Measuring the return on digital transformation investments is a tricky business. Digital change transcends functional and business boundaries, from how a company goes to market, to the ways it operates, to how it interacts with customers or even its own employees. While some individual initiatives may have a definitive and short-term payoff, others may only cost money in the short term in the service of potential long-term business value.
“When determining how well digital transformation investments are performing, it’s best to take a portfolio view and not a project level view,” says Cecilia Edwards, partner with digital transformation consultancy and research firm Everest Group. Just as a mutual fund manager or venture capital firm would look at overall performance to determine how well things are going, digital transformation leaders must take a holistic view of digital change efforts.
