Digital transformation is a hot topic. The current Covid-19 pandemic has forced many membership organisations to accelerate their digital programmes to allow home working for staff and launching new platforms for members to meet and interact online. But what does transformation really mean, what does the digital journey look like and what should you be thinking about for your organisation?
I recently went on a masterclass at CASS Business School where they used a great three stage framework to think about digital transformation - digitisation, innovation and transformation.
Digitisation
At the start of the journey many organisations look to digital technology to improve their efficiency. Digitisation takes manual process and puts them into a digital system - a CRM, a website or specific application. For example your membership team automates the entire membership application and renewal process; your events team switches to Eventbrite, Cvents or a bespoke application to manage not only delegate registration but the entire event process.
Digitisation is a way of becoming more efficient and improving processes by taking a manual procedure and automating it.
Innovation
The next stage is for organisations to start to understand what they can do differently and how they can create something new. This is often supported by the integration of data that digitisation enables, allowing much richer insight into the members needs and use of services. During this phase organisations often innovate by personalising content and developing new services based on member data. Some examples of new services that emerge are elearning platforms and novel networking and collaboration tools.
Innovation isn’t just about service delivery – digitisation and data allows organisations to alter how they make decision as it empowers staff across the organisation to understand members more deeply. It decentralises decision making and allows cross-organisational collaboration – facilitating continuous innovation and a rethink of traditional organisational structures.
Transformation
Transformation occurs when membership organisations begin to radically reconsider how they deliver their core purpose and where they fit in their professions’ ecosystem. This is when its gets truly exciting and as yet I don’t know what a truly digitally transformed membership body looks like. It may be that professional standards are maintained through a peer or public review system like AirBnB or in emerging digital eco-systems membership bodies could act as data hubs and realtime connectors between different parts of their sector.
The future is always hard to imagine and to get you thinking here is an example of a new digital ecosystem emerging in agriculture. John Deere, a manufacturer of farming equipment, is looking to create a digital platform fulfilling one of the core functions of membership organisations - sharing and connecting. They want to provide a networked hub, Farm Forward, giving farmers information that they need from the conditions of their crops via sensors, to weather updates, and reports on the state of the market for their produce – allowing farmers to make better decisions. John Deere won't own these sources of data, it connects them and manages the sharing of information. These elaborate digital ecosystems are emerging now and how membership bodies reinvent themselves in this new world will shape the membership organisations of the future.
I would love to hear your thoughts on your digital journey and any thoughts on what a digitally transformed membership organisation of the future might look like.