The digital era imposes constant technological advances and the survival of any company depends to a large extent on the ability of its work teams to adapt to the new processes derived from this phenomenon of continuous change, which does not stop.

It is human capital that experiences and deals with change. Therefore, for a company’s digital transformation to reach its full potential, it will depend on the process of designing and implementing new technologies.

In my experience as a director of Soma Software – an aviation management platform – I constantly face processes of adapting corporations to new technologies and I believe that a model where a digital strategy is defined and the workforce is involved from the beginning gives companies a better chance to achieve a successful transformation and improve productivity.

Research by Mercer and Oliver Wyman indicates that the approach of the past consisted of a vendor developing a technology product, selling it to company executives through a lengthy negotiation process, and then a process of implementing the new technology to their employees.

This same study suggests a new integrative model, where workers and managers work collaboratively to design digital strategy, merge technical and business knowledge and apply it directly to business operations.

Our findings at Soma Software indicate that successful digital transformation of a business incorporates the following:

– Organisation, integration and collaboration between management, workforce and technology service provider.

– The board acts as a facilitator of the change process.

– The technology service provider, management and workforce jointly define: how to address the issues and opportunities and the processes and tasks that will be changed.

– Training of the workforce prior to the implementation process to ensure that they have the skills and willingness to work with the new technologies.

– The technology service provider should accompany the client in the implementation of the platform, which should not affect the normal operation of the business, and be available to advise and address concerns after implementation.

– It is important that the technology service provider has knowledge of the industry standards where the company operates, because it will not only provide support in technology but also offer recommendations of best practices related to the sector.

Managing digital transformation processes in an organised way promotes an adaptive culture in corporations, which leads organisations to success because they are prepared to keep up in competitive and constantly evolving environments. Companies must adopt a proactive attitude towards technological evolution and always be clear that the incorporation of any change in a business process must have the following purposes: to improve them, to make them cheaper and to access more customers and markets.