The digital transformation

maturity model
A road map towards becoming a digital-first organization
 THE DIGITAL TR ANSFORMATION MATURIT Y MODEL

The digital transformation maturity model

A road map towards becoming a digital-first organization

Digital transformation is how businesses are of an organization. It calls for innovation, in

adapting to the impact of rapidly emerging addition to changes in policy, procurement,
technology. Everything depends on your industry talent, and culture, to take full advantage of new
and where you are in your digital transformation opportunities that come with new breakthrough
journey, whether you’re engaging customers technologies.”3 How each organization moves
on social media, using AI on an assembly line through these changes determines their path to
or transitioning your business into a software transformation.
development company.
In this paper, we’ll break digital transformation
However, many businesses are struggling to down into stages, with a focus on the different
navigate this journey. Only 32% of organizations paths businesses can take to move forward. This
represented in the Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO will help you better understand the path your
Survey 2018 had an enterprise-wide digital business is on, where to focus your efforts and
strategy, and nearly eight in 10 CIOs reported how to navigate common roadblocks.
that their strategy was only moderately effective
With this as our road map, we’ll take a deeper
or worse.1
dive into a vital aspect of digital transformation:
Finding a path through digital transformation content operations. We’ll briefly explore how
is challenging because real transformation is transforming how content flows can accelerate
so much more than just implementing new your transformation process.
technology. It requires reinventing culture and
infrastructure to align with continued change
and innovation. The pace is also driven by
external factors. “Employees, customers and
the competition drive tech adoption — often
faster than our plans can absorb,” observes John
Schwarz, co-founder and CEO of Visier.2

According to Amazon Web Services, digital

transformation demands an evolution from one-
size-fits-all “legacy platforms to an IT environment
that is designed to adapt to the changing needs

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The digital maturity journey

Knowing where a business is on the digital VISUALIZING TRANSFORMATION
transformation journey helps business leaders To help further understand the process of
and individuals better understand their role and transformation, we’ll be placing progress on
where to focus their attention to effectively move the chart below. On the technology axis, higher
forward. values reflect increased speed, flexibility,
reusability and standardization. Moving up along
GETTING STARTED: EXPLORING AND
the business axis denotes more sophisticated
ACCELERATION
engagement, conversion, acquisition, retention
At this stage, pioneers within an organization
and generally improved customer experiences.
recognize the opportunity to upgrade
The exploring phase lands lowest on both the
technology. Change occurs in silos, with
technology and business axes.
individuals or teams challenging the status quo
and experimenting with new ways to achieve FIND YOUR CHAMPION
business goals. Successful projects are used as The drive towards critical mass can be top-down,
proof of concept to convince team leaders to bottom-up or both. Many organizations will find
champion further change. that they move more rapidly along one axis than
the other.
“Large enterprises beginning a transformation
journey often find that they already have pockets At one organization, pioneers might experiment
of transformation that have escaped notice,” with new technology or use existing technology
writes Mark Schwartz of AWS.4 The challenge, in new ways. Champions within a team who
then, is to scale those changes broadly until they recognize a technological potential drive
reach critical mass. adoption on their own teams and begin to
influence their peers, gaining more interest and
support from the bottom up.
PHASE ONE: EXPLORATION
At another organization, leaders might prioritize
the need for innovation and invest resources in
a center of excellence to drive the organization
forward, or initiate a cultural shift towards tech-
High

enabled growth.

Regardless of the starting point, champions for

CX sophistication

change will emerge. These champions have

Business

the vision to see how the work of pioneers has

greater potential for the organization. They
Exploration of new technologies find like-minded champions and begin to
and ways of working
build the case for enterprise-wide innovation,
while simultaneously continuing to adopt new
Low

Low High
technology within their own spheres of influence.
Technology
Operational excellence

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REMOVE ROADBLOCKS Skill gaps: New technology sometimes requires

There are several challenges that can block skill sets that your business might not have yet.
champions’ ability to advance an organization Respondents cited lack of digital talent and
beyond the exploratory phase and towards a expertise as their top challenge in Altimeter’s
formal digital transformation strategy. 2017 State of Digital Transformation report.6
Recruitment should realign on hiring for the
Focusing only on technology, without aligning skills needed to propel digital plans forward,
to business goals: To get the necessary buy- while training programs should aim to broaden
in and sustained effort needed to transform a technological understanding in the existing
business, champions need to build their case workforce.
around a unifying goal. Building a case for
technology should involve explaining how it will Technical debt: Legacy systems slow
further core business objectives. transformation by placing high demands on
budgets and developer skills. The perception
“If you look at it purely through the lens of that technology and by extension digital
technology, it scares people,” says JetBlue CIO transformation is a cost rather than an investment
Eash Sundaram. “If you look at it through the is a challenge faced by 31% of executives and
lens of quality of life and empowerment and digital strategists.7 Milin Patel, principal architect
information availability, it doesn’t feel that way.”5 and cofounder of Rearc, highlights how starting
Sundaram’s ultimate goal? To improve overall early with a small project helps set the stage for
passenger experiences. larger achievements, and eliminates the fear of
leaving legacy tech behind. ”The success of our
first production cloud deployment allowed us to
showcase our work to the rest of the organization
and get over that initial concern of running a
“The success of our production app in the cloud [...] It opened up

