Digital transformation is the profound and accelerating transformation of business activities, processes, competencies and models to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of digital technologies and their impact across society in a strategic and prioritized way, with present and future shifts in mind.
The development of new competencies revolves around the capacities to be more agile, people-oriented, innovative, customer-centric, streamlined, efficient and able to induce/leverage opportunities to change the unadapted status quo. The goal is an ability to move faster from an increased awareness and forecast capability regarding changes to decisions and innovation, keeping in mind those (potential) changes.
Present and future shifts and changes can be induced by several causes, often at the same time, on the levels of customer behavior and expectations, new economic realities, societal shifts (e.g. aging populations), ecosystem/industry disruption and (the accelerating adoption and innovation regarding) emerging or existing digital technologies. In practice, end-to-end customer experience optimization, operational flexibility and innovation, are key drivers of digital transformation, along with the development of new revenue sources and information-powered ecosystems of value, leading to business model transformations.