Most organisations consider digital transformation services to be a complicated chapter. 88 percent depend on third parties to handle the transformation. Adopting these latest changes is instrumental to stay relevant and competitive. It is crucial for businesses to start and progress the transition.
Digital Transformation – Definition
Digital transformation is the next best process to use digital technologies to develop new strategies and/or modify existing business culture, processes, as well as customer experience. It is now, changing the requirements of the market and businesses. The re-imagination process has already begun and also digital transformation.
The concept of digital transformation is based on customer engagement. As we rely on spreadsheets and smart applications to manage businesses, there is a vast scope of doing business. But, it’s all about how you do it, how you engage with customers, and how you utilize digital technology.
In other words, digital transformation can also be defined as the integration of innovative digital technology into various areas of businesses to fundamentally change operations and deliver quality customer service. It also introduced a cultural change in business that demands organisations to consistently challenge experiments, status quo, and accept failure.
You may come across other conflicting definitions of digital transformation services. Author Greg Verdino, for example, emphasizes on the expectations of businesses that are undergoing digital transformation. According to Verdino’s definition, “Digital transformation closes the gap between what digital customers already expect and what analogue businesses actually deliver.”
Wikipedia defines it as, “Digital transformation is the change associated with the application of digital technology in all aspects of the human society.”
Why is Digital Transformation Important?
An article written by Howard King and published in The Guardian opines states that, “Businesses don’t transform by choice because it is expensive and risky. Businesses go through transformation when they have failed to evolve.”
IDC and Worldwide Semi-annual Digital Transformation Spending Guide forecasts that global spending on services and technologies to enable digital transformation shall cross $1.97 trillion by 2022.
IDC also predicts that digital transformation expenses would grow steadily to achieve a five-year annual growth at a rate of 16.7 percent from 2017 to 2022.
According to The Hackett Group research on 2018 data, advanced analytics is the key digital investment. It also emphasizes the growing importance of machine learning and visualisation tools.
Most organisations are still in the process of adapting to digital transformation whereIT leaders are under pressure to prove that their digital initiatives continue to transform into speed and agility for their respective organisations.
The Digital Transformation Framework
The framework and structure of digital transformation vary largely depending on the organisation, its specific challenges, customer demands, and related factors. While some of these factors are constant, others may differ.
Some of the common elements of digital transformation are:
- Customer experience
- Agility of operations
- Work culture
- Leadership
- Workforce deployment
- Digital technology integration
Factors Driving Digital Transformation
Technology is one of the most important elements of digital transformation. In order to evolve with the rapid pace of digital changes most businesses must work to increase the efficiency of technology by adopting some agile principles. Automation technologies may also assist IT organisations in gaining speed and reducing technical liability.
Key Benefits of Digital Transformation Services
Improve Customer Experience
The world is obsessed with fast-changing technology, apps, social media, and the changing face of communication. People look up for solutions online and expect a fast result.
Customer experience is the heart of the digital era. The key focus is to use the latest technology and transform their experience. Many organisations acknowledge this, and 92 percent of leaders are developing mature strategies to enhance customer experience with digital transformation services.
The key to successful customer experience in this transformation process includes:
- Designing and digitizing customer journey
- Increasing agility and speed insights
- Achieving customer participation for an innovative digital experience
- Developing rapidity to deliver journey transformation
Companies that uphold the digital revolution earn greater authority, respect, and trust from customers.
Data-driven Insights
As business goes digital, it only becomes easier for them to track metrics and analyse data collected through digital marketing. Using the same insights, businesses can optimize their processes and strategies for better results.
Costs and returns are the two most important concerns in business. Any change is only possible when data-based insights are integrated with the company culture.
With data-based insights, it would be possible to understand the customers and their feeds better. Furthermore, the same analysis can be used to enable a relevant, hyper-personalised, agile, and real-time feedback strategy. Businesses can use both structured and unstructured data, thus collecting data from various sides of the business and driving the transformation journey.
Better Collaboration across Departments
Change is inevitable but its fear still lingers among-st people. The very thought of transforming an entire organisation is discouraging for the workforce. Transformation demands to address all strategies and processes right from the core structure to the company culture.
To make this a success, the company needs to maintain a strong communication and unity across all verticals. Employees should be ready to break down social division and age gaps, and engage in learning and conversing together. With solid leadership, digital intelligence can be improved.
Increased Agility
Agility is the capability of improving and developing consistently and quickly, especially with respect to the digital process. In fact, 68 percent of companies consider agility to be the top three considerations for innovation in many industries.
The fast-developing and perpetually changing digital landscape leaves no time for businesses to relax. Even the person holding the top chair is always ready to innovate and adapt.
Restructured Knowledge and Skill Sets
A new culture has a stratospheric effect and demands specialised skills to grow.
The future of digital transformation services rest on the following skill sets:
- AI (Artificial Intelligence)
- AR (Augmented Reality)
- Machine Learning
- Cloud Computing
- Growth Hacking
- Data Exploration & Analytics
Altimeter reports that 31 percent of companies lack digital experience and talent between the workforce and their leadership. The inhibition of change and the fear of rising costs are great concerns.
However, by braving this challenge, businesses can actually allow their employees to learn these skills for the future, and equip their companies with in-house knowledge for sustained growth.
There’s a lot more to digital transformation services than the aforementioned ones. It would be wise to say that digital transformation has a bright future. There is a great need to implement the same within a few years. It’s not new, but rather different.
