What is Digital Transformation?

The phrase ‘digital transformation’ has been thrown around a lot recently, but does it have merit and how can it actually benefit your business?

The increase of technology in our everyday lives means that the way we work, shop and communicate has changed. Businesses are having to adapt and evolve alongside these changes. Digital transformation focuses on how these processes affect the way businesses work and the way they engage with their customers, by investing in a new digital strategy. 

This is not just a simple update. In order to truly become digitised and exceed customer expectations, businesses should see a digital transformation as a new business model that can broaden their reach, create new partnerships and potentially create new ways of earning. This kind of change takes a lot of planning and investment, but the results are worth it in the long run. 

Why?

The reason for digital transformation is to streamline how you work in order to provide better service to your customers and to keep ahead of the competition. You can’t just sail along as a business making small changes here and there anymore, businesses need to be more agile and adaptive to new technologies in order to stay competitive, otherwise they’ll risk falling behind. 

We live in a customer-driven landscape which is why any changes you make should put the customer first, always. A digital transformation takes into account customer expectations as well as any changes in technology, society and industry so that advancements can be made that not only help how you do business in the backend, but also provide your customers with a great user experience. 

While many businesses might believe that everything is fine as it is, they will reach a point where they can no longer compete with others in their industry and will fall so far behind, they’ll need a lot more investment, time and resources than they probably have.

Focus On Your Business Needs

If you’ve decided to go for it and invest in a digital transformation, you’ll need to make sure you carefully plan your roadmap with your digital agency in order to make sure every need is met. 

This is often referred to as the discovery process. 

Discovery allows the agency you are working with to really get a feel for the changes you and your business want or need. It’s an important stage that can save on time and money in the long run as it allows all parties to understand exactly what the project entails. Any questions can be answered prior to development and also a breakdown of each step of the project, all the way up to delivery, can help everyone understand what is expected and when.

Every change or addition you make to your business should be goal-oriented so that you don’t waste time or money on some tech that might sound interesting but doesn’t actually push your business forward. Your digital transformation should instead focus on what will help you stand out amongst your competitors, meet and exceed customer expectations and help you complete any backend processes in a smooth and timely manner. The discovery process will help you to assess exactly what your digital transformation should look like.

A business that embraces change and keeps their eye on the digital landscape will be more agile and suitably positioned to scale.

For more information on how we can perform a digital transformation of your business, contact us here.