What is Digital Transformation?

Digital Transformation - it’s the word on every business’ lips right now. As we become ever more reliant on technology, brands are increasingly looking to boost digitisation and digitalisation across their organisation.

In fact, Gartner’s findings showed that the global Digital Transformation market is anticipated to grow to $1,009.8 billion by 2025 - over double what it was in 2020.

In this article, we explore Digital Transformation and how your business can best implement it for maximum success.

What is Digital Transformation? 

With so many people talking about why it’s vital, sometimes it can be hard to find a clear definition of what Digital Transformation involves. In some ways, it can have several meanings from business to business.

Simply put, it concerns the adoption of digital technology by organisations to innovate processes, strategies, and offerings as a way of bringing new value to employees and customers. It also ensures cultural management is aptly considered, as businesses often implement wide-scale changes to their operations. Doing this can save time and costs, and most importantly can help to future-proof your business.

Examples of Digital Transformation include:

• Automation - This involves using technology to automate repetitive tasks, especially in back office use cases. This also includes RPA, which allows you to get a set of scripts that process your data, emails, MI, and more into a set of workflows, rather than doing those steps manually.
• Machine learning and artificial intelligence - Using the latest data and algorithms to increase AI learning as a way of boosting accuracy and efficiency.
• IOT (Internet of Things) - Using sensors and devices to enhance business efficiencies.
• Cloud connectivity - This is where companies work in collaboration across connected networks to increase agility. It also allows you to leverage platforms like AWS, offering scalability and redundancy without needing to build and maintain your own hardware.
• User Experience - This provides customers with new and improved digital journey experiences, including ecommerce routes and portals.

Ultimately, it is a continuous process that is always evolving and changing depending on the needs of your market, employees, and customers.

Why has Digital Transformation become so popular? 

In short, businesses and consumers are expecting more digital touchpoints, greater efficiency, and improved accuracy than ever before. Technology is evolving at an ever increasing pace, and it takes a concerted effort to ensure you are aligned with the current, rather than fighting it.

With more data accessible than at any point previously, businesses can leverage this to their advantage. When done successfully, organisations can feel that they are making more informed decisions off the back of data-driven transformation projects, which can lead to increased profits and better-optimised resources. Using this data, businesses can seek ways to provide additional offerings to their customers, using insights to guide them in the right direction. With a potential reduction in manual offline processes, businesses that successfully implement a Digital Transformation can also benefit from streamlined efficiencies.

Over the past three decades, businesses have been gradually increasing their use of digital technology; however, the real turning point was during the COVID-19 pandemic when people were forced to work at home and customers more widely purchased products and services online as brick-and-mortar stores closed. In the years since, these types of behaviours have become the norm.

E-commerce is now expected to grow to $47.7 trillion by 2030 and part of this is due to increased Digital Transformation from retail businesses. Elsewhere, almost all UK adults (98%) own a phone, meaning that other B2C businesses need to have an online presence with a streamlined offering to more effectively capture their customers.

For employees and B2B businesses, Digital Transformation has also become a key focus. A recent study showed that 91% want digital solutions, with 88% believing that such tech is vital to their employee experience. Increased efficiencies will often mean that employees have more time to spend on more complex tasks, rather than menial ones. As a result, it can increase satisfaction and productivity within the workplace.

Organisations that fail to embrace Digital Transformation will soon fall behind their competitors, and with 77% of enterprises already having their Digital Transformation journeys underway, brands must find ways to increase their digital services and processes sooner rather than later.

How does data support Digital Transformation? 

One of the biggest ways technology has made advancements is in how it generates data. This can extend to real-time data, providing fast insight into your customers, competitors, supply chain, and market.

With information more readily available, data can improve customer experiences in multiple ways. This includes receiving quicker responses to inquiries, whilst also making services more personalised and targeted, which could increase acquisition and ROI in the long term.

Elsewhere, businesses can use AI and machine learning to automate workflows including promotion planning and demand forecasting, delivering more accurate strategies in less time. Generative AI can also be adopted as part of a Digital Transformation to help increase content creation productivity and model data-driven scenarios for activities such as predictive analytics, supply chain planning and risk mitigation. With these insights and automations, businesses can allocate time and budgets more effectively, increasing profits overall.

How can I introduce Digital Transformation into my business? 

Previously, businesses may have built a growth strategy and then looked at which technologies they could use to implement it. Now, new technologies should be at the forefront of any successful strategic business decision.

For many, it may be hard to know where to start with Digital Transformation, as it can be a widespread change across an organisation.

Creating an effective strategy and Digital Transformation roadmap is the key to success, and it’s important to understand your objectives and the timescales you want to achieve. Here are several things to consider:

1. Take time to really understand your sector and how your company fits within it. This must also include your customers and their current relationship with your business.
2. Consider where the industry is going based on trending news and patterns of behaviour from your customers. 
3. Look internally to understand your business operations and what could be improved. Perhaps there are complexities or roadblocks that can be simplified. 
4. Establish where you’d like your business to be in the future and make a timeline for when you would like this to be achieved. 

Agreeing on your strategy between senior members is the first step to adopting the plan; however, all members of your organisation will also need to be on board for your transformation project to succeed. This is particularly important in companies with cross-functional teams who need to work collaboratively alongside each other.

This is where a well-considered onboarding programme, implemented alongside the launch of your Digital Transformation tactics, is key to ensuring everyone understands the overall goal and how to use the new technologies available to them. If employees appreciate the benefits and the need for these changes, Digital Transformation will be more widely adopted across the organisation. However, in some cases, employees may feel that technology could replace the need for their jobs, and so clear and empathic communication is needed where necessary.

Furthermore, it might be that you need to hire a dedicated Digital Transformation champion to drive your efforts. In short, the only way that change will be successful is with a strong and collaborative approach where everyone feels involved; it’s important to remember that Digital Transformation is as much a cultural change as it is a technological one for your business.

How we can help

Here at Freebook Global Technologies, we can help you on your journey towards Digital Transformation. As a digital agency, we use our data-driven approach to consult on how best to implement effective strategies and technologies into your business for the benefit of your employees and customers. As your digital partner, we can not only help to strategise and plan your Digital Transformation roadmap, but we can also help to implement it through our development, infrastructure, cloud, and marketing services.

Our team is on hand to offer consultations that focus on long-term strategy initiatives by considering audience personas, market trends, PESTLE factors and emerging technologies, setting ambitious goals that align with lean initiatives. With our Digital Transformation services, we can also ensure a successful transition that complements your current processes and infrastructure, keeping all your data safe from harm while increasing your ROI and market presence.

If you would like to discuss Digital Transformation with our team, contact us here.