The Covid-19 outbreak drove many businesses to speed up their digital transformations to compete and survive.
A company’s success depends on how digital it can become as the market and its consumers grow increasingly digital. The current changes in consumer behaviours, knowledge consumption, and business processes are relevant to both B2C and B2B sectors.
According to Statista, investment in digital transformation products and services will total $1.8 trillion in 2022 and $2.8 trillion in 2025. That expansion shows how much money businesses want to spend to stay competitive.
How can your company drive the transformation to meet customers where they are? What are the methods other sectors are employing to ensure their long-term existence in a digital age? Stay with me, this blog will explore all the fundamental details of digital transformation.
What Is Digital Transformation?
What exactly is digital transformation then? You will find countless answers if you search for that question on Google. A common misunderstanding is that digital transformation is solely about technology, but this is misleading.
Digital transformation is a fundamental change in how a business functions, communicates, and interacts with customers. The shift toward more digital operations is a disruption of the “conventional” manner of doing things. It’s also essential to foster a digital culture within your organization and upskill your workforce because transformations require a team effort.
What Are the Four Main Areas of Digital Transformation?
The word transformation can mean many different things in varying degrees. The change process may be straightforward for some but overwhelming for others. We recommend taking advantage of four types of digital transformation for business when you’re considering how to transform your business:
1. Core operations
An organisation’s primary or essential activities are its core business operations, which are the reasons behind its foundation or conception. In addition to building better business operations strategies, it focuses on the organization’s mission and vision;
- Management of the supply chain and control of market forces
- Enhancing the quality of technology as a whole
- The expansion of the business marketplace and the acquisition of new companies
- Achieving a higher level of revenue generation
- An improved approach to acquiring new customers and managing customer relationships
- Expansion of existing activities and the development of new ones
Managing and performing various departmental tasks for conducting core business operations is vital to an organization’s success. However, it is not the only factor determining the success of an organization.
2. Experience
Digital transformation focuses on the customer experience. Therefore, digital transformation initiatives are often driven by business/innovation needs, customer (experience) pain points, and growth/transformation imperatives.
Considering your digital transformation strategy and customer experience, there are some essential things to remember. There are a few examples below that you can find helpful:
- A holistic approach that encompasses the entire enterprise.
- It’s all about the people – getting the customer experience right and transforming the business through digital means.
- The key to understanding a situation is to know what caused it.
- Taking responsibility for the customer’s experience.
- The optimization of the customer experience must go hand in hand with the optimization of the process.
3. IT Infrastructure
A flexible, reliable, and secure IT infrastructure must meet an enterprise’s goals. Additionally, businesses can experience system disruptions and breaches if their IT infrastructure isn’t correctly implemented. Business profitability is primarily determined by the quality of the Infrastructure a company implements.
An IT infrastructure allows a company to do the following:
- Assuring all customers can access the company’s website and online store without interruption so they can have a positive experience.
- Developing and launching solutions to the market promptly is essential.
- Make quick decisions by collecting data in real-time and taking action promptly.
- Enhance the productivity of the employees.
4. Information management and analytics
Information management entails establishing and maintaining data structures, preparing, transferring, and analyzing data for the board and business insight purposes, and working with a general population, procedures, and innovations.
We probably already know that electronic and physical data are incorporated into information management. Throughout the data lifecycle, no matter where the data comes from or how it is arranged, the authoritative structure needs to be suited for handling this information.
To extract insight from real-world business data, you’ll need multiple skills, such as:
- Understanding the managerial problem in depth is the first step in solving it.
- Identifying and creating the data sources that can be used for analysis.
- Assisting in the design, validation, and implementation of analytical solutions.
- It is essential to communicate your results effectively.
What Are Digital Transformation Technologies?
A digital transformation is transforming business operations without a doubt. Using digital technology to manage their business, organizations can reinterpret how they engage with their customers by moving from traditional paper and spreadsheets to smart applications.
In 2022, digital transformation is in full swing, with new technologies and existing ones strengthening.
1. Cloud computing
Digital transformation cannot be completed without cloud computing, a critical technology that enables flexibility, scalability, and agility.
Using traditional storage services is insufficient to handle large amounts of data efficiently and securely. Cloud technology has become increasingly popular as a result of this realization. As a result, the manufacturing industry will adopt a surprising amount of Cloud technology within the next five years.
Public, hybrid and on-premise Cloud services can also be selected by organizations based on their needs. However, of the three options, the hybrid cloud is expected to be the most popular in 2022 regarding digital transformation for business.
2. Commoditized Information Technology
A commodity is an innovation that loses its lustre and becomes part of the everyday landscape. Due to this process, the prices of services and goods are dropping, and competition is increasing.
As technology has evolved, older innovations, such as laptops and programming, have become more accessible and less costly due to their commodity status.
