Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, “What road do I take?”
The cat asked, “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then,” said the cat, “it really doesn’t matter, does it?”

― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

You Are Here
As with any journey, we usually start out knowing two things: where we are, and where we want to end up. Alice, however, contrary to what she told the Cheshire Cat, did actually know where she wanted to go - home. However, what she didn’t know was how to get there; what made her particular journey all the more challenging (other than mad hatters and even madder queens), was the fact that she didn’t know where she was.

If you don’t know where you are, how can you know which path is best for you? How can you effectively manage your journey?

We believe that this is the case with the kind of journey that is top of mind, and top of strategy for service providers today – that is, the journey from being a communications service provider (CSP) to becoming a digital service provider (DSP).

Regardless of where you are in your digital transformation, just planning, going bit by bit, or headlong into evolving your IT and business process systems – it is critical to understand how mature your digital journey is and what needs to be done to help you become a full digital services provider.

The Digital Maturity Model
Becoming a full DSP requires a transformation that is not exclusively focused on putting the right technology in place. Rather, a successful transformation encompasses broader capabilities, which include providing customers control over their digital experience, ensuring seamless journeys, having the business agility, and establishing a digital culture within the organization.

Let’s take a closer look at the model from the digital experience perspective:

Enabling customer control: How much control do your customers have in shaping and driving their own experiences on your mobile apps and web site? How extensively do your campaigns cater to each customer’s individual needs and preferences? How many of your channels are ready to support customers, enabling them to choose any channel for any service?

 

Providing a seamless experience: To what extent do you enable a customer experience and journey that is consistent across all channels? Is the experience seamless from the retail store to apps to website (and back)? What is the balance of service you provide between virtual and live agents – and how well does this balance address customer preference?

 

Operating with business agility: Do you have the right infrastructure and skills in place to enable accelerated time to market with an innovative digitalexperience? Do you have the agility and flexibility desired to meet the rapidly evolving customer expectations? For example – do you have in place a microservices architecture? Do you develop and test based on DevOps methodologies? Are your apps cloud-native?

 

Establishing a digital culture: And even if you have all the right pieces in the right place, without a clearly defined digital strategy and roadmap, and the teams that have the right digital skills, and who are aligned and dedicated to the digital transformation– getting there will be very difficult (if not impossible).

A Process & A Method
At Amdocs, we have developed a comprehensive model, which enables service providers to measure their digital maturity and get a detailed view of where they are regarding the pillars of the Digital Maturity Model.

Through the process we designed, service providers gain data-driven insights into the progress of their digital transformation, their strategy is therefore more informed and will result in a roadmap that is better attuned to their specific organization and their customers’ needs.

This is an important step in the digital transformation. From our experience in supporting numerous transformations and types of transformations around the world, we understand that every journey is unique, and that each business has its own unique strengths and needs.

Get Ready, Set, Go
To be successful, a digital transformation strategy and roadmap should consider multiple parameters, including: how to craft seamless customer experiences and digital journeys; enabling consistency across all channels; the readiness of technologies and operations for digital; and – of course – how will company culture need to change to enable the move to the digital space.

And, just like Alice, to get where you want to go, you will definitely need to know first where you are. The Amdocs Digital Maturity Model is a great place to start.