Across Africa, organisations are accelerating their digital transformation journeys. Yet many struggle with a fundamental question: where do we start, and what capabilities really matter? Too often, digital transformation is approached as a technology shopping exercise rather than a strategic capability-building journey.
Gartner’s digital business platform framework offers a powerful alternative. It provides a structured, practical roadmap that organises digital transformation around five interconnected areas: customers, partners, employees, things, and intelligence. When understood and applied correctly, this framework enables organisations to build digital capabilities incrementally, aligned to business priorities, while laying a foundation for long-term innovation and growth.
At its core, Gartner’s framework recognises that digital transformation is about building an integrated digital platform that connects people, processes, data, and physical assets across the organisation and its ecosystem. The real strength of this approach lies in its flexibility. Instead, they can start with the capabilities that address their most urgent business challenges and expand systematically over time.
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Digital transformation often begins with the customer, and for good reason. Technologies such as customer relationship management systems, digital experience platforms, mobile applications, e-commerce solutions, and conversational AI enable organisations to engage customers consistently across channels. However, technology alone does not deliver great customer experiences.
Organisations must also build skills in customer journey design, digital marketing, data privacy compliance, and service design. Equally important are soft skills such as empathy, collaboration between business and technical teams, and an agile mindset that supports continuous improvement. No organisation operates in isolation.
Digital platforms increasingly extend beyond enterprise boundaries to include suppliers, distributors, and strategic partners. To succeed, organisations require strong capabilities in ecosystem strategy, contract and performance management, risk management, and stakeholder engagement. Trust, negotiation, and cross-cultural communication are critical soft skills in digitally enabled partnerships, particularly in complex African supply chains.
Modern organisations require digitally enabled, engaged, and continuously learning workforces. Yet the real differentiator lies in skills. Change management, employee experience design, leadership in hybrid environments, and workforce analytics are essential business capabilities.
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