Customer expectations are rising across all industries and verticals. To retain business, companies must embrace digitization. If you don’t offer a superior web, mobile, and conversational interface, your customers look for the supplier or merchant that does. Your enterprise may be at the start of its digital journey; formulating strategic directives, discussing channel conflicts, or defining ways to augment your business operations with technology. Or you may be further along on the path to digital maturity; engaging mobile customers, exploring marketplace sales channels, or discovering how artificial intelligence can assist your efforts. Many enterprises, both B2B and B2C, are somewhere along their journey to digital maturity. And they are determined to outpace their competition, so it is no surprise that Forrester reports 92% of digital experience decision-makers in these companies seek the help of experts with experience guiding companies along this journey of discovery and change for years.
Echidna works with our clients utilizing our Digital Journey Maturity Model (DJM2) to establish their baseline and define success, both short and long term. Over the next few weeks, we will dive into each of the six pillars of your company to discuss how and why each one plays an important part in successfully moving forward with your digital journey.
DJM2 brings to light a common misconception in digitization, “if we are going to be successful in digital, then we need to create something completely new”. Echidna’s principal leadership comes from leading digital commerce businesses like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Lexmark, Dell, National Instruments, and Teleflora, along with technology solution leaders like ATG, Oracle, and Demandware. They know, from experience, that you can not just walk away from your existing business and transform.
Digital transformation isn’t a single event; it is a continuous process of maturity which will allow you to create innovative new models. Continuous Innovation and Optimization.
The six pillars of your company that allow you to digitally mature and achieve the success you strive for are:
(Business, Operations, User Experience, Merchandising, Marketing, Technology)
Our clients often find that their digital maturity varies across pillars. For example, a company has a solid business vision and strategy with an intuitive marketing process, but is struggling to offer an exemplary user experience and digital merchandising operation. That’s okay and in most cases very normal. With so many different decisions to make regarding the pillars of your company, this is why digital leadership works with outside service providers that help them design, build, and manage their digital experiences. A strong service provider that brings in their repository of experience across all pillars and becomes a true extension of your internal leadership and team, is when you are able to truly digitally mature beyond your competition and create something that’s spectacular..
Fulfilling the strategic, creative and technology needs in a digital journey and bringing the brand to life in digital is the hardest part in the maturation process. The Digital Journey Maturity Model brings this to light focusing on building a team with strategy, design, technology, operations, merchandising, and data skills to mix into each individual clients particular needs at a particular point in time.
Your company doesn’t simply need a new website design or updated digital strategy; you need a true partner that understands your needs and operating model to empower you to shift customers to online channels or a whole movement of your business model. By understanding the challenges and desires of stakeholders, our team will help formulate the right strategy and build a complete roadmap across all pillars of your company.
