If 2020 has taught us something, it is the need for digital transformation across all IT verticals. While it remains a hot topic in company boardrooms, the efforts to integrate it are meager. Either it is met by ignorance, treated as an option or lack of knowledge on how to absorb it. The main hindrance is the fear of failure. Apart from posing as a challenge for the existing employees, if the transition isn’t done right, it can hurt morale and productivity, plunge revenues, etc. However if successfully done, companies to be more alert, innovative, competitive and successful.

The digital transformation is about the necessity for disrupting, changing, and responding to the competition. The main challenges include: identifying the size and scope of projects and selecting which of them are more suitable, risk factors involved, lack of ROI, different user interface designs (UI) and user experience designs (UX) hence data siloes and lastly inability of getting buy-in from stakeholders.

To tackle obstacles one can focus on these major areas:

Overcome the fears: Change can seem scary only when one does not have adequate knowledge or due to a lack of communication. To convince employees and gain their support, it is vital to educate them about the necessity of change, include them from planning to the execution phase. They can be explained how the alignment of business goals with the transformative strategies. Train them teams and keep them engaged. Allowing them a platform to express their concerns can also reinforce their faith in this change.

Keep up with Tech Innovations: Transformative changes in technology can occur overnight. So it is a must to invest in firms that provide huge database and cloud service to keep track of every detail, action, and projects undertaken. This can help to meet up with changing consumer demands while possessing the ability to be flexible, agile and eventually boast a successful digital transformation. Also, a common dataset and platform can help to break down data and department silos.

Talent Pool: Depending on the nature of transformation, Investment can be made in the form of money, talent or time. While time and money can differ, an organization should use the talent and skills at their disposal. This workforce should be able to implement and work with new technology. Furthermore, they should also clearly understand the difference between customers’ expectations and requirements. As this is the age where customers’ engagement is prioritized than mere watching.

APIs the best solution of all.

Application Programming Interface or more commonly known as API, allow applications to interact with an external service using a simple set of commands. They bind data, processes and business systems and enable the outside world to access them too. They act as a pipeline between apps, data, UI, and services. A well-managed API can achieve much more. They can help companies to define and measure improved KPIs, generate analytics about developer and user behavior, provide developers with easy workable interface with backend complexity masked. They’re viewed not as middleware but as products that empower developers to expand a company’s services into new apps, digital experiences, and business models. The business which controls their APIs saves a lot of time.

A great API strategy can function as an influential force in bringing a continuous change that shapes digital transformation. They push for a cultural shift within many organizations. They act as loci of innovation and competitive differentiation. An open system can heighten a firm’s importance by reaching a larger audience, expand into new channels, enabling the integration of diverse IT systems, guarantee harmony among various intra-functional and inter-functional systems and draw revenues and even reuse existing assets to create new offerings.

Analyst firm Gartner claims APIs can minimize the friction often caused by organizations implementing a ‘bimodal’ IT strategy – where legacy applications run alongside more innovative digital solutions. It says APIs is the layer through which ‘Mode 1’ and ‘Mode 2’ can connect, bridging the gap between core data and functionality, and a more experimental, innovative application.

Besides they have additional benefits. This includes reduced operational costs and eliminates the whole need and effort to incorporate a new integration system. They allow simplified consumer engagement, while at the same time providing them with instant, valuable data insights into their business. They maintain consistency in data management and manage them in one location. It uses a single platform to securely and rapidly expose enterprise data to web apps and other devices. They also enable companies to mechanize routing operational cloud management tasks and automation in disaster recovery (DR) environment. They allow products to interact with others without having to know how they’re implemented.

Although APIs can change the entire process of creation, it is essential to have a dedicated team to oversee integration work. As change is what thrives digital transformation APIs give you flexibility; simplify design, administration, and use; and provide opportunities for innovation. They also ease the integration of new application components into an existing architecture hence smoothening the transformation. And this new asset can enhance an organization by allowing smarter decisions and boost security. This is what makes it an invaluable, multifarious key to achieving quicker and better digital transformation.