first production cloud a dialogue around what’s possible rather than

what’s unknown.”8
deployment allowed us to
Culture: General culture issues are often listed
showcase our work to the as a top challenge for transformation. Office
rest of the organization politics, leaders who are too risk averse, lack of
and get over that initial urgency, or overreliance on what’s worked in
the past can make it challenging for pioneers to
concern of running a break with the status quo and find a champion.
production app in the Change management programs can help
cloud [...] It opened up a alleviate fears and reinforce traits that help
individuals embrace change.
dialogue around what’s
possible rather than
what’s unknown.”
- Milin Patel, Rearc

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These challenges take time to overcome. Stay focused on the big picture — it’s easy
Address them early and assess them throughout to mistake change for progress. From new
the journey to prevent them from becoming technology to recruitment and retraining
roadblocks. programs, measure the impact of changes
against your goals. Create a culture that is data-
EVOLVING AND UNIFYING driven and comfortable with accepting failure
At this stage, a growing segment of the business and moving on quickly. Unify the way you scale
recognizes that adopting new technology and and optimize your digital ecosystem across
embracing digital transformation is critical. multiple systems, multiple markets and multiple
Discussions about digital strategy become more steps of the customer journey.
formal as organizations begin to define their path
to transformation. Often, the non-technical aspects of
transformation are the ones that get overlooked.
Forward-leaning organizations can accelerate
PHASE TWO: UNIFICATION their progress by balancing technology wins with
strategies that help individuals and teams adapt.

Building support: Implementing solutions that

High

touch as many parts of the business as possible

engages more people in transformation and
helps them see direct benefits. Gaining executive
CX sophistication

support for innovation and change creates a

Business

Unification culture where it is safe for pioneers to fail as they

customer journeys,
systems & content try new technology, and provides the authority
and resources to invest in new technology and
training. Politics, egos and fear are the main
obstacles to achieving the collaboration and
Low

solidarity needed within companies to make the

Low High
changes digital consumers want.
Technology
Operational excellence
Integration and adoption: According to the
AWS Cloud Adoption Framework, “traditional
CREATING A MORE FORWARD-THINKING, waterfall methods of program and project
AGILE ORGANIZATION management typically fail to keep up with the
Organizations in this phase will see huge gains in pace of iterative changes necessary for cloud
the depth of their technology skills. It’s common adoption...”9 Businesses should focus on unifying
to see teams moving infrastructure to the cloud, silos, integrating technology and enabling
implementing more sophisticated data analytics data and insights to flow freely across business
tools, and replacing legacy systems with a stack units. Teams should replace long planning and
of bespoke services. Moving to open integrated procurement processes with agile methods.
solutions empowers users to make data-driven
As the business moves towards a modern tech
decisions to help drive digital transformation
stack, the organization needs to seek tools that
forward.
make it easy to tie the stack together. Even if
teams use different technologies, they need to
be integrated into a core infrastructure to prevent
silos.

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Culture: Traditionally, businesses used long TRANSFORMATION INTO A DIGITAL-FIRST

planning and procurement processes to minimize ORGANIZATION
risks. Now, the risk is moving too slow. Four in
10 CIOs believe their digital strategy would fail
without promoting an experimental culture.10 PHASE THREE: TRANSFORMATION
To succeed, accelerate the pace of change by
empowering teams to move faster, experiment
with new technology and embrace failures as
part of the process. Fear and risk-aversion at

High
all levels can slow progress. Ongoing change Transformation
strategy, teams & budgets
management should focus on underlying reasons

CX sophistication
for resistance, including fears around skill gaps

Business
and changing career paths.

Delivering better customer experiences: Don’t

forget why you’re seeking to transform in the
first place. Simply throwing more technology
into customer experiences doesn’t cut it.

