Have you ever wondered how technology is changing the way we do our business? Take the advent of smart phones for example, it shows how technology has affected our personal lives, but what’s more relevant is how it has also changed the way we do business. We are in the age of Digital, and the term Digital Transformation is not alien to us. In order to avoid disruption, businesses are facing the need to digitally transform. Business leaders are becoming more aware of the need for change and are embracing all the critical factors necessary for supporting the success of digital transformation.
Several market forces make it inevitable for business of various sizes to think in terms of digital transformation. Businesses need to re-evaluate numerous factors, from strategy to business models, taking into account customer engagement, product fitment, and brand value. Integrating all these aspects is essential for thinking digital. Let us look at how organizations strategize to utilize digital and how this move brings about changes in the way they carry out business functions.
What is digital transformation?
Digital transformation or rather enterprise digital transformation is the process of realigning technology or business models and processes that will derive new value for customers, partners, and employees. Digital transformation makes enterprises compete efficiently in the dynamic digital economy by investing or applying innovation in both technical and business spheres. It refers to the procedural and cultural change associated with the application of digital technology and their impact on society in a strategic way. In today’s data-driven society, digital transformation is accelerated by trends including Big Data, Industry 4.0, Social Media, Cloud, Internet of Things, Mobile-first technologies, crypto currencies, and numerous other factors.
Why digital transformation?
The pressure to move toward digital transformation is real and therefore organizations are increasingly looking to adopt technology enablers such as Big Data, collaboration, data analytics, Internet of Things and cloud computing to effectively implement digital transformation into their growth strategies.
According to Gartner’s IT Glossary, digital transformation in business is all about “leveraging digital technologies to enable the innovation of the entire business or elements of business and operating models”. It is the use of digital technologies to attain new and innovative business models by making space for digital and physical collaboration. Such kind of disruptive improvement in organization leads to increasing revenues, competitive growth, greater efficiency and improved customer satisfaction. This will ultimately lead to three key changes in the organization:
- change in the products and services line,
- change in the complete value chain, and
- change in the overall business model
Not just IT services, going the digital route has been the watchword of many a successful business venture, be it products or services.
Ways and means of digitization
- Mobiles: Digital transformation could be incorporated through simple measures such as introducing mobile applications for customers, partners or employees to streamline workflows and processes. Even better, businesses can up the ante by digitizing their internal infrastructure through the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) culture.
- Cloud computing: The biggest benefit of adopting cloud is the technology’s ability to offer flexibility in capacity on a pay-per-need basis. From an infrastructure standpoint, using cloud the right way can make businesses more agile all along being cost-effective. Having said this, adoption of cloud technologies is inevitable for IT services to improve the speed of embracing digital transformation. The cloud delivery model equips businesses with the agility to leverage CRM applications like Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce.
- Social media: Appropriate use of social media channels results in increased lead conversions. Employee collaboration improves and aids in furthering marketing goals. In the holistic digital transformation strategy, social is main chord that holds all the other elements. Social media is a key influencer and opinion builder.
- Big Data: Creating value through Big Data is one of the ways in which digital transformation makes business sense. Therefore the role Big Data plays in the process of digital transformation is significant. It serves as the key to unlocking potential digital customers, channels and markets. Tied to broader business objectives, Big Data makes it easy to get a composite picture of business goals and customer perspectives.
How Digital Transformation functions as a fundamental catalyst?
Digital transformation has clearly come a full circle in that its effects are not limited to certain sections of an organization. It has been a fundamental driver of change in the entire lifecycle of products and services. For instance, the marketing department of organizations was one of the first to take the digital route in a bid to reach more prospects. But over the years, digital transformation has expanded its scope beyond the traditional; thus enabling organizations to think a step further into how digital can be utilized efficiently to drive positive change across all the functional bodies of an enterprise.
The effects of Digital Transformation can be felt across four areas, namely, people, process, information, and technology.
People: More communication and customer engagement
The penetration of digital is transforming the way service industries such as retail and healthcare are operating. Through consistent customer engagement, transforming digitally paves the way for potential buyers to turn into life-long customers. Therefore, a customer-focused culture is created that leads to higher customer value.
Process: Increased value and better process management
With digital transformation, there would certainly be a change in an organization’s value chain that is impacted as a result of a significant change in deploying new and innovative business models. The primary goal of Digital Transformation is to create a pan-enterprise impact that seeks to align with the long-term organizational goals and further create an ambience conducive for increased organizational efficiency. In that sense, Digital Transformation seeks to bring all the units of an enterprise under one roof to be able to facilitate increased communication, consistent feedback sessions and continuous stakeholder engagement.
Information: How information governance relates to digital transformation
In order to leverage data through technological knowhow, information governance is seen as the first crucial step towards digital transformation. Given that it sets up the appropriate framework needed to quickly implement, scale and sustain digital initiatives well into the future, information governance leads the process of accelerating digital transformation by enabling enterprises to harness the power of accessible content. Protecting data wherever necessary and reimagining it beyond its scope at relevant points of time, information governance contributes to optimized asset management.
Technology: Integrated to drive change
At this crucial juncture where businesses are more dependent on technology than ever before, digital transformation is likely to be the key to innovation alongside sustainability. Through a holistic integrated infrastructure, technology is driving business to form a digitally enhanced narrative.
Suyati is a fast-growing digital transformation solutions provider with key expertise on web/ cloud/ mobile platforms. We would love to hear from you on this blog. Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Write toservices@suyati.comto know more about our digital transformation services.