SECTION 5: developing your digital strategy
Step 5: Find Your People Successful digital transformation and innovation require the right skill sets—and engagement across the company. "Finding evangelists throughout the organization to help spread the message on why the change is underway and what it really means—why we're doing it, what's the impact is going to be, what's the outcome going to be, and how they'll be a part of it—I think that's a critical component to the strategy," said Matt Gilliss, Executive Creative Director at Goddard Systems. Depending on your in-house resources and skill level, you may wish to hire a strategic partner with cloud- based application expertise. Software development service providers like Concord can enable infrastructure transformations and provide scalable, secure cloud solutions. With the right tools, retailers can position themselves to develop a successful app while keeping costs manageable.
Step 6: Launch and Refine
The journey toward digital transformation is paved with constant analysis and testing. Testing functionality and user experience through soft and hard launches are essential. By continuously monitoring performance, you'll be able to refine the customer's experience with your digital brand. Doherty recommends that you don't fixate on financial metrics such as return on working capital or inventory turns as much as you measure customer-facing service metrics such as in-stock rate and same-day ship. "If you take care of the customer, the financials will follow," he said. But even when your solution is "perfect," it may still need to change. For example, loyalty solutions are often iterative because organizational goals transform as retailers mature—as your company changes, so can your customer base. "A mobile solution is never truly complete—it's always evolving," said Goswami.
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