented digitally.
Your Digital Center of Excellence will consist of nimble teams of experts who can work together to accomplish digital goals. A few examples of typical DCoE job functions may include:
However, every organization is different and may have different needs and structures that best meet the requirements of the overall business. If you’re unclear about the types of talent your company needs, then an strategic digital transformation partner or outside digital expert can help steer you in the right direction.
Once you have the right talent in place, the DCoE focus is to achieve the following four transformation initiatives:
Ultimately the DCoE may be a transitional group to get a company from being a digital laggard to a digital leader. As a company increases its digital maturity across the organization through the above actions, it typically makes sense to decentralize some of the digital functions. As a company becomes more decentralized properly, digital should become the primary touch point that both employees and customers connect with on a daily basis.