Digital Strategy

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How mature are we, digitally?

by Kelly Kubrick on February 3, 2014

Originally published on the Digital Strategy Conference blog; republished with permission from dStrategy Media. Post updated with availability of subsequent Benchmark surveys.

Share your digital experience

Consider participating in our digital evolution by completing the dStrategy Digital Maturity Benchmark Survey online.

When we first formed dStrategy Media to launch Digital Strategy Conference, we kicked off the Vancouver and Ottawa events by introducing the dStrategy Digital Maturity Model™. Not only did the audience confirm the tremendous value that our digital maturity model provides, they promptly asked, “what’s next?”

Benchmark our industry’s digital processes

Both in answer to that question, and to help our digital strategy community plan for the coming year, we are fielding a research study. Our findings, along with a review of the Six Dimensions of Digital Maturity, will be delivered at the next Mapping Digital Maturity Workshop.

We welcome your participation by completing the dStrategy Digital Maturity Benchmark Survey online.

How does your organization compare?

Interested in learning more? Consider our Mapping Digital Maturity corporate training – a practical, hands-on day of learning help your organization create its road map for digital success.

To learn more about the Digital Maturity model, research or workshop, contact Kelly Kubrick.

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Kelly KubrickHow mature are we, digitally?

Digital Strategy Conference Ottawa 2013 Wrap Up

by Kelly Kubrick on June 6, 2013

Digital Strategy Conference Ottawa 2013We did it! Ottawa came together to get strategic with digital – and what an adventure: Digital Strategy Conference Ottawa 2013 has finished. Thank you, thank you, thank you – to our attendees, to our speakers, to our sponsors and to our team – you ALL rock.

Following the success of Digital Strategy Conference Vancouver 2013, Ottawa dove deep into the fundamentals of digital strategy. Over 20 speakers delivered a packed agenda of content, tackling key areas of learning including digital maturity, content strategy, mobile strategy social business strategy. We heard some amazing keynotes and case studies – from arts to tourism to pizza – from a wide range industries, and across sector.

Digital Strategy Conference Ottawa 2013The room buzzed with great conversations and the #dstrategy Twitter hashtag was on fire!

As in Vancouver, I was particularly pleased about the audience’s response to both our definition of digital strategy and to the dStrategy Media Digital Maturity Model. The model is a business planning tool that my business partner, Andrea Hadley and I developed to help organizations identify necessary resources / investments to implement digital strategy.

Digital Strategy Conference Ottawa 2013To learn more about the model, please feel free to listen to “Understand Your Organization’s Digital Maturity” podcast from IABC Ottawa’s The Voice – many thanks to Danny Starr for a great conversation about digital strategy!

I’d also like to thank Chamika Ailapperuma and Arianne Mulaire, who put in yeoman’s effort to capture the sessions via the Ottawa 2013 blog posts and  Twitter.

What a great experience – I can’t wait for next year!

Updated – thanks to Les Faber of WebFuel and David Bird of Bird’s Eye Marketing for their blog posts on the conference – enjoy!

  1. WebFuel: Digital Strategy Conference Ottawa 2013 Recap
  2. Bird’s Eye Marketing: Ottawa Digital Strategy Conference Review of Day 1 and 2

See you next year!

 

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Kelly KubrickDigital Strategy Conference Ottawa 2013 Wrap Up

Establishing Digital Maturity

by Kelly Kubrick on June 3, 2013

First published on the Digital Strategy Conference blog by Arianne Mulaire. Arianne is a co-founder of Reachology, an Ottawa-based digital marketing firm. As managing partner, she creates and manages online presences for organizations both large and small, private and public. Follow her on twitter @amulaire.

Session Presented by:

Kelly Kubrick, Partner and co-Founder, Digital Strategy Conference and President, Online Authority   – @KellyKubrick
Andrea Hadley, Partner and co-Founder, Digital Strategy Conference  –  @AndreaHadley

“Maturity models exist to give perspective on your current state and prepare you for moving forward. You will learn how to assess your organization’s level of maturity with respect to digital, and the degree of formality and optimization of processes currently in place.

Understanding your organization’s digital maturity provides an effective approach toward improving related processes. We’ll help you recognize key signposts to help with your planning so you’ll understand where you stand today and how to anticipate the next curve in the road.”

This is to help you planning your digital strategy by first determining the digital maturity of your organization.

The maturity model is a traditional tool that has been reformatted to reflect the digital world.

