The digital revolution forced every organization to reinvent itself, or at least rethink how it goes about doing business. Most large companies have invested substantial cash in what is generally labelled “digital transformation.” While those investments are projected to top $6.8 trillion by 2023, they’re often made without seeing clear benefits or ROI. Although these failures have multiple causes, they are generally the result of underestimating the various steps or stages required to successfully execute a transformation agenda. However, it’s an expensive and risky undertaking to reinvent the way an enterprise operates. So, before you commit to a plan, let’s look at some successful digital transformation examples across multiple industries to help you chart your course ahead. It’s also worth noting that while digital transformation is something that businesses undertake, the effect goes well beyond business.
The crucial first step is to outline the benefits of sustainability in ways your audience can relate to. For instance, a CFO would of course need to understand the commercial benefit of baking sustainability into the business pie – not only cost out, but over the long term, cost optimization and operational excellence. For employees, it’s about connecting them with the purpose and values of the company, what it stands for, and how sustainability goals and their ongoing support can make a difference. This is why successful, growing businesses must have a strong process in place for growing talent pipelines and tapping into wider talent pools to remain competitive.
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A robust digital workplace enhances the ability to stay on track and productive without feeling the heat of transformation. Well, not so much when you realize that less than 30 percent of an organization’s technology partners are digitally transformed or run any digital transformation initiative. It is no longer enough to rely solely on traditional brick-and-mortar models; organizations must accelerate their digital capabilities in order to keep up with new advancements and customer expectations. As the world of business continues to change rapidly, digital transformation has become a crucial factor in any organization’s success. Farmers Insurance is now using drones to conduct risk and damage assessments, roof inspections, and more. Since the drones are connected to the company via cloud computing using the Internet of Things (IoT), they’re able to transmit data analytics instantaneously for much faster assessment results.
As we’ll show, successful digital transformations hinge less on how companies use digital and more on how they become digital. Like many commonly used phrases, “digital transformation” has devolved into a catchall term that means different things to different people. Digital transformation is critical for organizations to not only compete but survive. If leaders can’t be clear about what a digital transformation is—and align their organization around a specific program—they can’t expect to be successful. Organizational inertia is a primary culprit, according to a new research briefing by CISR researchers Ina M. Sebastian; Thomas Haskamp, who is also a researcher at Hasso Plattner Institute; and Nils O. Fonstad. This inertia sets in when organizations focus on incremental changes to successful existing business practices and resist exploring new ways to add value through the adoption of new digital technologies.
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Another push towards digital transformation may simply be to make things more convenient for your audience. Online portals are driving most of the change, such as telematics driver behavior monitoring, the ease of document access, and the ease of filing a claim solely from your phone. The list of martech options goes on and on, and these software solutions are having a positive impact. As a B2B industry, the main attraction for their clients is the ability to reduce costs in all manners, and even to increase yield. In communications, faxing used to be the norm, but today, it’s virtually extinct.
There are many reasons why digital transformation is so important for businesses today. First, it allows companies to respond more quickly and effectively to changing market demands. As digital technologies dramatically reshape industry after industry, many companies are pursuing large-scale change efforts to capture the benefits of these trends or simply to keep up with competitors.
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When it comes to tech, the chief information officer typically focuses on improving the inner workings of the company with technology. The chief technology officer usually works on improving customer offerings with technology. Chief digital officers, in many cases, act as coleaders of the transformation and typically work with digital and AI technologies to create new digital experiences for users. To succeed with continuous digital transformation, it is also critical to have the right people in place. This means recruiting employees who are skilled at using technology and data to drive innovation and positive change, as well as retaining existing talent through effective leadership and incentives.
- At organizations that follow this practice, a successful transformation is more than three times more likely.
- Businesses may increase their agility with digital transformation to improve speed-to-market and embrace Continuous Improvement (CI) techniques by borrowing from the field of software development.
- What’s more, they’ve invested in countless additional digital initiatives, including delivery by autonomous vehicles and electric bikes.
- Being close to the customers you serve helps you understand their expectations and apply digital transformation to meet them.
- If digital transformation initiatives also improve business offerings, you can open new revenue streams to further increase profitability.
- Increased efficiency, greater business agility and, ultimately, the unlocking of new value for employees, customers and shareholders.
The authors highlight the distinctive features of business digitalization and its digital transformation. The fact that digital transformation affects the activities of many business structures, regardless of the scale of the business, is noted. Additionally, the authors describe the main aspects and benefits of business transformation by using digital technologies. As we have seen in traditional change efforts, clear communication is critical during a digital transformation. More specifically, one key to success is communicating a change story, which helps employees understand where the organization is headed, why it is changing, and why the changes are important.
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In the end, cutting corners leads to frustrated employees and wasted investment. Teams aren’t able to get returns on their technology investment and struggle to be productive with their new digital technologies. Cloud computing also allows businesses to access the latest software and services without spending too much money or time on IT infrastructure. There are some aspects of digital transformation which can be adopted overtime and some needs to be accelerated to remain competitive. As for investors, many are getting very particular about the companies they want to put their money into, and if a company doesn’t have a clear sustainability mission, solid goals and an airtight plan for achieving them, they’ll walk away. Sustainability is a sophisticated strategy, and investors look for that kind of business maturity – otherwise, you’re restricting your investor pool.
This can be done by writing down the common vision and having everyone on the same page. So, here are the top reasons why digital transformation is essential for your business. We also found that using remote and digital communications to convey the transformation’s vision does a much better job of supporting success than in-person or traditional channels. When senior managers and initiative leaders use new digital channels to reach employees remotely, the rate of success is three times greater. Understand digital transformation and how our insights can help drive business value. The common denominator with all these transformations is the shift towards efficiency through increased digitization.
Important Components of Digital Transformation
Integiro’s perspective is that every company should be, and at some point will be, a financial technology company. To earn loyalty and build a better customer experience, you should keep innovating. Desktop Metal, for example, is altering the state of manufacturing with a novel digital technology for 3D printed metal. Beyond automotive solutions, there are also applications https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ across the medical, dental, aerospace, and even luxury markets. Competitors adapted to provide even more capability and convenience (or they struggled and maybe even disappeared). Today, customers expect to conduct all business digitally, wherever, and whenever, using any device, with all the supporting information and content they need close at hand.
But any time you introduce new technologies to your team, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to pick up on what they should be doing. Regardless of your digital transformation goals, a DAP tool like Whatfix can make it easier to achieve them. When it’s easier for teams to collaborate, they can work more productively, https://www.globalcloudteam.com/what-digital-transformation-means-for-business/ develop new ideas faster, and support customers more efficiently. As we move further into a remote and digital-first work environment, our teams need ways to collaborate with each other and with customers. Digital transformation can help introduce new tools that make staying in touch as easy as possible.
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For example, companies might use data about consumer preferences to develop new products or improve existing ones. They might also use CRM data to target marketing campaigns more effectively or respond more quickly to customer inquiries. By leveraging new technologies and innovative approaches to deliver better products and services, companies are able to provide a more satisfying customer experience that meets the evolving needs of today’s consumers.