AN APPROACH TO DEFINE A ROAD MAP FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS

A digital business strategy is a significant contemporary accomplishment, advancing a visionary enterprise. The ability to define a traditional business strategy is highly dependent on the current operational paradigms, but a digital business strategy must consider all significant contributors from the technical architecture, change management, strategic role-out plan, skills migration plan together with advanced digital tools. This research develops a digital business strategy based on a detailed landscaping process that includes a full review of all functions of the business, global best practice and the company's existing business strategy. The first priority is to define and align the digital strategy with the business strategy. Here the approach is to design for optimization (transform), replication (for growth), and sustainability (new feedstock, empowerment). The strategic digital roadmap developed herein focuses on the optimization of current processes via digital and other tools. The roadmap includes the design of systems with replication as the core of the design. The support systems and governance structures proposed include architecture, process management, service management, knowledge repository, and skills strategies (delivery through people and culture). The digital road map defined includes total business visibility, delivering on multi-dimensional visibility, and workflows enabling optimization. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by shedding light on the predicaments associated with devising and implementing digital business strategy. The research subsequently devises a novel approach to digitally transform organizations through digital business strategy that leverages various significant elements such as traditional business strategies, processes, resources, advanced digital technologies, and industry best practices.