Low
Think about your end goal: a better customer Low High
experience driven by engaging products, leading Technology
to increased revenue and a larger share of the Operational excellence

market. Digital products should be created

with customer expectations in mind. Otherwise,
you’re just adding complexity with no clear return At this stage, organizations have realized that
on your investment, and your customers will run digital transformation isn’t an endpoint. It’s the
off to your competitors. For example, while 60% process that takes you from a slowly evolving
of companies think they have a good mobile traditional organization to an agile, tech-
experience, only 22% of their customers agree.11 enabled business. Strategy, teams, budgets and
If you’re not trying to figure out where that technology are all aligned on building digital-
experience gap is coming from, you’re part of the first experiences. There’s C-level support for
problem. transformation across the board, often led by a
chief digital officer.
Signs of progress in the second stage of
transformation include people using technology These are businesses that push the boundaries
to work smarter and faster across the business, of what is possible and are viewed as leaders
a more efficient organization structure and in their industry. They continue to evolve
processes, and a high level of executive support, their digital strategy, supported by a flexible
including formal digital leadership. In 2018, infrastructure and a resilient, innovative culture.
organizations with a chief digital officer were They don’t just focus on the future, they set the
twice as likely to have an enterprise-wide digital course.
strategy.12 Businesses in this stage are intentionally building
Success can also be seen in cultural changes a tech stack with integrated technologies
such as a changing view of technology from a that empower faster innovation and shipping.
cost center to an investment, a willingness to try Recruitment efforts focus on people with digital
new things and a sense of urgency that is both skills, and competing to attract and retain
customer-focused and data-driven. developer talent.

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They have moved past the challenges and friction Significant improvements in content storage
of earlier stages, fully embracing an ever-evolving and delivery provide wins that are measurable,
mix of digital tools, continually testing and visible and applicable across multiple products
iterating new products and processes across the and business functions. Champions and
business. Short feedback loops and systematic decision makers can point to these and push
means of sharing knowledge and best practices for enterprise-wide adoption. Businesses that
across the business facilitate rapid response to prioritize these changes can move faster to build
new threats and opportunities. At this stage, cutting-edge experiences for their customers,
businesses enjoy increased speed and efficiency, beating the competition.
and resistance to change has been replaced by a
Contentful’s content platform unifies content in a
culture that is customer-focused, data-driven and
single hub and structures it for use in any digital
forward-thinking. To learn more about how these
channel, including websites, apps and digital
types of organizations operate, check out our
displays. Unlike traditional CMSes, Contentful’s
white paper on building digital factories.
agile workflows enable digital teams to work
USING A CONTENT PLATFORM TO faster, together. Contentful integrates with other
ACCELERATE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION top tools in the modern tech stack, meaning that
Broken down even further, the stages of digital personalization, experimentation and localization
transformation require improving individual all mesh seamlessly into content operations.
business functions. Choosing one function as a
focal point can help businesses in the exploring IMPROVE CONTENT OPERATIONS AND
stage learn how to move up the maturity scale, ENABLE CROSS-FUNCTIONAL PROJECTS
Content operations includes editors, designers,
develop their own best practices and then apply
developers, marketers, product managers
that learning to broader transformation efforts.
and others who contribute to the distribution
This focus can also help businesses in the of content through different digital products
evolving stage make a significant jump forward and channels. This makes it a good choice for
on their path. Success in a key business area early transformation efforts, as it engages a
creates momentum and provides a new set of diverse group of people in the process. It’s an
tools and processes for teams to implement. opportunity to forge a strong alliance between
marketing and IT, the two teams most likely to
FOCUS ON CONTENT
lead digital strategy.
A majority of companies can tie revenue directly
to better content, particularly product-focused
content, according to Altimeter’s 2018 State
of Digital Content report.13 However, many
businesses struggle with managing unwieldy,
legacy content management systems. Content is
either stuck in silos, or there are multiple CMSes,
none of which are able to communicate with each
other. Developers are kept busy troubleshooting,
debugging or building workarounds for outdated
systems, leaving no time for systemic change.
Editors are constantly waiting for developers to
push content updates, and building new products
or experiences takes months or even years.

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Content challenges can also unite different SO, WHERE DO I START?

