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The digital readiness field guide
A self-assessment for leadership teams of mid-sized organisations. Twelve questions across four dimensions to find out where digital investment will pay back first.
- By
- DGS Advisory & Technology
- Published
- Reading time
- 2 min read
Most mid-sized organisations know they need to "go digital." Fewer can say what that means for them, where to start, or how to tell whether it is working. This field guide is a starting point: a structured conversation for a leadership team, designed to take about an hour.
It is the work of both our divisions. The questions on strategy and data come from our Advisory practice; those on systems and customer experience from our Technology team. The point is that the two can't be separated.
How to use it
Score each question from 1 (not true of us) to 4 (fully true of us). Do it individually first, then compare answers as a team. The disagreements are usually more revealing than the scores.
The four dimensions
1. Direction
- We can state in one sentence what digital investment should achieve for us in the next two years.
- Digital priorities are owned by a named member of the leadership team.
- We measure the results of digital projects against business outcomes, not delivery milestones.
2. Data
- We trust the numbers in our management reports without manual checking.
- Key customer, product and financial data lives in one place, or in systems that share it automatically.
- We can answer a new business question with data in days, not weeks.
3. Systems and processes
- Staff rarely re-key the same data into more than one system.
- Our core systems can be connected to new tools through APIs.
- We know which manual processes cost us the most time.
4. Customer experience
- Customers can do the most common things they need from us online, without calling.
- Our website or platform is fast, accessible and easy for our team to update.
- We learn from how customers actually use our digital channels.
Reading the results
A low score in Direction is the most important to fix, because it makes every other investment harder to justify. Low scores in Data and Systems usually point to automation and integration as the fastest payback. Low scores in Customer experience with high scores elsewhere suggest your foundations are ready for a new platform or app.
The full PDF includes a scoring sheet, a one-page interpretation guide and a template for a 90-day action plan.