This is a process where you move from milestone to milestone.

The dimensions for digital maturity are:

  • human resources
  • technology resources
  • data strategy
  • content strategy
  • channel strategy
  • social business strategy

These are the dimensions that should be considered and rated individually. From level 0 to level 3 (none, low, medium, and high).

Over the next three days you will be able to assess where your organization is and how to move it forward.

As you map your organizational readiness, you will see how it maps out. There are no right answers. All organizations map differently. The goal is to have a balanced maturity level through all dimensions.

Use the summary of indicators, dimensions and ratings to define where your organization is.

Human resources

Level 0 – There is no presence.

Low – Very limited resources and not supported by training.

Medium – Teams are forming around digital (internal or external), limited support, some expertise by leads, management has no training. Still have to sell digital to the organization.

High – Resources are embedded in cross functional teams, digital specialists are on staff, ongoing training including industry certification, resources are supported, management has understanding or expertise.

Technology resources

Technologies necessary: marketing and communications, collaboration tools, customer relationship management tool, analytics to measure

Level 0 – There is no presence, no investment in technologies necessary.

Low – Little bit of everything, everyone in different directions, using different tools, it’s like “herding of cats.”

Medium – More organization, uniformity in training, can manage complex processes, some departments are looking to participate, it is a dedicate line item – budget.

High – Everything is talking to one another, you use the systems and help them talk to one another,  you have the people that are part of the system, in the center of it.

Data strategy

Data strategy: reflects all the ways you capture, store, manage and use information. How you use data is key to your success.

Level 0 – Information is in cabinets, there is no digital data.

Low – Online and offline data, but still in silos, decision velocity is quarterly or annually, you are therefore using old data, there are data gaps and denial of the risk (lack of governance) of not having digital data.

Medium – Value the data, use the data in some strategic ways to optimize/improve, tools are implemented, decision velocity is daily or weekly, act on the data regularly, nothing is automated, governance is planned and initiated.

High – Data is an asset, decision velocity is now realtime, can take advantage of data, automated, secured, formal risk management plan.

Content strategy

The term is starting to come up more frequently.  It’s a comprehensive process that builds a framework to create, manage, deliver, share and archive or renew content in reliable ways.

Looking at: inventory and formats, location and storage, development process, publishing process, performance measurement and evaluation as well as archiving process.

Level 0 – Developing content for single use.

Low – Digital format is now starting to appear, not consistent, silos of production within the process, awareness of repurposing through different formats, content is becoming available digitally, but not online.

Medium – Source content is now consistent, centralized production, multiple digital formats, starting to allow user generated content (e.g. comments), content is available on the network, objectives are set and evaluation is now ongoing rather than once a year.

High – Adaptive content (format free, device independent, transformable and in an automated fashion).

Channel strategy
Three categories :
  • Marketing – paid, owned
  • Transaction enabling – financial/e-commerce, application forms, voting online, lead generations
  • Digital distribution – OEM, direct, partner and affiliate
Level 0 – No digital communications, no use of transaction enabling or distribution.

Low – Pieces are in play, but not aligned with business objectives, vertical siloes, ad hoc.

Medium – Multichannel marketing, objectives are validated, planning and funding are in place, a need for governance is articulated.

High – Multichannel strategy, regular evaluation, governance established.

Social business strategy

“Ways social media tools and practices are being adopted within organizations to support both internal employee collaboration and external customer engagement.”
– Dion Hinchcliffe and Peter Kim, Designing a Social Business (recommended reading)
  • External – YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
  • Reviews and ratings
  • Internal applications for employees and suppliers

Level 0 – No use of any customer facing application, low awareness of social business.

Low – Silos of social activity, fragmented, ad hoc representation, an employee is becoming the defacto social media person, sporadic usage.

Medium – Awareness across the organization that social media can be used above marketing and communications, understanding of value, key performance indicators, cross usage.

High – Customers help you, social media and collaboration is both internal and external, social media is no longer only a marketing tool.

