Whether you’re a knowledge worker, an engineer or a scientist, your digital brain is the single most important asset at your disposal. In today’s hyper-connected world, the ability to access and share information faster than ever before is essential if you want to remain competitive.
If your company doesn’t have its own digital brain yet, you probably understand by now that it needs one. A digital brain is a management information system (MIS) for your company’s data, processes and people.
It exists as an independent system outside of your company’s primary operating software – and it can be implemented in any industry. That said, building a digital brain isn’t always easy.
The process involves an extensive amount of research and planning to make sure that every piece falls into place correctly. It also requires the right tools and resources to get the job done efficiently and effectively.
Digital brain is a concept that’s widely used across companies, industries, and geographies. But what does it mean to build your own digital brain? A digital brain can be understood as a centralized system through which the company’s intelligence is organized.
It optimizes a company’s decision-making process while analyzing data, streamlines the execution of business processes and optimally allocates resources.
When building your own digital brain, you must implement AI systems that eliminate information fragmentation, identify opportunities for strategic optimization, and reduce risk by ensuring consistency across processes. A digital brain can significantly improve operational efficiency by centralizing all information in one place and automating routine tasks wherever possible.
An effective digital brain should rationalize processes so they are more streamlined and efficient. With these 10 steps on how to build your own digital brain, you can make your company much more efficient than ever before 👇
Step 1: Establish a clear vision and purpose
Digital transformation can be a daunting process, especially for companies that are not prepared for it. To avoid getting overwhelmed with all the technological jargon, you should start by establishing a clear vision and purpose for transforming your operations.
Once you know where you want to go and what your organisation can do better and faster than before, you can create a roadmap to get there. A clear vision will help you stay focused and on track with your transformation journey.
Step 2: Define your organizational capabilities
Once you determine your company’s vision, you need to define your organizational capabilities. This means taking an honest look at your organisation’s current state. What are your core competencies?
What are the areas that your company is strongest in? What are the areas that can be improved? What are the potential challenges your company might face during the transformation journey? How will your company overcome these challenges?
Step 3: Determine current processes and bottlenecks
Before you can design optimal processes with AI, you first need to understand the current state of your business. Identify each business process, its expected outcome, and the current time it takes to complete. Once you know what your company’s current processes are, you can determine which ones have potential for improvement.
Step 4: Define optimal processes
For each process that can be optimised, you need to determine the ideal state. How would the process look if it was being run by AI? For example, let’s say your company is in the retail industry. A core process is receiving orders, processing payments, and fulfilling orders. What if the company could automatically identify the ideal inventory level needed to fulfill customer orders?
What if the company could predict which products will be ordered next? What if customers could track the delivery of their products using a mobile application? What if customers could be notified when their order has been delivered? What if the company could forecast demand for future products?
What if the company could launch new products without having to hire additional staff? This is just a small sample of how optimising core business processes can help your business transform into a digital organization.
Step 5: Assess the impact of technology integration
Before you start introducing AI into your business operations, you need to assess the impact it will have on your company’s data. What are the data sources that are currently being used to drive business insights?
What is the volume of data being collected? What is the quality of your data? What is the source of your data? What is the expected time frame for data collection? What is the expected quantity of data? What is the expected quality of data?
Step 6: Choose a platform for digital transformation
There are many platforms available for digital transformation. To simplify this process and make it easier for you, we have created an interactive Digital Transformation Decision Tree.
This tool will help you select the best platform for your company by answering a series of questions. Click here to start the Decision Tree: https://tree.engagementlab.com/decision-tree-for-digital-transformation
Step 7: Establish an organisational structure
Digital transformation will likely result in changes to your company’s organisational structure. Before you decide on a new structure, you must identify the core processes that will be automated with AI.
This will help you determine where the organisation needs to be restructured. Once you’ve determined which processes will be automated, you can start restructuring your organisation. First, identify the roles within your company.
Then, determine where those roles will be located. Last, determine how much authority each role will have.
Step 8: Train employees and finalise the roadmap
Once your organisation has been restructured, you need to train employees across departments so they can become familiar with the new processes. This will help ensure consistent implementation of the new processes. It will also help ensure that employees are prepared for the changes that are about to happen.
To ensure that employees are prepared for the changes that are coming, you need to finalise the roadmap. This will help you stay focused on the ultimate goal of digital transformation. It will also help keep your employees accountable for the changes they are expected to implement.
Step 9: Train your ML & AI capabilities
After you’ve automated processes and restructured your organisation, it’s time to train your ML and AI capabilities. This will help your company make the most of the transformation journey. It will also help prevent your company from falling behind as other organisations leapfrog ahead.
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For each process that has been automated, you need to determine the ideal level of automation. This will help you determine how much human intervention is required at each step.
Step 10: Automate most of your business processes
Finally, you need to automate most of your business processes. This will help accelerate the digital transformation journey and ensure that your company is prepared for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Define your company’s core objectives and processes
Before you even start thinking about building a digital brain, you need to understand the core objectives of your business. What are the primary goals of your organization? Why does your company exist? What is its mission, and what is its vision for the future?
