Digital transformation is a critical process for businesses, especially as new internet technologies continue to shape and influence the world around us. Business Analysts, who are trained to have advanced critical analysis and problem-solving skills, have an important part to play in supporting Australian businesses that embrace digital transformation. The following article will help to clarify the ways an experienced Business Analyst could benefit your organisation.
What is Digital Transformation?
First, let’s start with the fundamentals. As we examined in a recent article, the term ‘digital transformation‘ can be used to describe any application of new technologies in a business where the goal is to achieve greater value, agility, and competitive advantage. When approached correctly, digital transformation can profoundly change the ways that a business functions and engages with its customers, employees, suppliers, and other key stakeholders.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Australian businesses have ramped up their digital transformation initiatives. For most, the objective is to ‘pivot’ away from more traditional operating models and to meet surging demand for online products, services, and interactions. Digital transformation will help to future-proof these businesses and equip their teams for ongoing success.
Okay, so why involve a Business Analyst?
In broad terms, Business Analysts (BAs) are responsible for assessing problems using in-depth investigation and analysis to solve these problems and lead to improvements within a given organisation.
BAs generally begin by gathering both technical and non-technical requirements, before evaluating this data to make informed decisions. When BAs have established a clear understanding of a defined problem domain, their next task is to outline the steps, resources, and recommendations required to arrive at a solution.
Typically, a BA’s skillset will include high-level critical analysis, strong communication and comprehension, along with industry specific technical knowledge. This unique toolkit makes BAs well suited to enabling digital transformation processes within an organisation. Let’s take a closer look at the reasons why.
1. Business Analysts can define the ‘Why’.
Before embarking on a digital transformation project, it is critical to truly understand the ‘Why’ behind the business’ motivation, which Business Analysts can play a key role in developing. As businesses will be at different life cycles within transformation and have unique objectives, understanding the right place to start will be highly beneficial to the success of the project. An experienced BA can identify meaningful benefits and set metrics that can be measured in both the development of business plans early on and provide working hypotheses throughout the transformation process.
2. Business Analysts bridge gaps between teams.
Business Analysts take a macro view of the functions, goals and processes of departments within an organisation, effectively professionalising stakeholder engagement. Their role facilitates effective communication ranging from frontline staff to senior decision-makers in the C-suite. A ‘big picture’ perspective allows BAs to bridge the communication gaps that can exist within an organisation, and to identify opportunities for data-led decision making. To be successful, BAs must be experts in stakeholder management and must have an appreciation for existing business systems and processes.
3. Business Analysts can help save time and resources.
Furthermore, Business Analysts who efficiently manage different stakeholder viewpoints can save organisations time and money in the long term. Ensuring that various departments and relevant decision-makers have a level of ‘buy-in’ when it comes to digital transformation can prevent organisational roadblocks down the line. At the end of the day, effective change management involves keeping everyone in alignment with an overarching vision or goal, and BAs play an important role in capturing and communicating this effectively.
4. Business Analysts understand market conditions.
A successful Business Analyst also recognises that their role is to help organisations adapt to changing market conditions. BAs understand an organisation’s current customers, competitors, and operating environments. At the same time, BAs must be aware of innovative technologies and solutions that can give their organisation a competitive edge. BAs need to be agile and creative thinkers who are capable of rapid data analysis and have the ability to understand the bigger picture.
5. Business Analysts keep projects on track.
Business Analysts also have a critical part to play in terms of establishing a digital transformation timeline. A successful BA sets realistic deadlines for deliverables and often acts as a conduit between the external stakeholders and the project. To be successful, the digital transformation timeline is influenced by the BA’s ability to hold the discovery, analysis, recommendations and implementation to the timelines set by the project or program manager. In short, the best BAs often have strong time and project management skills. In fact, some BAs career paths often over time move into broader project management roles.
So, why choose Business Aspect?
If the above skills and abilities are valuable to your organisation, Business Aspect can help. Our team is highly experienced when it comes to leading digital transformation engagements for a diverse range of clients across industries. We know that digital transformation can benefit your organisation with:
- Capturing the business benefit of a digital transformation
- Clearly capturing the business requirements and mapping them to people, processes and technology
- Completing market scans to understand what solutions may be a potential fit to the customer’s business challenge
- Helping to achieve clarity, consensus and buy-in across a diverse range of shareholder groups
- Improved speed and agility to achieve the project’s goals
- Ultimately creating a positive impact on value creation and business benefit.
We can partner your organisation with senior Business Analysts and experts who have the right balance of real-world experience, stakeholder management, industry and technical expertise. At Business Aspect, we excel at solving complex business problems and can help to turn your organisational vision into a reality. For more information and to get started on your digital transformation journey, get in touch with our team today.