Proactive participation is more effective than reactive response in a rapidly commoditizing industry. Although technology threatens to commoditize their products, manufacturing managers have several methods for staying competitive.
3. Mobile platforms
As one of the leading digital transformation technologies of all time, mobile has significantly changed society since its introduction in 1973.
Our daily lives are surrounded by mobile technology, whether at work or home. Thanks to 5G technology, manufacturing, industrial sectors, and other economic sectors have a wide range of opportunities.
As well as paving the path for other widely used digital transformation technologies, mobile technologies have the potential to catalyze innovation. A great example is virtual reality and augmented reality. For example, remote supervisors can provide interactive guidance via a smartphone to workers monitoring machine data points.
4. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Modern businesses are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence instead of fancy technology. As a result, business operations and decision-making are improved through artificial intelligence in organizations of all sizes.
Artificial intelligence can provide excellent analytical insights in this era of enhanced data availability, machine learning, and high-performance computing power. It opens the door to a new set of possibilities for solving problems in the future.
AI and machine learning are already used in the automotive, healthcare, retail, and IT industries. Organizations and individuals will soon have to make significant decisions based on AI. Our lives will be disrupted positively by the transformation it brings.
5. Blockchain
Transparency and trust are vital components of the blockchain transformation at hand. A centralized business model is ripe for competition in every industry, from financial services to social networks.
Business models like these could revolutionize commerce by leapfrogging existing Infrastructure. However, to prove that blockchain holds a significant commercial advantage over centralized databases, they must demonstrate that blockchain applications are advantageous.
Over the next 20 years, Bitcoin may be remembered as a stepping stone to the internet of value. In this world, people can securely exchange money, intellectual property, and other rights without intermediaries. In addition, Bitcoin has demonstrated the possibility of storing and transmitting value using blockchain technology.
6. Social Media
Social media’s widespread use and broad reach have become a powerful way to stimulate conversation among friends and colleagues. Meetings, communication, and expressing oneself are all possible in this area.
The trend of individuals using social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and others is nothing new, but not all businesses use them effectively. Social media is a great way to market your business, but they failed to realize how important it is to take advantage of its opportunities.
Getting more customers and reaching out to the global marketplace is possible through social media. You can attract targeted traffic by utilizing this tool, which is highly efficient and highly effective.
7. Internet of Things
It is no longer a strange concept to talk about the Internet of Things in today’s world. An internet-connected physical object consists of sensors, software, and other technologies that exchange data with other devices or systems over the internet. Physical objects are integrated with sensors, software, and other technologies.
Organizations should consider IoT a digital transformation technology because of its numerous benefits. A company’s goods and activities can be viewed in a way that cannot be matched. Integrating IoT into a company’s operations can improve internal and external knowledge of these operations.
IoT technology boasts enormous data, insights, and analytics that enable enterprises to achieve efficiency, flexibility, and customer experience goals as part of their digital transformation journeys.
8. Edge Computing
Organizations will also have a better chance of embracing the Internet of Things due to the digital transformation to edge computing technology. By doing so, they can come up with innovative solutions to problems.
Smart factories will operate more efficiently using edge computing coupled with Internet of Things technology, including sensors. Employees will have easier access to spotting and fixing problems on production lines with highly connected equipment.
Digital transformation initiatives will benefit significantly from the edge as the industry moves toward more decentralized computing environments.
How To Get Started With Digital Transformation?
Technology transformations can’t happen overnight in businesses and markets. Therefore, analyses and tests are conducted constantly throughout the process. Every company goes through this process differently based on its stage of development, positioning, niche, client relationships, and positioning.
It is still possible to create a unified digital transformation framework, which includes any organization’s essential steps. By combining these building blocks, businesses can develop unique approaches.
On their journey to digital transformation, many companies mistake laying off employees. As the business owner sees them as the key stakeholders, he hires several specialists with experience building tech-powered companies. Unfortunately, there is a lack of clarity among the other team members.
Four key factors make up a digital transformation framework:
- Process transformation – Implementing digital solutions to review business activities.
- Transaction automation – Automated software should be used for payment finalization rather than manually handling orders.
- Digital adoption – The company will have to develop an intelligent network of devices, both externally (company-to-client) and internally (internal management).
- Decision digitalization – Once the most primitive operations are automated, it’s time to use artificial intelligence and data science insights to improve decision-making.
Conclusion: Embrace Digital to Stand Out as a Future Business Leader
As a term, digital transformation refers to a wide range of components that, when put together, define how an organization interacts with its customers and clients. However, the financial aspect isn’t the fundamental obstacle for any organization going through a digital transformation. The transition eventually lowers operational expenses if done correctly.
Get in touch with Parangat, if you’re wanting to embrace digital transformation for your business and want to collaborate with a team of specialists. Without decreasing your present productivity, we have the skills to digitize your processes and operations. For more information, contact us right away!
