Digital transformation has been happening ever since the internet became big in the late 1990s. And now, more than ever, digital transformation has become an essential part of a business’s survival. After all, most of the world’s population heavily rely on the internet for almost everything—not only to do business and for entertainment, but also work and school.
To do well in the industry you’re in, you need to have a strong online presence. This is the new business and economic climate, and it’s likely to remain for a long time. For any business to remain competitive, it needs new strategies, solutions, and practices. Being strong isn’t always necessary for survival. Sometimes, it’s the ability to adapt that’s more important. And that’s where digital transformation comes in.
An Overview Of Digital Transformation
Simply put, digital transformation (DT) refers to the adoption and integration of the different digital technologies by businesses, industries, and other organizations. The adoption of DT has resulted in changes in the way businesses operate, including the way they deal and give value to their clients.
DT had started during the late 90s, and many organizations since then carried out digitizing parts of their operations. Websites helped connect companies to their customers, and as a result, various digital and technical processes, from faxing online to artificial intelligence adoption, emerged to support customer-business interactions.
This necessitated a dedicated team of specialists to manage these processes, especially when mobile and various social channels entered the digital landscape. The materialization of the World Wide Web further showed the importance of digital transformation, which pushed companies across all sectors to adapt or be swept aside. The internet became more interwoven into people’s lives, and IT emerged as a major force for change.
As the 21st century rolled in, digitization was no longer just a concept, but a reality that businesses must face. Among organizations, there are three major areas that DT affects. These are in operational processes, business models, and customer experience.
For some, however, digital transformation isn’t just about adopting technologies. It’s more about how technologies are changing and affecting how businesses are done. Not only that, but it’s also about how these changes alter the expectations of partners, workers, and consumers.
Now that it’s clear that DT is an important change for many businesses, having a road map would be a big help.
Key Practices In Implementing Digital Transformation
Many businesses’ digitization efforts have fallen flat, yet others have been successful. While it’s true that technologies can improve efficiency and customer engagement, a wrong approach could instead magnify and expose a company’s weaknesses. Below are a few key lessons to help your organization navigate its way to a successful digital transformation:
1. Put In Place A Coherent Business Strategy
Change always happens, but change itself doesn’t mean progress. Progress happens when direction is applied to change. It may seem straightforward, but there have been many companies whose efforts at digitization suffered due to the absence of clear direction and focus. Before introducing change in your business, it’s always better to define your strategy in a concise, clear-cut way. Using an assessment tool regarding the project’s feasibility is helpful in this instance.
Fortunately, there are many helpful analysis instruments that you can use, such as SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal), and others. These tools can help you pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of your position. Additionally, the analysis would help managers gain an understanding of all the factors that could affect the result of the intended action.
The company’s stakeholders’ decisions should be based on more reliable data analytics, instead of assumptions.
2. Make Use Of Insiders
Businesses intending digital transformation (or any other changes) sometimes get the services of outside consultants. However, these consultants tend to employ an all-purpose solution, which could be problematic. It would be better to leverage insiders instead—the workers who know what works best for the company and what doesn’t.
After all, digital transformation is ultimately about people first, technology second. Focusing on the tech side and overlooking the human factor would be a mistake. Businesses need to involve their employees, apprising them about the objectives, and making them a part of the process right at the start.
Adapting to new technology is well and good, but if you fail to take advantage of your own employees’ insider knowledge and experience, you’d be more likely to waste that new tech’s full potential.
3. Customer Experience Is Just As Important
Customers can be fickle, and you can’t just put them in a single basket. Priorities and preferences change. That’s the nature of the beast. That’s why your business needs to determine your customers’ motivations, as well as their needs and wants. And as their needs and wants often change, you’ll have your work cut out for you.
Find out the kinds of tools that your clients can use to enhance their experience when engaging with you. While it’s true that a company’s products or services are what give satisfaction to customers, a company’s after-sales service can be just as important. Businesses can provide services like a ticketing system, client portal, intelligent routing, virtual and augmented reality, live video chat support, and others.
Your digital transformation would be much beneficial to your clients and partners if you provide an automated and simple way to engage with them. This is true especially when they require service or after-sales support, and not just for purchasing.
For customer satisfaction, it isn’t always the big and extravagant gestures that count. It could also be the little changes you make, using a few digital tools at different stages in the cycle of service, that could make all the difference.
4. Compliance With Regulations
As exciting it might be for your company to undergo digital transformation, you still need to comply with regulations wherever part of the world you may be. The pressure to comply with regulations isn’t only specific to the industry, such as in healthcare or finance. Regulatory compliance is also required for various industries, like the data privacy regulations set up by the European Union GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
Compliance should be treated as part of the design and not something that’s tacked on after a project’s conclusion. If, for instance, a company relies on users’ personal data as part of its business model, it might just run afoul of privacy regulations and all that work would be for naught. In any case, security-by-design (SbD) is mandated in some countries. Other countries are following suit, while others are expanding the coverage to include other devices and new techs.
Conclusion
As it turns out, digital transformation may not be as straightforward as it seems. Some important practices should be followed for the transformation to succeed. Before instituting company-wide changes like this, a business should have a coherent business strategy that includes its own staff.
It should also take into consideration their customers’ satisfaction and improved user experience. Moreover, regulatory compliance is something that should be included early in the planning stage.
Joseph Porter
Joseph Porter is a security specialist for a managed service provider. He also writes for tech blogs and other publications. In his spare time, Joseph, together with his partner, maintains an orchidarium and loves attending ballets and musicals. They have one child and several rescue dogs.
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