Agility of Business Processes: Lessons from a Digital Transformation Context

The process of digital transformation entails changes in both the processes, practices and routines of organizations. This flux of changes, brings to question the conventional notion of documented business processes and highlights the importance for agility and flexibility in the configuration of organizational processes during digital transformation. Prior research provides a thorough view on the value of meticulous and preplanned business processes as well as capabilities for identifying and capitalizing on new opportunities. However, these studies typically focus on organizations operating in regular business conditions, while studies examining these concepts in periods of digital transformation process are still relatively few. In this study, we focus on the digital transformation processes in a manufacturing technology company that seeks to expand its business to providing data based services for its customers. Our study draws from an empirical base of 60 interviews, supported with company documents, participation in strategy workshops, and several meetings for over 16 months. The paper describes changes that the company is implementing, both in its organizational structure, technology infrastructure, as well as in its business processes. Our observations highlight the difficulty of relaxing the control of business processes and technology infrastructures, required for flexibility, and creation of new processes. The paper advances four principles of agility during digital transformation - mindfulness, light touch routines, flexible infrastructure and ambidextrous organization.