Digital transformation has become a buzzword in the last few years. It presents many opportunities that revolve around the constantly changing landscape of digital technology.
Defining, implementing, and utilizing digital transformation all solely depend on your business and its needs. For some companies, the keywords “digital transformation” means exactly that – revolutionizing their digital technology. For others, it means strategizing a business plan for the future.
Technology is not the only factor in digital transformation; you also need to consider people – your customers and staff – and business processes.
What is digital transformation?
Broadly put, digital transformation is the process of rethinking, reorganizing, and redefining business processes to make them more suitable to digital technologies.
A company can benefit by adopting a digital transformation strategy. It reduces costs by modernizing business models and operations, and increases revenue by providing innovative customer experiences in order to attract new customers in an increasingly competitive market.
However, digital transformation is not just about technology and the tools we use. It’s integrated into human activities and culture. It means businesses need to continuously change their work culture and seek better solutions to keep up with the modern workplace, as well as technology.
Several of the main driving forces behind digital transformation are:
1. Delivering top customer experience
The heart of every business’ operation should be delivering the highest quality customer experience. A study found that 63% of customers will abandon an organization or brand without a word if they have a less than satisfactory experience.
Investing in new technologies, business models, and taking the time to educate your staff on customer service regularly can ensure that you are able to offer a better experience in both quality and speed of service – both of which equals happier customers.
2. Insights lead to better decisions
With the right technology, you will be able to access greater volumes of data which can, in turn, generate insights and feedback into your business: productivity, trends, customer experience, discrepancies.
Businesses can improve their revenue using data-based insights to focus on the right areas that are important to their customers. Data can be monitored in real time, allowing you to keep a minute-by-minute watch on your business and how it is performing.
3. Quicker adaptation to trends
The ability for a business to improve and adapt quickly as new challenges arise is crucial to its success; digital processes are becoming ever more central to this need for speed. A recent study stated that 68% of companies ranked agility in the top three initiatives of digital transformation.
However, digital landscapes change so rapidly that it can be difficult for organizations to acclimatize and keep up. The speed with which technology advances is a key factor to how you deliver your services: do you adapt and transform, or wait and suffer the potential losses from failing to act?
4. Automation means ease
Among businesses, artificial intelligence (AI) is largely used to automate simple or repetitive tasks, freeing up valuable time that can be spent on more important tasks.
Practical automation can be applied in many ways to enhance business efficiency and productivity, from mass data input, collection, and analysis, to simple automatic actions like adding tasks to your calendar or paying salaries.
How can you transform your business?
Successful digital transformation requires the right people, processes, technology, and data. All four need to be carefully considered, both in how they operate now, and how you want them to operate to improve your business services.
When introducing new technology to your already-existing IT infrastructure, it is vitally important that you keep both your customers and your employees in mind. The best data and technology serve to enhance the experience of both parties; if it is difficult or tedious for your employees to utilize, then the tech is simply not supporting or optimizing your existing processes.
Businesses that prioritize a digital presence can’t forget about the back end where true change starts. It goes without saying that people and process still need to be in place, or else that data will be useless.
End-users should be one of your main focuses when considering digital transformation. If your business processes become more efficient, or you can manage budgets better, generally the benefits are felt by the company implementing them. This goes a long way in pleasing your customers.
That ever-evolving lever for success, technology, can greatly help to transform the future of your business. Digital transformation is allowing businesses to become more efficient, thanks to the power of data and technology. This enables you to provide an enhanced customer experience, and increases your employee’s productivity.
Leveraging the right digital tech for your business will help you to evolve and keep up with demand. For example, introducing automated services into your company – like data management – can free up time and resources that you can refocus towards more important aspects of your business.
Get advice from the best
If you are still unsure if a digital transformation strategy is right for your business, talk to the experts at Merit Technologies. They can help you redefine your business methods through digital means to keep ahead of the curve and deliver the best services in your field.
