Keys to a Successful Digital Strategy: CapTech Ventures

Research and Analysis

One of the core variables that a digital-strategy plan needs to encompass is the ability to identify an organization’s goals, initiatives, and opportunities to maximize the effectiveness of such a digital transformation. Our research and analysis included the following:

• conducting stakeholder interviews
• looking at industry trends
• identifying the challenges and desired outcomes for Dominion Resources
• determining the necessary initiatives for Dominion Resources to take
• aligning the organization’s priorities to industry trends
• assessing the state of their current digital inventory

In other words, how would Dominion Resources address the challenges that lay ahead—shareholder concerns, brand clarity, technical transitions, and fragmentation—while at the same time focusing on its strategic priorities—brand clarity, customer experience, technology, and corporate culture?

The Guiding Principles

It became obvious that we needed to rely on the set of guiding principles that we had established early on, during our war-room meetings, to keep all of these strategies in line. These principles were as follows:

• We must make all information broadly available, providing information resources with the utmost level of clarity, transparency, and proactive communication.
• We must adopt technology that offers efficient and cost-effective options.
• Customer engagement is a high priority and a right.
• Technology should not place any customer at an unfair advantage or disadvantage.

The Roadmap to Success

Ultimately, CapTech Ventures was able to develop a five-year roadmap that offered clear insight into every stage of the process. As I mentioned earlier, the stages of our process comprised tasks that included setting priorities, identifying challenges and opportunities, defining the desired future state, analyzing the business case at hand, identifying digital initiatives, and finally, executing these initiatives to produce measurable and positive outcomes. We had defined these outcomes as providing excellent customer service, building strong brand relationships, and fostering community awareness of Dominion Resources.

We segmented each of our metrics into a set of annual goals, or an action plan. For example, in 2014, brand awareness focused on usability testing and communicating through executive blogs. In 2015, this would advance to include digital promotion and customer advocacy. In relation to community awareness, the goals are the same. In 2014, the category of customer awareness revolved around responsive Web design, accessibility strategy, and product usability. 2015 would further expand to include a mobile strategy and management capabilities—to name a few factors. In 2016, factors such as conversation forums and location-based services will complement customer awareness.

Of course, we will also define critical success factors along the way—thus preventing any unforeseen issues from cropping up during the digital transformation. One such variable—and one of the most important—revolves around the concept of governance, a collaborative and multidisciplinary team that spans multiple business units.

As you may recall, the primary stumbling block that we identified in regard to Dominion Resources was a lack of interdepartmental accountability. As a consequence of this fragmentation, growth stagnated, so this was a critical factor in determining the need for a digital paradigm shift. It’s important to deploy governance in an omnidirectional fashion, as opposed to its being merely cross channel. In simpler terms, not only does the right hand need to know what the left hand is doing, these actions need to be coordinated across the entire body of the business. Having this clarity resulted in an effective communications strategy that will serve to streamline the transformation process. Without such an approach, the five-year target would have been nearly impossible to meet.

In Summary

We broke our approach down into nine key steps:

1. research
2. challenges and opportunities
3. strategic priorities
4. guiding principles
5. outcomes
6. determining initiatives
7. the roadmap
8. the action plan
9. governance

Obviously, implementing such a digital plan will require the allocation of a considerable time and resources. We should, nonetheless, understand that the efficient and transparent execution of any such strategy dictates that a great deal of planning needs to take place. CapTech Ventures is currently partnering with Dominion Resources to achieve these lofty and yet completely realistic goals. As the digital age becomes an intrinsic part of the business world, such transformations will be necessary for a growing number of businesses throughout the United States and the entire world.