Defining digital transformation: Results from expert interviews.
Ines Mergel, Noella Edelmann, and Nathalie Haug identified in 2019 that terms regarding digital transformation such as digitization, digitalization and digital transformation were used without distinction in the literature, and that most of authors researching on this topic were using definitions that were not congruent with the current times, therefore these authors questioned the value of the existing literature about Digital Transformation based on its support by empirical means rather than by literature research.
For this the authors interviewed experts on the reasons that the public administration has for reaching a digital transformation, the public services that are being transformed, the approach and these public services are being transformed and the purpose behind these efforts.
The following are the summary of this research insights:
Digital transformation is a path for competitiveness in the Internet age using new technologies to customize and automate service delivery both online and offline.
Digital Transformation is composed of:
New technology to transform the way services are delivered, therefore opening the space for new types of interactions. This is enhanced by two elements:
The platform model, which matches customized demands with offer from producers and consumers, creating space for connecting people and supporting interactions.
The use of smart products that enables monitoring and response throughout the whole network simultaneously and in real time.
This group elements trend to be substituted by new channels with new agents replacing those who offered the service before. This has been seen as opportunities for the private sector to step in and offer better services to citizens, such as the case of Uber replacing Taxis.
The e-Government focus is to apply digital transformation to improve the efficiency of public services, but what has been studied is that most governments going digital are focusing their attention into shifting service delivery from offline to online without re-thinking with the new capabilities in mind the purpose, relations and actors related to that service.
New technology to transform organizational culture and relationships with citizens is highly-expected to happen by just using the technology, but it needs an orchestration strategy to produce a transformational change inside the organization delivering the digital services and an implementation/adoption strategy so that service delivery reaches its new performance indicators on transparency, integrity and citizen engagement.
Value creation is the transformation outcome of a successful digital transformation. Berman in 2012 pointed out that when this happens, citizens become more active and as they are hyper-connected inside a platform model, enhanced with smart products and a proper cultural shift that engages users and producers, it enables all involved users to become collective designers, creators, producers, marketers, distributors and investors of the services offered.
Key findings:
Most of the interviewed recognized that the public sector is focusing on digitalizing existing services rather than creating new public services from scratch.
The relationships between the users of public services and the government changes when offered digitally, with no difference if these users are citizens or other public organizations.
For Digital Transformation to happen there are required:
External and Internal Pressures, being the most influential the external ones “to highlight the transition from analog to digital services with a 1:1 change in the delivery […] and the addition of a technological channel [to it]” (Mergel et al., 2019, p. 12). In the other hand, the internal pressures trigger a “holistic change of the organization, such as the change in organizational culture” (Idem, p.12).
Crucial internal conditions to have in each organization to implement change, such as the organizational culture, skills, individual competencies and mindset, being the most important the cultural for a stable and constant transformation on the user’s satisfaction, service delivery innovation, and its reach out capabilities to a greater user base.
Internal organizational change in the processes and service delivery that permeate citizens to digitally engage them.
Replace of New Public Management structures by Digital Transformed ones, in a constant change fashion of the processes and objects to trigger new pressures to innovate.
Through these findings the authors identified that digitally transformed organizations are not influenced by the technology itself, but by the integration of it into the service delivery process and so, on the way people make use of it and the interactions it generates.
Conclusion
The following are the final definitions the authors arrived to:
Digitization: to highlight the transition from analog to digital services with a 1:1 change in the delivery, and the addition of a technological channel of delivery;
Digitalization: to focus on potential changes in the processes beyond mere digitizing of existing processes and forms; and
Digital transformation: to emphasize the cultural, organizational, and relational changes that we highlight in the outcomes section in order to differentiate better between different forms of outcomes.
References:
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This is part of a series of insights from my studies in the Master of Science in Public Sector Innovation and eGovernace in KU Leuven and TalTech.
My name is Humberto Besso Oberto Huerta, I have committed my life to reach the Global Agenda before 2030. I believe that a shared prosperity and global peace is possible when all those that dream it true get together to discuss, debate, deliberate and act to shape reality for the common good.
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