The first step in building your own digital brain is to fully understand the company’s current operations. What kind of work does your organization do? Where does it do that work? What are the company’s operational goals, and what processes does it use to achieve them?
These operational processes are not only essential for understanding how your company functions, but they’ll also be crucial in developing your digital brain strategy.
Assess the current state of your company
After you’ve defined your organization’s core objectives and current processes, it’s time to assess the current state of your business. You want to understand what’s working well and what could be better.
You want to know what the pain points within your organization are. You want to know how employees use the current systems, what information is stored and where, and what communication methods are currently being used.
The more you know about the current state of your company, the easier it will be to identify potential areas for improvement. This will help inform your digital strategy and implementation plan so you can build a better digital brain for your organization.
Create a digital strategy based on the assessment
Now that you’ve assessed the current state of your company, it’s time to create a digital strategy based on that information. What do you want the company to look like in the future? What are the core objectives of your organization, and how can technology help you achieve those objectives?
What systems and tools would need to be implemented in order to bring your company to the level of efficiency and effectiveness that you want? Your digital strategy should address the following areas:
- Data and information – Data is the foundation of any business. Organizations that have access to more data are better equipped to make informed decisions and take action. Data and information also play a key role in optimizing decision-making. Therefore, your digital strategy should include a plan for gathering, storing, sharing, and analyzing data and information.
- Processes – Every company has unique operational processes. What are the steps employees follow when completing their tasks? What happens when a customer places an order? Digital transformation isn’t limited to data and information. It also includes a company’s operational processes.
- Human resources – Technology can help improve HR processes, but it can’t fully replace human resources. Therefore, your digital strategy should consider how technology can be used to make employees’ lives easier. For example, it could help employees find better health insurance plans or take advantage of tuition reimbursement programs.
- Customer experience – The customer experience encompasses more than just ordering products or receiving services. It also includes how customers interact with your company throughout the entire process. Therefore, your digital strategy should include a plan for enhancing the customer experience.
- Security – No digital strategy is complete without a cybersecurity strategy. You want to make sure that all the systems that you implement are secure. In addition, you want to make sure that your company has a robust cybersecurity response plan in place.
Select your digital platform(s)
When it comes to selecting your digital platform(s), you want to choose tools that are reliable and will meet the needs of your organization. The platform(s) that you select should be flexible enough to be able to meet the needs of the organization now and in the future.
It should also be able to integrate with other systems that your organization is currently using. There are a variety of different platforms that you could use to build your digital brain. Some of the most popular ones include:
- Cloud-based systems – Cloud-based systems are an efficient option for building your digital brain. They offer high scalability, low maintenance costs, and a variety of different software offerings that could meet your organization’s needs.
- Artificial intelligence – AI provides the foundation for many digital platforms. With AI, you can easily integrate with third-party systems and use big data. AI can also be used to improve operational processes.
- Blockchain – Blockchain technology has the potential to transform many industries and even change the world. It’s a distributed ledger system that allows secure peer-to-peer transactions.
- Internet of Things (IoT) – IoT technology uses sensors to collect and analyze data. It’s especially useful in predicting maintenance issues.
Build out the platform with AI capabilities
After you’ve selected your digital platform(s), it’s time to build out the platform with AI capabilities. AI can be used to enhance data and information management, operational processes, and customer experience. When it comes to data and information management, AI can be used to identify opportunities for strategic optimization and reduce risk by ensuring consistency across processes.
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It can also be used to streamline communication, increase collaboration, and create more accurate forecasting. For operational processes, AI can be used to optimize inventory management and forecasting, reduce costs, and increase customer satisfaction.
And when it comes to enhancing the customer experience, AI can be used to create more personalized interactions, increase engagement, and improve retention rates.
Integrate existing systems with the platform
After you’ve built out the platform with AI capabilities, it’s time to integrate existing systems with the platform. This will make sure that the data and information that’s centralized on the digital platform is also accessible through existing systems.
For example, if you’ve implemented an HR platform, then you want to make sure that employees can use it to record timesheets and receive their pay stubs. You don’t want to force employees to use one system for payroll and another system for scheduling their time.
If you want to build a digital brain that’s effective and efficient, then you need to integrate existing systems with the platform. Doing so will help ensure that employees are able to use the systems that they’re already familiar with while also taking advantage of the centralized digital platform.
Train employees in using the new platform and AI tools
After you’ve implemented the new digital platform and AI tools, it’s time to train employees in using them. You want to make sure that everyone has the knowledge and skills necessary to take advantage of the new digital tools fully.
You might need to provide refresher courses for employees who have been with the company for several years. You might also need to create training programs for employees who are new to the organization.
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All employees need to be comfortable with the new systems, and you also want to make sure that they’re confident in using the AI tools. AI tools are designed to make employees’ lives easier, so there’s no reason to avoid them just because they seem complicated.
Monitor and tweak based on employee feedback
After you’ve implemented the new digital platform and implemented AI tools, it’s important to monitor how well the new system is working. You want to make sure that employees are effectively using the new systems and that they’re happy with them. You can monitor how effective the new system is by measuring the following:
- Time spent using systems – You want to make sure that employees aren’t spending too much time using the new digital tools. If they are, then something