Digital Transformation as a service

The opportunities are endless, and keep growing all the time as technology evolves at break-neck speed. Managers transform their business operations by taking advantage of:

• • Web and mobile applications – ecommerce stores, transactional apps, resource management tools, customer relationship management software
  • Cloud services – scalable servers and computing power, endless services that provide different types of technology on-demand
  • Big Data – tools to collect, store, manage, and analyze huge amounts of data
  • Internet of Things – sensors, automatic switches, trackers, point-of-sale devices
  • AI and Machine Learning – recommendation and personalization systems, prediction systems, automation of tedious processes

Most industry marketers will try to convince you that digital transformation is an innovative, revolutionary new way to run your business and make more profits. It’s not that simple, and this kind of thinking can lead to a failed transformation. 

It’s actually a very organic consequence of how digital technology evolves over time. Machines, software, and networks are getting more powerful, more reliable and easier to use. It only makes sense to use this to your advantage.  

To put the process of digital transformation in motion, you don’t need to perform any rigorous analysis at first. It all starts with observation and discussion. Look at what takes up a lot of time for your employees. Ask them about the most tedious parts of their work, or areas where they see room for improvement. Get advice from smart, trusted digital experts. 

Above all, don’t rush into overhyped technologies because some expert wrote an article about how companies will fail if they don’t adopt the coolest new tech. 

Everyone knows that there’s value in technology. It’s not always clear how to unlock that value. When business needs collide with technological capabilities, it can have a wide range of consequences. How do you increase your chances of a positive outcome? 

→ Educate and train 

Everyone, every day, spends at least some of their time in the digital realm. It doesn’t mean that we all have the same level of digital literacy. Generation Z workers might not be accustomed to using email. Gen X’ers might prefer email over Slack. There are a lot of small differences like this among people who work in your organization. 

If you’re introducing new tools and standards, you might face pushback because it’s hard to change people’s habits. You can solve this by launching training programs and educational materials to help everyone get up to speed. 

 → Sell your team (or customers) on your project 

Not everyone is an early adopter of technology, always eager to try out the new apps and devices. Especially when it means a large investment and time commitment to introduce company-wide change. 

If you’re the one who’s driving this change, you need to be ready to provide proof to support the viability of your project. 

→ Ensure smooth onboarding 

How did half of the world’s population end up on Facebook? They weren’t the first to build a social media platform, yet they ate up most of the market. 

Part of their success was that they were very smart about onboarding new users. Growth marketers at Facebook found out that if they instantly connected you with several people you knew, you’d instantly see the value of Facebook and stay on it. That’s the power of a great onboarding experience when it comes to digital technology.

When Uber disrupted the taxi market, the whole world shook from the anger it caused among old-school taxi drivers. Understandably so - their jobs used to be relatively secure, and now they were suddenly faced with competition from anybody with a car and a smartphone. 

That’s digital transformation on a global scale. But conflicts like these can also happen when it comes to transformation within a company. So, an important thing to keep in mind throughout this process is that technology is meant to simplify things. It’s not hard to build overly complicated systems with unnecessary features. The real challenge is to build systems that perfectly fit the business need, in a way that empowers your employees.