product teams. A win on one product can readily You’ve probably identified where you are
be shared with other product managers. Most on your digital maturity journey. Now it’s
people have frustrations with traditional CMSes time to transform how you manage your
and can appreciate the benefits of eliminating organization’s content to align with your spot
common content bottlenecks. on the transformation map. Where you start
depends on where your business is on its digital
A modern content platform empowers editors,
transformation journey and your role.
product managers, marketers and developers in
two important ways: Building better digital products
If you’re at the beginning, an ideal starting point
First, it frees up resources. Instead of copying
is often a project that pushes the limits of your
and pasting, content creators can focus on
current CMS. Assess how you currently build
creating content that helps your business stand
and manage digital experiences, and test that
out. Developers can stop fighting with the CMS
against a new content tool. For example, vehicle
and acting as gatekeepers for every update, and
manufacturer BRP used Contentful to create an
focus instead on developing new digital products
augmented reality application, which allowed
and features.
people to customize a Can-Am Ryker and watch
Second, it helps people to do their best work. the motorcycle come to life in full-size, 3D AR.
Contentful’s easy to use web app empowers With Contentful, BRP was able to quickly build
marketers and product managers to push and deploy a game-changing experience,
content, campaigns and experiences without successfully launch its new product and build out
relying on developers. Meanwhile, developers a roadmap for future experiences — something
can code in their preferred language and pull that was impossible with their legacy CMS.
content in with APIs instead of time consuming
Unified content and teams
content migrations. This helps retain developer
The next step in content-based transformation
talent and attracts new developers who want the
requires scaling and optimizing content, and
freedom to use the best language and tools for
helping previously siloed teams work together.
each project.
Content should be migrated to a central hub,
which then supports new digital products,
omnichannel customer experiences and more.
In the case of TUI Nordic, Contentful helped
them decouple their data and technology, and
supported more rapid development and faster
production of new customer touchpoints.

Speed is at the core of every new initiative: faster

time to market, quickly adapting to change
and keeping up with customer needs. Lukas
Edenfelt, a development lead at TUI Nordic, says
Contentful helped his team to save both time
and resources. “From a business and team
perspective, Contentful has really enabled
us to continue to work agile, the way we
want. The previous platform was like
wading through mud, and now we’re
sprinting.”

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Digital organization DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS NEVER

Organizations that are in the later stages of “FINISHED”
transformation should implement an enterprise- According to Forbes, “Digital transformation isn’t
wide content solution that fits their digital a project, it’s a way of operating.”15 Adoption
strategy. For example, Telus Digital has been doesn’t have to be linear — the balance between
the driving force behind Telus’s digital maturity technology and business scaling can adapt and
strategy. Their sandbox approach to new ideas change over time. The biggest mistake a digitally
and agile technologies (like Contentful and aspirational organization can make is to second
AWS) helped them dramatically improve their guess itself, wasting time and valuable resources.
time to market. Ryan Kardish, manager of Telus’s Hire digital-focused leadership, invest in good
Digital Platform, describes how Telus built their technology, and above all, keep moving.
digital-first organization: “Recognizing that a lot
of great work has been happening across the Finally, make sure that the tools you’re investing
entire organization, taking the best of each world in grow with you — no one wants to replatform
to create a set of solutions, best practices and onto a new CMS every four to five years. With
standards that help define the guiding principles Contentful, you’re safe. Your content is housed in
of how we can work and operate better as an a future-proof platform that can keep up with you
organization, that’s when you get the big wins.”14 along the entire digital transformation journey.

Telus engineers used Contentful to build content At Contentful, we offer different entry points
models that intelligently structured content for depending on what your organization needs.
easy reference and reuse across each business From low-cost, low-risk options that a pioneer
unit. When the Apple iPhone X launched, can try out on a small POC, to enterprise
this new architecture helped Telus beat the solutions with higher levels of support, we can
competition to market — it was the only company meet you where you are on your transformation
in Canada to offer the new phone during the first journey and help you move to the next stage and
15 minutes after its release. beyond.

Are you ready to get started? Reach out to a

member of our team today.

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Endnotes
1
Harvey Nash / KPMG, “CIO Survey 2018: the Transformational CIO”
2
Forbes, “How To Survive The Rising Tide Of Tech Change”
3
Amazon Web Services, “Digital Transformation Checklist: Using Technology to Break Down
Innovation Barriers in Government”
4
Amazon Web Services, “Building a Cloud Center of Excellence (CCOE) Team to Transform Your
Tech Organization”
5
CIO, “6 Digital Transformation Success Stories”
6
Altimeter, “The 2017 State Of Digital Transformation”
7
Altimeter, “The 2017 State Of Digital Transformation”
8
AWS Cloud Enterprise Strategy Blog, “Using a Cloud Center of Excellence (CCOE) to Transform
the Entire Enterprise”
9
Amazon Web Services, “An Overview of the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework”
10
Harvey Nash / KPMG, “CIO Survey 2018: the Transformational CIO”
11
Experience matters, by Qualtrics, “Report: The State of CX Management”
12
Harvey Nash / KPMG, “CIO Survey 2018: the Transformational CIO”
13
Altimeter, “The 2018 State of Digital Content report”
14
Gigabit, “How Telus Digital Is Driving Value For Customers Through Digital Transformation”
15
Forbes, “Digital Transformation Isn’t A Project, It’s A Way Of Operating”

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