For the digital assistant

The digital assistant was developed by the Southeast Digital Innovation Hub. It provides digital service managers with an easy-to-use method for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of their organization in relation to digital transformation. Digital assessment is a set of heuristics (guidelines), allowing for a detailed review that focuses on the range of organizational capabilities and competencies in terms of digital readiness. Heuristics are based on good practice, providing a solid basis for review.

Digital assessment can be used before a major review of an organization’s digital capabilities is undertaken for comparison, or it can be used to track the progress of digital transformation over a period of time.

Heuristics are simple, efficient practical rules that can be used to make estimates. They are based on best practices and experience and are an easy to apply method in many situations.

The heuristics used in digital assessment are based on common indicators of digital maturity in organizations. Heuristics is not an exhaustive list of all potential indicators, but it is extensive enough to allow the identification of issues that have the greatest impact on the way digitalisation is used within most organizational settings of any reasonable scale.

Any heuristic in digital evaluation is necessarily quite broad. When evaluating your organization against them, the digital assistant will need to make some judgments, including whether the heuristic is appropriate for your situation. Some heuristics may not apply to every context.

For each heuristic give a score of 0-5. This provides information on the strengths and weaknesses of each element of your digital ability. The review of the evaluation system is as follows:

0 = None
There is no existing idea or activity for this aspect of our digital services.

1 = Strongly disagree
There is very limited understanding or activity in this area.

2 = Disagree
We are generally weak in terms of understanding or activity in this area.

3 = Partially agree
We are considering this area or taking steps, but this is not entirely convincing.

4 = Agree
We are good in this field and have well-developed abilities and competencies.

5 = Strongly agree
We are very capable in this area, we provide significant benefits and meet (or exceed) these criteria.

The results of the digital evaluation will be sent to you in PDF format by the e-mail specified by you.

The results of the digital assessment can be used in different ways, depending on the stage of your digital transformation.

Sections of digital assessment

The digital assessment contains eight sections, each of which is summarized below.

1. Digital priorities and strategic vision

Defining a clear digital vision is obviously important, but identifying what it needs to be requires working with the entire company to assess and understand current challenges. Asking the right questions can often involve the whole company in finding solutions, providing brilliant ideas and engaging them in the process. Then (and only then) the vision must be established, given priority and promoted and shared regularly. Everyone now understands the reasons why the organization needs to change and they feel obliged to invest in the means to make this change.

2. To be customer oriented

The ability to perceive the customer’s perspective is vital for any modern business in an age in which the consumer – the end customer in many cases – determines the digital program and dictates the pace. This is more than understanding their demographics and going beyond actively seeking their opinion. To be competitive and trusted, everyone in an organization needs to be aware of their customers’ experiences, whether it’s a mobile website, an app, an e-commerce platform, or another digital channel. It must also be recognized that digital expectations of customers are not determined by the organizations themselves and are not even determined by direct competitors. Digital expectations are determined by the digital experience that all of us as consumers now take for granted in all walks of life.

3. New approaches for development of digital products and services

It is no longer possible for organizations to develop their products and services in isolation from their customers. The initial release of beta versions of a product, before the release of new features in iterative loops, is a technique for developing products whose roots are in software development. But today, the same techniques and theories are applied during the development of products and services outside of software, which allows organizations to receive fast, valuable feedback to shape the rest of the development and better align the product or service. the desire of consumers.

4. Use of digital channels for marketing and customer service

The marketing function is often an early defender of new technologies, often driven by their desire to understand consumers through data and insight. Today’s customers want to interact through social media and expect to be able to make transactions via mobile devices. This gives advantages such as better information, lower advertising costs, greater efficiency. But this requires marketing, sales and customer service teams to have a far deeper understanding of consumer technology and knowledge that is constantly updated.

5. Effective use of data

In the age of big data, where ease of access to trends, customer statistics, and tools for generating personalized insight is highest, this is a key area where organizations can improve decision-making.

Big data without big questions is just data. Modern organizations do not suffer from a lack of data, but quality is more important than quantity.

Another major challenge is to provide data in an accessible format that allows it to be analyzed, interpreted and brought to life. Data-based decision-making requires regularly updated dashboards and reports, and requires both analysts and confident leaders who understand and appreciate the insight that data can provide.

6. Supporting digital ways of working

In many organizations, individual features are not fully integrated with the digital world in which they and their users now live. However, in order to compete with digitally intelligent competitors, increase productivity and meet the rapidly changing expectations of consumers, they need to be integrated.

7. Talent, culture and change

In order to successfully prepare staff for the digital present and future, curricula need to be aligned with flexible principles. Continuous reassessment of learning content, reflecting both the evolving environment and the learners themselves, is essential to keep pace and provide appropriate skills.
In order to acquire digital skills in the organization, people with responsibility for learning and development must “light some fires”: find groups of influential people in the team and provide them with the digital training that the whole organization needs. This will disseminate information and provide additional support, naturally increasing the demand for digital skills.

8. Digital transformation management

In addition to deployment, there must be a clear strategy for managing your digital services and initiatives to ensure that they meet broader organizational needs. Appropriate resources must also be allocated to the production and management of digital assets, together with clearly defined policies and processes.