Digital transformation refers to the integration of digital technologies into all activities of a company, with a direct impact on its internal processes, customer relationships, and business model. In 2024, successfully achieving this transformation requires less stacking of tools and more addressing a often overlooked issue: regulatory compliance from the project’s framing stage.
AI Act and GDPR Compliance: Regulatory Framing Before Tool Selection
Most guides on digital transformation start with diagnosing existing tools or defining a vision. They overlook a prerequisite that conditions the next steps: integrating regulatory compliance from the framing phase. With the gradual implementation of the European AI Act, any company deploying artificial intelligence in its processes must anticipate obligations for transparency, documentation, and risk management.
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In practical terms, this means that before selecting an automation tool or data processing solution, the digitalization project must map the relevant personal data processing activities and verify their compliance with the GDPR. Companies that neglect this step find themselves having to reconfigure their systems after deployment, which increases costs and extends timelines.
For organizations wishing to delve deeper into the business challenges related to digitalization, it is possible to visit the digitalmanager.fr website to explore additional resources on the subject.
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Application Inventory and Elimination of Digital Duplicates
Before investing in new technologies, one step yields immediate results: the application inventory. Most companies accumulate software over the years, often without coordination among departments. The result is a collection of redundant tools, unused licenses, and fragmented data flows.
The inventory involves listing each application used by each department, identifying those that serve the same function, and eliminating duplicates. This task seems simple, but it reveals common situations: two CRMs used in parallel, three project management tools for teams collaborating on the same deliverables, spreadsheets duplicating data already present in an ERP.
Eliminating these redundancies before any new investment helps reduce license costs, simplify team training, and ensure data reliability. A rigorous application diagnosis prevents the digitalization of existing disorder.
What the Inventory Should Cover
- The exhaustive list of software and cloud services by department, with the actual number of active users (not the number of licenses purchased)
- The data flows between applications: what data is transferred from one tool to another, manually or via connectors
- The overlapping functions, where two tools cover the same need without the teams being aware of it
Digital Transformation and Evolution of Job Descriptions
Change management is not limited to training employees on a new tool. Recent feedback shows that successful digitalization projects are those that formalize the concrete evolution of job descriptions. When a process is automated, the tasks that occupied part of the work time disappear or transform. Without updating job descriptions, employees do not know what is expected of them after the transition.
This approach involves mapping the automatable tasks in each job, followed by drafting new job descriptions that incorporate the required digital skills. Appointing business referents in each department, responsible for relaying usage and reporting field difficulties, strengthens the anchoring of change.
Business Referents: An Operational Role, Not Honorary
The business referent is not an ambassador of “digital culture.” Their role is technical and concrete: testing tools before deployment, documenting use cases specific to their department, training colleagues on common operations, and reporting malfunctions. This profile must have dedicated time included in their workload. Without this, the function remains symbolic and adoption stagnates.
Public Support for the Digital Transformation of TPEs and SMEs
TPEs and SMEs have access to public schemes that reduce the cost and risk of a digitalization project. Free digital diagnostics are available, offered by networks of regional experts, and allow for a personalized assessment before committing financially.
These schemes cover diagnostics, financing, and technical support. For a small structure, going through a public diagnostic before seeking a private provider helps frame the project on neutral bases and avoid recommendations driven by commercial interests.
- Free diagnostics identify digitalization priorities without commitment, based on standardized analysis grids
- Dedicated financing offers (grants, low-interest loans) target digital investments for structures with fewer than 250 employees
- Public networks of digital experts assist with implementation, from tool selection to post-deployment follow-up
The digital transformation project of a company is not just about a technological choice. Regulatory compliance, rationalizing existing systems, adapting job roles, and accessing public support form a foundation that conditions the success of deployment. Addressing these issues upfront avoids correcting them downstream, which remains the main source of additional costs in digitalization projects.