 

 

References:

  1. “Social Business By Design” · Dachis Group · June 3, 2013 · www.socialbusinessbydesign.com
  2. “@jeffhorne” · Jeff Horne · June 3, 2013 · Twitter
  3. “@mandirv” · Mandi Relyea-Voss · June 3, 2013 · Twitter
  4. “@ResultsJunkie” · Laura Wesley · June 3, 2013 · Twitter
  5. “@StruttinMyStuff” · Lisa Georges · June 3, 2013 · Twitter
  6. “@scottduncan” · Scott Duncan · June 3, 2013 · Twitter
  7. “@joegollner” · Joe Gollner · June 3, 2013 · Twitter
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Kelly KubrickEstablishing Digital Maturity

Digital strategy for Ottawa Chamber of Commerce Members

by Kelly Kubrick on May 23, 2013

First published in the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce email Newsletter, May 23, 2013

What is Your Company’s Digital Strategy?

Many businesses are aware of the potential digital represents – perhaps for cost savings and improved efficiencies; perhaps for increased sales – but ultimately, for improvement in the overall business. Yet, there is also a sense of feeling overwhelmed by digital and its never-ending waves of change. Which path to take: web? Email? Mobile? Social? All of the above? What to do?

Digital strategy is about competitive advantage

Take a step back to see the larger horizon: your company’s digital strategy is about more than the latest buzzword. Instead, its potential makes it about the larger issue of competitive advantage – identifying it, articulating it, and achieving it.

Yesterday, digital opportunities were limited by bandwidth and a lack of critical mass in the marketplace. Today, digital allows us to better connect our people – customers, constituents, donors, employees, partners – to improve the experience of doing business with our organization. Improving that experience pays off – retaining a customer, employee or supplier is simply more cost effective than acquiring new.

Yet, we’re also challenged by the simple reality that the way our digital stakeholders interact, learn and share has outpaced business’ ability to respond. And every succeeding generation appears to have an instinctive understanding of this world which most of us are still learning. Great. Now what?

Address organizational expectations vs. operational readiness

Make a plan that addresses the realities of organizational expectations and operational readiness. It will become the road map that connects the reality of where you are and where you need to go, to meet those evolving expectations. Identify the risks digital might bring, but don’t let them stop you from uncovering new opportunities. Finally, take advantage of the insights digital data generates – it’s what makes digital fundamentally different from our offline world.

In reality, digital is impacting across all channels, is forcing transparency, and is making it easier for new competition. Organizations that take digital out of its marketing and technology silos and see it a competitive advantage are weaving their digital strategy into their business strategy – challenging what was, acknowledging what is and planning for what could be.

Get advice from other companies facing the same challenges

What’s the next step? Attend Digital Strategy Conference, the first of its kind in the National Capital. From June 3-5, 2013, benefit from three days of advice on how to articulate your company’s digital strategy.

Ottawa Chamber of Commerce members receive a special discount!. Please visit members only section on the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce website.

It’s time to get strategic with digital.

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Kelly KubrickDigital strategy for Ottawa Chamber of Commerce Members
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Understand Your Organization’s Digital Maturity podcast episode from The Voice

by Kelly Kubrick on May 22, 2013

Assessing digital maturity can help your organization prioritize

With Digital Strategy Conference Vancouver 2013 behind us and our next edition, Digital Strategy Conference Ottawa 2013 only days away, I was very pleased to be invited to participate in IABC Ottawa’s the Voice podcast, to talk about the concept of digital maturity that we proposed last month in Vancouver.IABC Ottawa’s the Voice podcast logo

I had the chance to sit down with Danny Starr, host of The Voice podcast for a chat about the launch of dStrategy Media, our proposed Digital Maturity Model and the upcoming Ottawa conference. The podcast, The Voice Episode 58: Understand Your Organization’s Digital Maturity with Kelly Kubrick runs about 20 minutes long, and in it Danny and I discuss:

  • What digital maturity is
  • Why is it important for an organization to assess its maturity
  • Why digital maturity should be looked at horizontally, across your organization, not simply as a marketing-communications issue
  • The Six Dimensions of Digital Maturity, and how they are rated
  • What types of indicators are used in the dStrategy Media Digital Maturity Model
  • How to manage an organization’s tendency to rate itself too highly
  • Who could take charge of the effort to rate your organization’s digital maturity
  • Symptoms or signs that your organization may not be as mature, digitally, as it thinks
  • What the next steps are once an organization has assessed it’s maturity

My thanks to IABC Ottawa, supporting sponsor of Digital Strategy Conference Ottawa 2013, and the crew from The Voice, for giving me the chance to explain more about our proposed business planning tool

Listen: Understand Your Organization’s Digital Maturity podcast from the Voice

Have a listen to episode 82 and let us know your thoughts. During the Ottawa conference, we’ll be presenting two case studies – from a non-profit and from a for profit company, who undertook our digital maturity assessment.

