Free Tips for CIOs: 4 of the Most Common Digital Transformation Mistakes to Avoid

From failing to align IT with corporate goals to a lack of clear communication with the team, there’s a raft of reasons why digital transformation projects get derailed. In the worst-case scenario, companies end up in a worse position than when they started, having wasted a whole lot of money.

While no two businesses are the same when it comes to project management, there are some common mistakes that lead to serious problems with productivity, morale, security, and ultimately, your bottom line. Avoid these pitfalls so you can succeed where so many others have failed:

#1. Not Aligning Tasks with Company Goals

This is the number one reason why most companies fail at digital transformation. Business leaders are often seduced by salespeople’s promises of a one-size-fits-all solution. The world of IT isn’t getting any less complicated either, especially when you factor in the rise of cloud computing and mobile technology.

It’s imperative that you have a strong sense of direction from the very beginning. What do you want out of your digital transformation? To answer this question, you need to have your team on board throughout the process. Before you even start making any changes to your technology infrastructure, everyone involved needs to be clear on their goals and their respective roles in achieving them.

#2. Not Getting Buy-in from the Whole Team

Adopting new technology across your organization can either make or break your business processes. If end users, be they customers or employees, can’t work effectively with your new systems, then your project is a failure. Consider, for example, how many times you’ve heard people complain about a website redesign or a new app that lacks usability or certain essential features.

Given the enterprise technology environment’s increasingly complex nature, it’s essential that you achieve buy-in from everyone on your team. If you don’t have the support of your end users, the only thing you’ll achieve is wasting time and money. Clear communication throughout the project is crucial, particularly when it comes to key stakeholders or adjustments to projects in progress.

#3. Not Prioritizing Your Projects

A lot of IT departments have multiple projects running at the same time, including ones for both customer-facing systems and internal operations. This can bog down development operations personnel and make them lose sight of key priorities. Oftentimes, staff will be tempted to focus on easier projects at the cost of the continuation of higher-visibility projects.

One of the most important responsibilities of a project manager is to know how to prioritize tasks in accordance with the company’s operational goals. Although there may be a degree of flexibility, and projects can change course midway, it’s important for project managers to keep stakeholders informed and monitor how their teams are prioritizing ongoing projects.

#4. Not Using the Right Project Management Tools

Many businesses still rely on cumbersome manual processes for managing projects, which often leaves them exposed to costly errors and a complete inability to prioritize efficiently. Oftentimes, projects are carried out using a wide variety of tools, such as instant messengers for keeping everyone involved informed and spreadsheets for tracking progress. It’d take a miracle for a project to succeed if it were carried out on such a basis.

Fortunately, there are many robust project management tools to choose from, which can help you prioritize tasks more effectively and foster real-time collaboration between remote teams. For example, Trello offers visual representations of projects and individual tasks to help you keep on track. It’s also useful to have the right set of team collaboration tools at your disposal, such as Slack or Microsoft Teams. These assist greatly with communication, particularly if collaborating with remote workers.

Dyrand Systems provides CIO-level expertise to clients in the areas of Vancouver, Richmond, and Burnaby. We’re here to help you ensure your IT projects are carried out smoothly, with all the necessary reports and reviews. Talk with us today to get started.