Does your business have an unfair advantage in today’s competitive environment? Or are you simply “getting by” or “barely surviving”?
Is your business thriving in today’s digital age? Or are you still relying on outdated technology while your competitors are investing in new, emerging technologies?
We all know that the market is constantly changing. Customers are always expecting more from you — more value for less money.
The only way to remain relevant is to adapt to these changes.
And that means your business has to go through a digital transformation.
What Is Digital Transformation
Now, what exactly is digital transformation?
For most people, it’s about going paperless. And while going paperless is definitely a part of it, digital transformation goes beyond that, especially if you look at it from an organizational perspective.
Digital transformation is the use of new, fast, and frequently changing digital technologies to create — or modify existing — business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements.
Digital Transformation Examples
An easy way to understand digital transformation is to look at our personal lives. Below are three examples of how digital transformation has completely permeated our lives.
Example 1: File Storage
Before, if you want to save the photos and files in your computers and phones, you would have to buy an external hard drive. But now, because of the availability of online storage providers services, you don’t need to buy that hard drive anymore. Some popular brands out there are Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, and iCloud.
Example 2: Movies and Entertainment
Or let’s say you wanted to watch a movie that isn’t on the big screen right now.
Today, you would just open up your Netflix or Hulu or Amazon account, and you can stream any movie or TV series available.
For those who aren’t familiar, there was a time where you would have to go to a video store, buy or rent a DVD or VHS, go back to your house, and plug it into a specific player before you can watch that movie.
After which you’ll have to return it (if you only rented it), or find a place at home to store all those CDs.
Example 3: Music
This goes the same for music.
Before Spotify and (insert name here), the only way for you go get your music is to buy them from record stores. The latest medium for music before it went digital is in the form of CDs as well. Before that, they were in cassettes.
And just like playing movies, you’d have bought a specific player for you to play your music. Heard of the Sony Walkman?
Now, we can do all the things we listed above (and more) with just our phones. That’s how much digital transformation has influenced our lives.
But this doesn’t seem to be the case for businesses.
Digital transformation is the use of new, fast, and frequently changing digital technologies to create — or modify existing — business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements.
Digital Transformation for Businesses
Another way to look at digital transformation is by using cloud computing while reducing reliance on user-owned hardware. This is what we’ll be focusing on— The ROI to businesses when they invest in digital transformation.
One of the reasons why most New Zealand businesses haven’t invested in digital transformation goes back to IT service providers like us. Oftentimes, we make such a big deal out of it that it makes things complicated for people like you.
That’s why most business leaders stay away from it. Instead, they rely on what is familiar to them.
Technology has permeated every aspect of our personal lives. We have powerful computers in our pockets, smart devices, and home automation systems.
But in the workplace, a lot of businesses are still using technology like it was in the 90s or early 2000s.
In today’s fast-changing world, it becomes critical to adapt to these changes. Otherwise, you’d get left behind.
No doubt you have heard of stories of big brands becoming irrelevant simply because they failed to adapt to these changes. They conducted business as if it was status quo while the rest of the market changed.
They chose to ignore that the times are changing and that’s the reason why they failed.
Technology is not the solution by itself. Rather, it’s a tool that will allow you to overcome the challenges you’re facing in your business right now.
Digital transformation is a complex topic, but it doesn’t have to be. We broke down digital transformation into four separate categories.
Here’s a quick overview…
Overview of Digital Transformation
No. 1: Build a Strong Foundation
First, you’ll need to build a strong foundation.
As you already know, implementing change in your business is difficult. Without the commitment from top management, people don’t put in enough effort to make the change succeed. Without input from the end-users, new technology is often seen as a fad, pushed down their throats — making it difficult to accept the change initiative, and at times, actively sabotage the initiative.
And just like when building a house, if you don’t start with a strong foundation, everything you put on top crumbles easily.
No. 2: Cloud-Based Email: Higher Productivity at Lower Costs
After setting up a strong foundation, the next step is to migrate your email to the cloud. If you’re new to using cloud technology, this is the easiest transition you can make.
The main goal here is a seamless transition from your email server to a cloud-based one. Your staff leaves the office on Friday afternoon. They come back on Monday morning as if nothing happened.
Using a cloud-based email will help your organisation be more productive while lowering your costs. Now, that’s a good investment.
No. 3: Work Better: Implementing a Hub for Teamwork
It’s no secret that the faster you adapt to the changing customer demands, the better your business will be in the long-run.
The simplest way for your entire organisation to adapt faster is to communicate faster and work more efficiently. And the tool that will help you achieve that is a collaboration and communication software.
No. 4: Shared Storage for Everyone: Never Deal with Duplicates Again
Ever find yourself looking for a file — whether that’s a report or a spreadsheet — and you end up searching for 15 minutes and you still couldn’t find the one you’re looking for?
Or what about that time where you couldn’t figure out which version is the real “final” version because there are dozens of files with the word “final” in the filename.
These frustrations are common in every organisation. And the easiest way to make sure you find what you’re looking for and not waste your time searching over and over is to use a shared cloud storage for all your files and documents.
Over to You
If you want to remain competitive and relevant in your industry, you have to accept the reality that status quo isn’t acceptable.
The market is always changing. That’s why you should also be changing.
If you don’t do something, you will get left behind.
