Digital literacy for staff comes with a cost. Digital literacy for those you seek to serve comes with a cost. Devices come with a cost. Digital transformation comes with a cost and so does not ‘transforming’. Putting the people you seek to serve or your customers at the centre of your design, architecture, and implementation choices come with trade offs and implications.

And it’s not only financial implications. Business processes change. Staff and skillsets change. And organisational culture changes. Some of these changes come with costs, some don’t.

Responsible data management, data responsibility, or a rights based approach has implications – financial and otherwise. In the short term and in the long term. But so does any approach.

Digital transformation decisions should never be made on cost or legality alone. Digital transformation decisions should be value based and strategy based.

And yes, there are trade offs involved. There always are. However, rarely are the trade offs only financial. And even more rarely is it helpful to only think of the short term.

The choice is up to us.

Photo by Chela B.