You might be wondering what value a Digital Advisor can bring to the table if you have an IT Service Provider or handle the technology in-house. Should this not be the responsibility of the tech people?!

As businesses large and small scale and grow, the company relies on opportunities that impact some or all areas of business including sales, marketing, operations or finance.  Leveraging such opportunities often requires technology projects.  

Many small and mid-size organizations actively find opportunities to improve business operations, sales, marketing, client experience or even finances. To leverage those opportunities sooner or later a technology project creeps in. It might be a new application, a new reporting regimen, or another new system or new process. All too often, technology projects are disconnected from the business improvement goals. This is exactly the problem Digital Advisors can deal with. They make sure the business improvement takes place and that companies see real return on technology investments. 

Technology is very complex nowadays and Technology people need to focus on the technology infrastructure. 

The activities Digital Advisors perform serve to bridge the gap between the executives (working on the business) and the IT Service Providers / Internal IT / CIO / IT Manager, both involved in activities that neither is doing well.

There is a list of activities neither executives nor technology people do for an organization but are required to adopt digital technologies. Let’s see some examples.  

1. A Digital Advisor focuses on people by team collaboration - Assess and plan communication and collaboration among teams to not just select proper applications but plan the adoption and training.
   In contrast the CIO / IT Manager focuses on making sure that team collaboration applications are budgeted and on giving users access to the tools, assuming that they know how to collaborate effectively with those tools. 
2. A Digital Advisor focuses on processes by enhancing operation efficiency - Identify needed processes (confusion) or lack of process automation (manual work) and plan standard operating procedures and applications to support those processes.
   In contrast a CIO / IT Manager will connect or integrate various systems together based on specific user requirements assuming the users planned the processes. 
3. A Digital Advisor focuses on digital platforms by seizing emerging business opportunities - Identify organizational bottlenecks and select either e-commerce, social media or service platforms to increase marketing, sales or operational results.
   In contrast CIO / IT Managers focus on ensuring all users have access to these platforms assuming that the users know why and how to operate those platforms. 
4. A Digital Advisor focuses on information by enabling quick, more informed decisions - Assess the information needs of executives and managers then identify the current silos of information and plan an analytical and reporting structure that can engender more informed decision making.
   In contrast CIO / IT Managers focus on finding and installing BI, Reporting or Analytics applications assuming that the users will use it effectively. 
5. A Digital Advisor focuses on applications through effective utilization of software solutions - Assess current application portfolios, business capabilities and help the organization to articulate requirements and generate an application modernization plan.
   In contrast CIO / IT Managers focus on finding and recommending applications assuming users know how to define requirements and how to train and adopt the tools successfully. 
6. A Digital Advisor focuses on risk by managing the security of digital transformation - Identify the business, infrastructure, executive, user and client risks of the current digital situation and address the hotspots.
   In contrast CIO / IT Managers focus on cybersecurity back-end technology security components assuming that the users have all the knowledge, processes and policies in place.

A Digital Advisor focuses on Digital Transformation Strategy with Digital Vision, Roadmap and Execution - Use a straightforward process to generate the Digital Vision, a Digital Strategy, an Implementation Roadmap and Execution Plan to enable tech people to help the organization to thrive.
In contrast CIO / IT Managers focus on an IT Infrastructure Strategy and budget, assuming each organization needs standard solutions to adopt various technology trends. 

Ready to discuss your digital transformation project?

Let's connect. Book a time on my calendar →