Maturity Framework Enabling Organizational Digital Readiness

Digitalization and the use of advanced technologies for more flexible and resource efficient production processes are changing the industrial competitive environment. However, new technologies are not seldom implemented without the whole organization being ready to fully utilize its benefits. This readiness can be expressed as organizational digital maturity. Previous studies identified that the level of digitalization is increasing, but, in many cases, due to lack of foundation, it is not aligned with the business strategy and/or supported by the organizational and technological infrastructures. There is a gap in existing models to provide practical starting-up steps to support the organizational digital readiness. A conceptual readiness framework for organizational digital readiness was tested through the analysis and reflection of four cases implemented by a Swedish manufacturing company. Findings point out that it is important to create a proper organizational foundation, a readiness, to ensure a company to evolve in digital maturity. That can be developed based on three main stages of change management practices. The tool can be used to identify the organizational readiness and thereby the gaps and thresholds necessary to overcome. This will enable companies to utilize the technology level necessary to increase cost and resource efficiency, and hence competitiveness. In addition, dimensions and a roadmap for organizational, digital, and smart readiness is presented.