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Kelly KubrickUnderstand Your Organization’s Digital Maturity podcast episode from The Voice

It’s a wrap: Digital Strategy Conference Vancouver 2013

by Kelly Kubrick on April 30, 2013

What an excellent three days!

I’m back from Digital Strategy Conference Vancouver 2013, where we dove deep into the fundamentals of digital strategy. Over 20 speakers / 20 sessions, great conversations in-person and via Twitter (search for the hashtag #dstrategy).

My brain is full.

In particular, I’m very pleased about the audience’s response to the dStrategy Media Digital Maturity Model, a framework that my business partner, Andrea Hadley, and I developed. It’s intended as a business planning tool, to help organizations better understand all the moving parts needed to develop their digital strategy.

Thanks to the furiously-fast writing of Joanne Probyn, we were able to capture an overview of the sessions via the Vancouver 2013 blog posts.

Finally, huge thanks Big thanks to Juliana Loh and Trevor Jansen for their expert photography and visual media services. Take a moment to enjoy the show for yourself via the Vancouver photo gallery.

And the countdown is now on… we’re only a few shorts weeks out from Digital Strategy Conference Ottawa 2013 – hope to see you at the University of Ottawa from June 3 – 5, 2013!

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Kelly KubrickIt’s a wrap: Digital Strategy Conference Vancouver 2013
calm-before-the-storm-by-bob-nardi

Eye of the Storm

by Kelly Kubrick on March 1, 2013

How to find calm inside a surge of innovation

First published by Business in Vancouver, Business Excellent Series – Marketing Digital Strategies, March 2013

Eye of the Storm - How to find calm inside a surge of innovation, part of the Marketing Digital Strategies, Business Excellence Series from Business in Vancouver, March 2013

Eye of the Storm – How to find calm inside a surge of innovation, part of the Marketing Digital Strategies, Business Excellence Series from Business in Vancouver, March 2013

A recurring theme in conversations with colleagues is the sense of feeling overwhelmed by digital – by wave after wave of emerging technologies and trends, by the multitude of channels and the fragmentation of platforms, by the potential they know to be significant, but which is so fluid that it’s hard to get any kind of traction.

This sense of feeling swamped by digital has flowed into many functional areas: marketing and communications, customer service, sales, operations and IT. It’s a digital deluge and it’s not getting easier – in fact, in the short term it may be getting harder.

There is a solution. It’s one that is often intuitively understood, but escapes our reach. It’s about getting perspective, accepting what is and shifting our thinking. We need to step back, see the larger horizon, and remain open.

An organization’s digital strategy needs to be about the bigger issue of competitive advantage – how to identify it, how to articulate it, and how to execute to achieve it.

We need to ask how digital allows us to better connect our people – customers, constituents, donors, employees, partners – to improve the experience of doing business with our organization. And as we all know, improving that experience pays off – retaining a customer, employee or supplier is always more cost effective than acquiring new.

How do you address these issues? Where do you begin?

You need the perspective that can only come from stepping out of the turbulent vortex and into the calm that will result from having a plan. You need to create a framework to address the realities of both organizational expectations and operational readiness, and then establish a road map that connects the reality of where you are to the evolving expectations of your customers, constituents and members.

One of the expectations you need to address is scope – to help the organization understand that digital is not simply part of a marketing or advertising strategy. It is not the launch of a Twitter account or a mobile application. It is not simply a bulk purchase of tablets for your sales team so that you can claim to have a mobile workforce. Your digital strategy is much bigger than any one sales, marketing, communication or technology tactic.

In reality, digital is impacting across all channels, is forcing transparency, and is making it easier for new competition.  While the majority of organizations keep digital in a marketing and technology silo, those with a holistic understanding and an eye  for competitive advantage are weaving their digital strategy into their business strategy – challenging what was, acknowledging what is and planning for what could be.

What to do?

Here are some basic first steps towards planning your digital strategy.

  1. Identify the risks digital might bring, but don’t let them stop you from discovering and leveraging new opportunity;
  2. Although intriguing, intuition is neither replicable nor scalable; it cannot give you competitive advantage. Instead, take advantage of insights from  data that digital generates – it’s what makes digital fundamentally different from our offline world; and
  3. Depending on your organization’s digital maturity, chances are that the thinking that got you where you are today is not the thinking that will move you into the digital age. It would be short-sighted of you not to learn from those who’ve gone before; it is worth asking for input. Don’t be surprised at how accessible insights of others can be; don’t underestimate that the very nature of digital is how it thrives on openness and transparency.

