Digital Transformation Strategy - Key Components

Introduction

This simple instruction is divided into essential stages to walk through when crafting digital transformation strategies tailored specifically for money-handling brands. We’ve put a strong focus on leveraging the power of tech advancements and crafting valuable offers for end customers. We’ll also explain the benefits of outsourcing digital transformation efforts to vendors in Poland.

Understanding the need for digital transformation

Before diving into the exciting strategizing process, it’s essential to understand why digital transformation is imperative - especially for companies from the financial industry and healthcare. Outdated processes, legacy systems, and inefficient workflows pose modernization challenges, decrease internal productivity, and lead to missed opportunities for expansion. Especially today, when market changes are impossible to predict early on and are often driven by the emergence of disruptive technologies. Swift adaptation is a must to avoid the risk of falling behind.

Each company will have a slightly different reason to kickstart the digital transformation journey. However, most of them will be motivated by the promise of streamlined operations, cost savings, improved decision-making, and a competitive edge. Digitization is also crucial for customer-centric finance brands that want to attract more customers. Modern consumers have high expectations of software solutions, and they pick financial apps that meet their rigorous criteria: accessible UI, feature-rich UX, convenience, and useful additional functionalities. It’s impossible to deliver such digital products without a proper digital strategy.

Step-by-step digital transformation strategy

Digital transformation doesn’t have to be complicated. Putting some extra time into the initial preparations can be a game-changer. Let’s take a closer look at each stage and how it should be executed to achieve goals and exceed expectations:

Defining digital transformation goals

Although we’ve mentioned several advantages of digitization, it’s important to define priority goals in the first place. Identifying business areas that can benefit the most from changes and defining clear, achievable to-dos will set the direction for the whole process.

Some companies will have to begin with enhancing customer experiences to decrease turnover and increase lifetime value. Others will have to focus on internal efficiency to reduce bottlenecks and improve operational results. A digital transformation strategy can also help unlock new revenue streams. Finding a way to synchronize these objectives with overall business goals allows organizations to plan the transformation and find resources to go through it successfully.

Assessing current capabilities and technologies

Financial companies are in very different states of technological advancement. Assessing the current situation and filling the gaps would be the first step towards successful digital transformation. Evaluating existing systems and internal infrastructure, as well as the skills required to introduce changes, will showcase what should be the strategy scope and what is required to execute it. This stage should consider factors such as security and compliance requirements that are extremely important for the financial sector.

This is also the best moment to measure technical debt and define its influence on the business. Our State of Software Modernization 2024 Report proves that accumulated technical debt is the biggest problem for companies that want to modernize their software. To proceed with digital transformation, financial companies have to be aware of the impact their old systems have on their operations and include modernization in their general strategies.

Developing a roadmap and implementation plan

With goals defined and capabilities assessed, it’s time to create a roadmap of changes that will be implemented during the digital transformation initiative. Every part of the project should be divided into manageable phases, with clearly stated priorities that correspond with initial objectives. Establishing metrics for measuring the progress and results of each activity is a must-have.

Research from the State of Software Modernization 2024 Report shows that only 29% of organizations include all key stakeholders to cross-functionally kickstart the software modernization and digital transformation process. We recommend betting on this approach to make sure all interested parties are included in the decision-making processes and their needs are addressed.

Execution done the right way

Digital transformation strategy success relies strongly on tech stack, adequate IT talent, and efficient project management. Optimizing software development and delivery is essential to drive innovation into the company, while also ensuring the scalability, flexibility, and longevity of the systems. Adopting practices such as Prince2Agile development (mentioned in our delivery promise video) and DevOps can speed up time-to-market, improve team collaboration, and provide alignment between various departments involved in the process.

Remember that digital transformation is a journey, not a destination, and continuous iteration and adaptation are key to long-term success. It’s important to collaborate with the right specialists who can advise on various challenges and support companies on their path towards a new level of business excellence.

Digital transformation & outsourcing - where to?

Poland is a tech powerhouse that has been considered one of the best global tech locations for years, which directly corresponds with the fact that decision-makers trust Polish IT vendors with software development. In 2023, Emerging Europe compared Poland to Silicon Valley, and the country invested a lot of money and effort into retaining the role of Europe’s technological hub. Government and foreign entities support Polish tech initiatives and educational programs focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are extremely popular, as well as well-funded.

Polish software houses deliver high-quality, cutting-edge solutions, proving they are worth hiring. Together with a central location in this part of the world, as well as competitive hourly rates and strong English skills, Poland remains an attractive location for financial brands that want to outsource their digital transformation strategies. By partnering with experienced outsourcing providers from this country, companies can access top talent, optimize their budgets, and meet project timelines while maintaining control over quality.

<span class="colorbox1" fs-test-element="box1"><p>Looking for a company to modernize your product? Try checking out the rankings, e.g. the list of 10+ top digital transformation companies recommended by experts.</p></span>

Examples of digital transformation in the financial sector

There are several innovations offered by the digital realm that banks use to boost their customer experiences, improve security, enhance internal productivity, and achieve revenue goals. For example, biometrics proved to be useful in financial software by providing safety for customers’ assets and significantly increasing convenience. Facial recognition and fingerprint scanners are standard in banking apps, helping consumers to log in to their accounts and confirm transactions.

Another trend that is adopted by many banks is Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Thanks to “hiring” robots as employees, financial organizations can free their workforces from mundane tasks. From chatbots and voice bots used in customer support to research agents that help with finding relevant data, RPA is appreciated across the industry, including big players like Axis Bank, Deutsche Bank, and BNP Paribas.

Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) and the utilization of value-added services are other trends that power up digital transformation strategies for many money-related brands. Creating financial infrastructures for other providers or building hub apps with multiple features are both approaches that require thought-through business plans and elevated development processes.

<span class="colorbox1" fs-test-element="box1"><p>Check out more examples of successful digital transformation with prominent examples like Lego, IKEA, Nike, Disney, Microsoft, and Audi.</p></span>

Successful digital transformation strategy in a nutshell

Digital transformation doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Establishing goals that correspond with current business challenges, planning changes to eliminate these difficulties, and finding the right technologies with a competent team that can use them to produce extraordinary results are the steps to take that will lead to spectacular results and help reach the new heights of leadership in the financial sector.