Tips for Digital Transformation Strategy Success

Digital transformation can fundamentally change the way you do business and the benefits to sports organizations are numerous if done properly. Improving fan/guest/customer experience, using data driven insights to feed business strategy and increase collaboration and innovation are only a few of the revenue and value generation opportunities provided by a well planned and executed Digital Transformation strategy.This begs the question as to why is it when Digital Transformation is mentioned it can spark fear in sports organizations? I’ve found that the fear is caused by missteps in 2 main areas:

1. Not looking at Digital Transformation as a strategy with smaller manageable tactics rolled into that strategy but instead looking at it as one giant project. Trying to do too much too fast without an end goal in sight will lead to upheaval and missteps which would scare an organization from getting to the point where they can see benefits.
2. Technology leaders working in a silo and failing to include the business from the beginning of the process. Tech needs to partner with the business to understand the processes, pain points and how Digital Transformation can grow value.

Digital transformation should be approached cautiously and done in stages vs an all or nothing approach to create the conditions for success. Here are 5 tactics I feel are important for technology leaders to get buy-in and set a trajectory for a successful Digital Transformation strategy .

1. Identify Pain Points

The move to digitally transform your organization needs to be backed by a solid plan and justification. What are the major pain points or lines of business that would benefit and how can you drive revenue and ROI in each aspect of your business through a digital strategy? Identify all the areas in your organization that would benefit and create business cases for each. Some examples for sports organizations could include

• Selling more tickets with a new digital system that uses data and predictive analytics.
• Driving partnership ROI through a sponsors management system and giving partners the data they need and want.
• Implement a CRM system to target and targeting new fans and create value with current ones?
• Implement an ERP to consolidate and improve business processes across the organization

There are an unlimited amount of needs that can be addressed through digital transformation and as a business leader it is up to you to find them, analyze them and then create a strategy that will demonstrate the value to an organization that focuses on revenue generation vs cost centre.

2. Create Digital Champions

Digital Transformation can’t exist in a vacuum! It’s a business initiative not just a technology initiative. You could have one of the most groundbreaking and innovative ideas to digitize but if you aren’t keeping everyone in the loop and involved in the process you will fail. Create a Digital Transformation committee that consists of “Digital Champions” from each line of business to help create and execute the strategy. A digital champion doesn’t have to be an executive or even someone exceptionally technical but it does have to be someone who is passionate and understands the value that going digital will add to the business . A champion will be your evangelist and help their teams understand the need to work together and facilitate conversations between tech and business teams on the transformation strategy. Keep your champions in the loop and set up formal times where the committee will meet to discuss progress and challenges from both the tech and business side. By creating a champion in departments you know have an ally in the business who will work with you to keep senior management and the organization up to speed and foster the new digital culture.

3. Agile Development and Continuous Improvement

I’ve found that an Agile Methodology works best when going down the path of digital transformation vs traditional waterfall management. It builds on the philosophy of breaking out your projects into smaller tactical pieces and creates a cycle of incremental improvement during the process instead of waiting until the end. With Agile development, improvements and benefits are seen throughout your transformation cycle which reduces risk and gives an immediate benefit to the organization.

4. Build From the Ground Up

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when undertaking a digital transformation of your organization is trying to do too much too fast. A Digital Transformation strategy needs to be approached with proper planning. Break the strategy up into supporting tactics and not as one project as stated above to keep it manageable and start seeing incremental improvement quicker.
An example of breaking down your strategy into tactics would be an organization that has identified Ticketing, Sponsorship management, Data Science and Fan engagement as areas of focus.

• Migrate ticketing systems first as these are your foundation and will be your support and data source for your other areas of focus.
• Follow up with your sponsorship management system and implement something that will help to give a better picture to your partner of your organization and what you can offer them.
• Next you may want a mobile app/platform or other fan engagement initiatives that can take advantage of the data from digital ticketing, create content and branding opportunities to feed into your sponsorship management system.
• Bring it all together with a CRM or data analytics platform that will take all your newly built data sources and help to create or improve your organizations data strategy.

This is an extremely simple example of how to build tactics on top of each other to support your overall digital transformation strategy.

5. Dashboards and KPIs

What gets measured gets done. Creating relevant KPIs and dashboards to measure ROI on your digital transformation is one of the most critical measures of success that you can do. Work with your digital committee to create KPIs that matter to each department and clearly show how their business is improving (or not). It’s OK if the KPIs show something isn’t a success, this gives you a chance to figure out why something isn’t working early in the process while there is still opportunity to pivot.

These are a few tactics that will not only put the business at ease but also bring technology and the business together to work as true partners to set up your Digital Transformation strategy for success. Would love to hear from other leaders on what has worked for you in your organizations.