Digital technology was traditionally viewed by modern businesses as some sort of support system rather than an active driver. It’s been considered only good to use as a productivity tool instead of a major aspect of the business. This view, however, changed drastically as the Internet, mobile devices, and pervasive connectivity became more connected with one another.
As the Fourth Industrial Age progresses, it is time for enterprises to bring about the new stage of digital technology through detailed planning, precise collaborations, and participation in every part of the organization. As more businesses understand its importance, digital transformation has slowly risen in status from a basic trend to something that is indispensable in modern enterprise strategy.
Below we take a closer look at the importance of digital transformation and how it paves the way for the growth of modern enterprises.
Factors encouraging the move to digital
Eight-nine percent of modern buyers use a search engine to uncover details about a specific product or service. This indicates just how widespread the use of the Internet is. It can no longer be treated as a niche marketing channel; rather, it has assumed the position of a worthwhile future investment. It has reached the top of the mantle. Online channels are currently the simplest and most economical way of capturing a large knowledgeable audience.
Most people nowadays remain connected via social media networks. This is a highly lucrative and expansive market for modern enterprises to penetrate and evaluate the buying patterns of customers so that they can provide customized user experiences.
Digital transformation provides countless advantages and options, including improved inventory management, detailed insights, enhanced real-time customer interaction, higher productivity, reliable forecasting, dependable business decisions, improved resourced allocation, and real-time interaction with customers. All this is too good for modern enterprises to pass up.
Supporting digital transformation
Support from businesses: Industry leaders have begun to realize the kind of power digital transformation holds when it comes to preparing businesses to leverage the exploding digital economy.
Many of them have taken on an active role, trying to simplify the current technology and eradicate any complexities in the process so that results come faster and are measurable against their actual investment in the field of IT solutions. Some have even sought help from digital business so that their companies can fulfill their digital enterprise vision. Vision? No, this has nothing to do with “The Avengers”!
The support for digital transformation also stems from the fact that experts in the process enable clients to move certain aspects of their business to the cloud, while working on a digital core to support innovation at the same time.
This sort of technology and innovation, when coupled with digital business, lends support to the digital transformation of a company, providing it with the requisite degree of competitive advantage. Digital transformation helps businesses meet the demands of the changing digital economy.
Support from millennials: Millennials, commonly known as Gen Y, represent the main target audience for enterprises at the moment. This presents marketers with a unique kind of challenge. These people are already aware of the newest trends in technology and stay abreast of any developments. This means enterprises need to be digital-ready at all times.
Any business that wants to capture the millennial market will have to digitally disrupt their value proposition. Technology that has proven effective includes social media marketing, user-friendly URLs, and QR codes. And a taco and a Snickers bar, even though that’s old-fashioned technology!
The most pressing need is mobile optimization for attracting millennials since they use smartphones in almost every aspect of life, from reading customer reviews to locating nearby vendors. Thus, it is paramount that the content presented by the enterprise is not only readable but also easily navigable as well.
Reasons to go digital
Millennials are between the ages of 18 and 35 years. These people are vocal about the way enterprises need to digitally disrupt their existing business models. Social media presence is a judicious place to start.
Digital disruption has numerous benefits, and these are listed below:
Search results
If you do not find something on Google, then chances are it does not exist (well, it may on the Dark Web, but that is not for most people). Customers have begun to actively turn toward search engines to gain information connected to certain services or products to reach a purchase decision. Modern consumers all rely on online searches and the Internet. The right mix of social media marketing and content marketing is helpful in expanding your audience reach.
Maintain the progress
Customers now have the means to easily monitor the progress and success of their e-commerce venture. Every online business uses analytics for tracking the performance of their site. Even details like number of responses, clicks, and views for that particular product/campaign can be tracked without spending a lot of money.
Automation benefits
The normal office communication method is to print a document, send it to the intended target, and then wait for the receipt. However, digital disruption enables employees to become a lot more focused and productive.
Eco-friendly
With the help of digital transformation, companies are finally able to go paperless. This process lowers costs and safeguards the environment.
Storage of data
In past years, information would be stored in physical files specific to a single department of the enterprise. Not much can be worse in this regard than how the Baltimore Police Department filed evidence away depicted in “The Wire”! That was a mess!
This method was highly inefficient and caused a lot of confusion. Moreover, it took a lot of time to store large volumes of valuable physical data within cabinets and then look for a specific bit of information when it was required. Digital transformation has changed all that thanks to different apps and other software. These have helped make companies a lot more organized, and they are now able to archive data more efficiently and effectively.
Target market
Having an online presence allows you to know your target audience. You get real-time information connected to demographics along with numerous site visitors, including their country of origin, preferences, tastes, and so on. Businesses can use digital technology to track bounce rates, which is basically the amount of time spent by a visitor on the website.
Cost factor
Digital transformation is cost effective. All data can be stored as a backup on external drives or online mediums. Moreover, it is no longer necessary to maintain a large workforce to handle the website. Enterprise collaboration enables employees to download the necessary content, and develop viable communication systems throughout the whole organization.
The time for digital transformation is here, and every company needs a sound digital strategy if they want to succeed. Meeting customer expectations will soon become possible only with the help of digital technology, much to the chagrin to some old-timers running their businesses and not getting this — and who even have trouble using Craigslist!
You should use digital transformation to scope out the competition and strengthen the different aspects of your enterprise.
Photo credit: Pixabay