So, when you are feeling overwhelmed, take a step back and get some perspective. Start looking at the bigger picture of how digital can weave into your business strategy, and then start planning your road map that considers new opportunities, data and openness. Suddenly, the noise and distraction of what’s new today will no longer provoke stress, but instead it will take its place as opportunities to be evaluated against your larger plan.

Co-authored by Kelly Kubrick, Vice-President and Partner of dStrategy Media and Andrea Hadley, President and Partner of dStrategy Media, producers of Digital Strategy Conference.

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Kelly KubrickEye of the Storm

Announcing Digital Strategy Conference Ottawa 2013

by Kelly Kubrick on January 29, 2013

Digital Strategy ConferenceAnd it’s official – Digital Strategy Conference Ottawa 2013 dates and location have been confirmed!

Join us on June 3-5, 2013 at the University of Ottawa to get an in-depth education into the key elements of building your organization’s digital strategy.

As with the Vancouver conference, prepare to be immersed into the world of digital strategy development. In addition to sessions in Defining Digital Strategy and Establishing Digital Maturity, you will be taught by industry experts in five  different educational modules – think of them as your five key areas of learning:

  1. Organizational and Operational Readiness;
  2. Digging into Content Strategy;
  3. Mobile to Multiscreen;
  4. Social Strategy: Earned Media for Community Development; and
  5. Making Sense of Advertising / Paid Media.

For answers to any questions you might have about the conference format and logistics please read the Ottawa conference Frequently Asked Questions.

For those of you with a great digital strategy story to tell, you might consider submitting a case study proposal – but hurry – the Digital Strategy Conference Ottawa Call for Speakers ends March 15th, 2013.

Most importantly – you should register soon as double early bird pricing ends Friday March 8th, 2013. See you in Ottawa in June!

Updated: Still hesitating? Have a quick look at this video from our inaugural Vancouver event!

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Kelly KubrickAnnouncing Digital Strategy Conference Ottawa 2013

Digital Maturity: the Channel Strategy Dimension

by Kelly Kubrick on January 20, 2013

Originally published on the Digital Strategy Conference blog; republished with permission from dStrategy Media.

The fifth dimension of digital maturity is your Channel Strategy. It is one of Six Dimensions of Digital Maturity™ assessed in the dStrategy Digital Maturity Model™, a business planning tool to help organizations improve their digital processes against an established standard.

Channel Strategy icon from the dStrategy Digital Maturity Model

This dimension relates to your organization’s approach to its channel strategy for its digital initiatives. You’ll notice that “mobile” is not a channel – instead, our model assumes your digital channel interactions regardless of the customers use of desktop web vs mobile environments.

Three channel categories

There are three categories of channels, not all of which may apply to you.

  1. Digital marketing and communications channels including the use of paid (advertising), owned (website, mobile app or blog) and earned (social or public relation) media OR
  2. Digital ‘transaction-enabling’ channels such as a) ecommerce or membership sales, or to accept donations b) Non-financial transactions such as accepting job or grant applications, accepting votes or generating leads OR
  3. Digital distribution channels including direct to consumer, retail, wholesale or affiliate / partners.

How does your organization approach its channels?

Think about your organization and its approach to channel management:

1. Which of the three categories of channels described above are you currently using?
2. How would you characterize your organization’s approach to each?
3. What is the funding model for your digital channels?
4. How do you measure performance measurement of your digital channels?

Next, let’s take a look at your organization’s social business strategy.

Answering these questions is will help your organization determine if it is in the best position to implement your digital initiatives. What do you think? Have you got the right channel strategy in place to ensure your organization’s digital success?

Next: Social Business Strategy

Next, let’s take a look at the sixth dimension, your organization’s social business strategy.

Participate in the dStrategy Digital Maturity Benchmark Survey

For specific questions that measure the human resources dimension of digital maturity, take the dStrategy Digital Maturity Benchmark Survey. We will share our collective results at the next Digital Strategy Conference.

Learn how to measure your organization’s digital maturity

Or, to measure your organization’s digital maturity across all six dimensions, register for our Mapping Digital Maturity Workshop, a practical, hands-on learning session to help your organization create a road map for digital success.

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Kelly KubrickDigital Maturity: the Channel Strategy Dimension

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