Technology is changing the habits of doing business, and digital transformation for companies is becoming increasingly important in all sectors, from financial services to industrial manufacturing to retail.
Implementing it, however, does not seem so easy to everyone.
In our article we look at what are the central aspects of digital transformation (including strategy setting and software solutions) and point you to three ways to implement it: a flexible IT environment, customer focus, and multichannel.
What are the benefits of digital transformation?
Digital transformation means implementing new business models and greater use of technology to improve the experience of employees, customers, suppliers, partners and all parts of the organization. It enables:
- Reduce bureaucracy and make it faster to carry out a given operation;
- Reduce costs, especially those related to filing and file management;
- Increase job security and data protection;
- Introduce technologies that enable rapid response to market demands, leading to increased productivity and revenue.
Key aspects of digital changes
There are some aspects that must be considered central when talking about digital transformation: let's look at them together.
Aligning all business departments
Theaptitude for digital transformation must be introduced into the company in all business departments. Only the active collaboration of all people within the company makes it possible to transform the company by making it leaner and more efficient.
To be successful, new hardware and software must be accompanied by a change in mindset. For this, business leaders must collaborate with all departments and manage any resistance to digital change, verify that everyone and everything aligns with company values, aiming for desired results and mitigating risks and costs.
By involving more voices around the goals, it will be easier to aim for the long-term success of digital initiatives.
Defining a strategy
Strategy is critical in the digital transformation process for companies: establishing a clear digital action plan helps achieve goals. Absence of planning, in fact, leads to an incomplete and unsatisfactory result.
The strategy defines overall purpose and goals that enable a complete digital transformation to be applied in the company, managing all aspects of the organization as efficiently as possible. This helps to adapt to changes and achieve stability in the face of crisis situations.
Tools and technologies for digital transformation
Along with cultural change, the technical component of digital transformation must be developed.
Reducing the complexity of enterprise technology systems allows the technology infrastructure to be optimized and prepared for change. From management to software for business intelligence, from CRM to document management: all software that helps optimize all business processes.
Introducing automation through technology into the enterprise helps simplify processes. It is an important resource that helps improve the work process and create more productivity, as it allows people to get rid of routine tasks to focus on solving more complex problems.
The role of the client
In the process of digital transformation, companies must not forget the centrality of customers. Customers who, as they too are users of the network, have achieved greater awareness and knowledge and know how to move better in the search for information, products and services.
In fact, users today seek transparency and clarity in the processes and services in which they are involved, seek easy and intuitive proposals, and demand active discussion and listening with companies.
Thanks to social media, it is also increasingly easy to express their opinion, their positive experiences but also their frustration: if they have a negative experience with your company, they can express it with a post, a comment, a tweet on social networks. This leads to negative consequences when it comes to image, but it also affects sales.
3 ways to achieve digital transformation in companies
Digital transformation offers companies the opportunity to create a flexible digital environment and understand their customers to meet their needs.
We see below three ways to apply digital transformation in companies.
1. A flexible and high-performance IT environment
Today's business world requires the right technology in order to initiate and enhance digital strategies.
Digital transformation requires the implementation of hardware and software, high-performance solutions that simplify, speed up and optimize all business processes.
Therefore, solutions that are:
- Customizable: each company has its own needs and specific organizational processes, so solutions should be chosen that can adapt to specific needs, not standard software;
- Scalable: software must adapt as the company grows, accompanying business changes quickly and easily;
- Accessible: access to documents on different platforms (computers, tablets, smartphones) and interoperability of solutions should be ensured, which makes business communication smooth and efficient.
Software for document management and workflow enable the mapping of business processes: they connect people and activities by defining operational links and sequences that automate the sharing of documents and projects. This allows the entire organization to be better structured, simplifying activities and increasing productivity.
2. Customer focus, with use of CRM
The marketing that works best today is that which establishes a personal relationship with customers, which makes them feel like unique and special individuals.
Therefore, it is essential to know their personal preferences, purchase history, to realize a personalized experience that can recommend products and services suitable for them.
This requires the use of a CRM, a customer relationship management software. CRM allows you to store how your company (the marketing, sales and service departments) interacts with potential and acquired customers, so you can provide a unique and personalized experience.
A CRM system is a great marketing tool because it allows you to analyze and study customer data based on previous interactions with your company: general inquiries, interactions on social, behavior on the Web site, discussions discussing products, direct dealings with salespeople, and service requests. All of this data can be used to create highly targeted messages, delivering the right message to the right person.
3. The importance of multichannel
Technology today is increasingly diverse, more pervasive, and real-time, and customers feel they can get what they want, when they want it, and how they want it.
Companies must therefore find solutions-even automated ones, such as chatboxes-to be able to offer immediacy, service customization, and ongoing accessibility to their customers.
Multichannel is an important factor, as customers today are no longer tied to one channel. They explore in-store, shop online, share feedback via mobile apps, and ask questions to the support team on social networks. Moving to multichannel, applying the right interaction strategies, allows you to reach them more effectively.
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