Top 5 Strategies For Accelerating Digital Transformation For every modern business to enjoy success in the market, it needs to accelerate its digital transformation.
By Steve Taplin Edited by Chelsea Brown
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
For the better part of the last decade, the world has experienced dramatic changes. These changes have had huge impacts on the way businesses operate. As a result, many organizations have been forced to shift to a digital model. The number of businesses succeeding in digital transformations continues to increase every day.
Digital transformation means using modern technologies to improve business operations, systems, processes and customer experience. The transformation lowers the operating expenses of many firms. The workers' performance and productivity also increases, boosting the company's profitability.
For every modern business to enjoy success in the market, it needs to accelerate its digital transformation. Here is an overview of five practical strategies that we have seen to be the top focus for companies in 2022 to help firms speed up their digital transformation efforts.
1. Finding the right technology
Digital transformation is not only about the current software in the company. Finding the right technology is essential for a faster transition. Hiring managed IT services from experience providers is one way of avoiding pitfalls during the transition.
Choosing the right technology to aid digital transition can be challenging at first. There are several tips out there to help managements choose the right technology for their companies' growth. The main consideration should be the firm's needs. New technologies should meet all identified needs of the firm. New projects or initiatives should be focused around cloud and mobile strategies and having a customized end user experience. The management should test the technologies first before their implementation. Experimenting with new technologies ensures that digital transformation happens successfully.
Related: 7 Digital-Transformation Trends to Watch
2. Helping workers through the transformation
Employees are a crucial part of the whole digital transformation process. The only way of making digital transformation a reality is by not leaving the workers behind. There are ways business management/employers can help employees keep up with digital transitions.
One way is by creating a good transition playbook. The playbook is necessary for changing the workers' mindsets. Building a good digital transformation playbook starts with incorporating simple changes that the workers can understand easily. Less complicated digital projects get more workers involved in the change.
Another way is by training the workers. Training means first helping the team understand the need for digital transformation. Employee collaboration and good dialogue are also effective ways of helping the workers through the transformation.
3. Adjusting the culture
Digital transformation should be a constant process. We have seen that even in 2022, companies have had challenges with employees being open to adopting new technologies and ways to get work done. This lack of an adaptability culture slows down the whole transition journey. Business management should create a culture that embraces the new digital changes. There are things to consider when adjusting the organizational culture during digital transformations.
One factor of consideration is the learning ability of the workers. The culture should motivate the workers to be continuous learners and promoters of the newly adopted technologies. It's also important for employers to reassure the workers about the importance of the transformation to the business.
Related: How to Push Your Company to Digital Maturity
4. Expanding the customer base
One objective of digital transformation is to help a business gain more customers. Digital changes enable many small firms to reach a global audience. The transformations need to focus on boosting the customer experience.
Companies should start by evaluating the needs and expectations of the customers. After need identification, businesses must ensure that the new technologies align with the identified customer needs. The new customer experience should be positive and consistent. Digital transformations must be responsive and easy to use in order to achieve the necessary customer experience.
5. Listening to team's feedback
Listening to employees' feedback helps a business know if the adopted digital transformations are effective. The team members are likely to be correct about the progress of the digital changes. Business owners get to know whether they should change the already adopted transformation strategies or not.
The feedback should reflect the workers' positivity about new transformations. If the team members report challenges and discomfort, employers should make necessary adjustments.
Examples
There are several modern digital transformation trends for keeping businesses relevant to the customers. One of them is cybersecurity, which protects the company's and customers' data. Cybersecurity and data protection builds businesses' reputations, resulting in customer trust. As a result, the technology attracts more customers, expanding the company's customer base.
5G technology is another digital trend for providing greater bandwidth and internet reliability. Adjusting the company's culture by adopting more operations that depend on strong internet connectivity accelerates the success of 5G technology.
Another digital trend is business automation, which improves businesses' competitiveness and customer service. Businesses have to find the right technologies, like data analytics software, email automations and the introduction of virtual conferencing.
Cloud-based solutions are other digital trends for storing and securing data. Employees have to be properly trained and guided on how to back up the company's and customers' data in the cloud to prevent hacking and other cyber threats.
Digital banking is the other latest technology for businesses. Tracking of digital payments, online loan applications and other online transactions by the workers aids the success of digital banking. The workers' feedback about the success of digital banking helps the management know whether the technology is successfully implemented or not.
Related: 5 Digital Trends That Are Here to Stay. Time to Embrace Them.
The success of digital transformation in any organization can take time, but adopting the right strategies to accelerate the whole process is key to saving time. These strategies also help companies maintain their top positions in the market. Find the right technology, help employees through the transformation, embrace the changing culture, focus on enhancing the customer experience and listen to the team's feedback in order to effectively accelerate your company's digital transformation.
