We are living in the age of digitalization. The digital world is reshaping every aspect of our lives. Businesses around the world are embracing digital transformation to optimize their performance. The changes range from infrastructure remodelling to the incorporation of new technologies. Organizations often shy away from large scale adjustments. However, the competitive edge requires complete business transformation to meet the criteria of a digital age.
Capitalism has spurred the rise of the free market. Big businesses use the latest technologies for enhancing their reach to customers. Subsequently, small companies also follow the suit. So far, digital transformation has been of benefit to the customers as well as the company owners. Business models built around digitalization drive the change in the real world.
Almost all businesses have taken some steps towards digital transformation since the emergence of the internet. Eight of ten respondents in a survey by McKinsey in 2018, said that their organization has taken some measures towards digitalizing a few operations in the past five years. These efforts were mostly inspired by the promising results of digital transformations in the early days of the technological revolution.
Every other business is applying digital strategies for increased return on investment (ROI). Nonetheless, not every other business is successful in eating the fruit. This is because transformations are hard. In this blog, we will get into the nitty-gritty of digital transformation.
What is Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation is experimenting with digital inventions for delivering more value to your existing customers and acquiring new ones. Businesses make use of digital technologies to evolve the existing business model. Moreover, new operations are added to optimize the services.
The process of digital transformation starts with customers’ need. A business owner has to analyze the whole process by putting their feet in the customer’s shoes. It gives the perspective on what needs to change.
Complete remodelling is a time taking process. Organizations can take multiple years to absorb the digital process. However, it is an ongoing task. New digital technologies come into the market every other day. Hence, companies have to adapt to the ever-changing digital arena.
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Business owners often build a website to spread awareness about their products and create a mother touchpoint for customers to reach them. Websites automate plenty of procedures freeing up the time of the on-site workforce. Besides, it streamlines the journey of the customers.
All in all, digital transformation improves the experience of customers as well as employees. It is an evolving process. Thus, businesses need to seek out ways and leverage new technologies for keeping up with the market.
How to Lead Digital Transformation?
A profitable digital transformation strategy involves multiple steps. There are two factors crucial for consideration here
The type of Organization: The tech-savvy organizations such as high tech, media and telecom are easier to transform. However, the digitalization of the Real Estate, Medical and Automotive industries require radical changes. The success rate of transformation declines in the latter.
Number of Employees: Small companies can easily adapt to a digitally transformed environment. On the other hand, big companies have to deal with complexities in the process.
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The goal of transformation is to bring a change and create a self-sustaining business model which keeps the change in the long run.
Here is how you can lead the digital transformation in your organization to get maximum benefits.
Start with Customers’ Insights:
While introducing digital transformation, it is important to consider customers’ insight. You can ask customers for feedback through different means. It helps you decide which areas of the business model need the most transformation. You can bring change while keeping your overall edge.
Get the Right Man for the Job:
If you want the digital transformation to the tee, then it’s time to brings some changes in the management. Hire a tech-savvy leader for overseeing the process of digitalization.
There is a wide range of digital technologies. A good leader will choose the ones that best suit your business’s niche. Moreover, he can guide the employees on how to take maximum advantage of the changes.
Reassign Roles:
Let’s say one of your employees has an email marketing job. You decide to incorporate new digital technology that automates the email process. Now the employee has to deal with the automated system. Hence, management has to assign new roles and responsibilities that align with digital transformation.
Use Digital Technologies for Mundane Tasks:
Mundane and repetitive tasks eat up the productivity of employees. Automation is the time and energy saver in this regard. Incorporate digital tools to automate day to day operations. Organizations can also modify the processes to facilitate the use of digital technologies. Eventually, successful digital transformations lead to increased output of the company.
Keep the Communication Channel Open:
During the big changes in the business model, it is important to keep the communication channel open. Layout the whole digital transformation strategy in front of your organizations’ stakeholders. Be clear about where you are headed. Moreover, take the feedback from all channels to make sure that changes are effective.
Now we know the deal of digital transformation. Let’s discuss a few technologies that lead to a digitally transformed business.
Digital Technologies for Business Transformation
Organizations use an array of technologies to digitally transform their business models. Nevertheless, some technologies are more common than the rest. Here are the commonly used technologies in the business world.
Mobile Applications:
Mobile applications can instantly increase the reach of businesses by providing another marketing touchpoint. You can personalize your efforts by gathering more data on how potential customers interact with your services.
Artificial Intelligence:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) helps in making sense of data from all the resources. Subsequently, the business can define actions based on data science. For instance, e-commerce businesses can integrate customization features and display ads based on customer’s interest with the use of AI.
Cloud Computing:
Cloud computing is a growing trend following coronavirus pandemic. Organizations can keep a back-up of all their data on the cloud and get rid of the material infrastructure. Moreover, clouds are saviours when it comes to remote working conditions.
Digital Transformation Reshaping Business Models
Digital transformation reshapes business models in all aspects. A digitally modified business focuses on improvement in customer experience, acceleration of business growth and an increase in employees’ efficiency.
Here are the features of new digital business:
- Sales and business goals are set beforehand. All efforts are steered towards achieving those goals.
- The progress is monitored digitally. Numbers and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are available for all stakeholders.
- Digital globalization brings the digital modified business in competition with the global world at large. This increases the number of people potentially interested in your products or services.
- Digital adoption improves the experience of customers and the workforce while interacting with each other.
- Digital business models are easy to refashion in the long run.
Succeed with Reformative Digital Strategy
The strategy for the digital transformation of the business depends on multiple factors. The most effective approach increases the ROI and overall performance of the business.
- The businesses should follow the below-mentioned steps in developing a reformative digital strategy.
- Evaluate the current state of your businesses. Identify the key areas where you can bring improvement with digitalization.
- Pay close attention to competitors and other businesses in your niche who have already applied digital transformation.
- Hire the workforce necessary for leading digital change.
- Start experimenting with digital technologies. Furthermore, teach digital literacy skills to your employees.
- Implement the changes and adapt according to the new virtual reality.
Digital transformation is a continual process. It requires you to reimagine the workplace and change the ways of executing certain operations. Moreover, the open channels of communication make the room for improvement in the process.
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Closing Thoughts:
Digital Transformation was the trend of the decade. However, the unprecedented challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic have made it the trend of the year. Businesses are rapidly adapting to the new reality of work from home. Digital transformation is a crucial part of this change. Hence, we see digital businesses emerge as a result of digital globalization.
The success or failure of digital transformation depends on the digital strategy. A good digital strategy will inevitably lead to a successful business model which pays off not with performance optimization and increased returns on investment (ROI).
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