There’s a lot of talk about ‘Digital Transformation’ and (if the number of articles on Medium and LinkedIn are anything to go by) a lot of views on what it actually means. Having spent five years as part of the digital transformation of Australia’s biggest telco, and more recently working on the Federal Government’s digital agenda, this is what I think when I hear the term.

Digital isn’t just about technology, although it’s obviously underpinned by it. Digital is more an attitude; it’s a way of life and now a way of doing business. We are engaging in digital lives when we check Facebook on our phones or interact with a service provider via their app whenever we want. It is about dealing with the ‘always-on’ world.

When a company or government embarks on a Digital Transformation, it should be about breaking down the barriers between the people who support the business and the technology that enables it. It’s about bringing those people closer to the customer they serve via a digital interface.

When done well, the people supporting your business are only dealing with customers for high-cost, complex transactions. All the low-value, low-cost transactions — those your customers don’t want to call or visit you for — should already be taken care of by digital means.

When done really well, there isn’t even a need for your customers to interact with you digitally. They know where they’re at with your products and services, and they have confidence your business will contact them only when totally necessary.

Digital Transformation is about transforming a company from within. Technology needs to enable the interaction between internal and external customers in as near real-time as possible, not getting in the way. It should be seamless, intuitive and even delight in such a way as to actually enhance the brand because it’s so simple customers are loath to switch.

Digital should extend to the tools your staff use to interact with each other, so that in the same way your digital interface makes it easier for your customers, your internal digital work space makes it easy for staff to collaborate.

Digital isn’t just about the front-end or the website, although you can always tell a company that hasn’t thought through (or started) implementing its digital strategy when its online and mobile experience is clunky or hard to navigate.

Simple is hard to do; it’s always easier to expect customers to do the hard work in navigating what ‘you’ think they should do to interact with your business — and the information you expect them to provide to do so.

That’s why so many companies pay lip service to Digital Transformation. They see it as another layer to their already expensive IT costs, and not worth the effort to make it frictionless for the people who use it.

This attitude is visible in most interfaces people use; ones that are designed from the bottom up and are therefore constrained by the limitations of whatever database or back-end solution that was brought ‘out of the box’.

Anything that can be configured probably isn’t going to give you the flexibility you need, so it’s worth investing time and money to build a truly great customer experience. You will also need to continue maintaining and improving your set-up — the world is littered with interfaces delivered by projects in one go, where the improvements, enhancements and ‘nice to haves’ have been left on the shelf in the rush to meet some (usually arbitrary) deadline. You can’t use the same approach as your traditional IT programs; your digital interface will need to evolve, with small changes made more often.

Digital Transformation isn’t possible if you maintain the separation between Business and IT that exists in many companies. The analogy of bringing your customers closer to your business by a digital interface must be reflected internally by creating empathy between these two groups and bringing them together in your organisation with a common ‘digital’ vision.

Gone are the days where the ‘Business’ shows up to I.T. with a list of requirements and a bag of cash and says, “Build me this”. We aren’t building houses or bridges; Digital Transformation is about continual investment and improvement.

Even a small investment in improvements to your digital interface, internal or external, which shave seconds off a task or remove a barrier to progress are worthwhile. Seconds are precious in a digital world; they may mean the difference between a customer staying or giving up on you in frustration.

For at the heart of digital and the transformation there needs to be a fundamental change to focus on the customer, and the investment in that interface and the thought behind it that puts the customer needs first, is the clearest indication that you care about them.

Dan Pulham is an experienced Digital Transformation Manager. Email: danpulham@gmail.com