There’s no question the world has become more digital. In both the workplace and everyday life, easy-to-use technologies have streamlined the way we communicate, work, and navigate our lives.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital transformation has accelerated faster than ever before, catapulting businesses in all sectors ahead in their digitization efforts by as much as seven years—a trend that continues to this day. In fact, spending on digital transformation technologies and services is expected to grow to $3.9 million by 2027. One might consider digital transformation to be the industrial revolution of our era.
According to a survey by Flexera, 74% of organizations name digital transformation as a top priority—up from 56% in 2021.
But what is digital transformation? Let’s take a look at what digital transformation means and why businesses are committed to making the shift.
A transformative way to think—and think about work
There are many ways to examine and define digital transformation. But, thinking about digital transformation as the move from physical to digital is a simple way to understand what it means for your business.
Digital transformation includes:
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Integrating digital technology into all aspects of your business.
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Using digital technology to create value at the scale of business.
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Adopting and embedding digital technology to drive change and growth.
In broader terms, it means investing in the right people, processes, and technology to make a business run more smoothly and efficiently. This transformation requires a new way of thinking about how teams work and communicate together. Beyond the workplace, however, this digital shift is also transforming entire industries.
Why are businesses experiencing a digital transformation?
What’s driving digital transformation? Innovation and competition. Many of today’s most successful companies have integrated digital technologies in every part of their business to anticipate—even predict or define—changing customer expectations.
For example, SaaS and cloud-based startups have all but eliminated the need for hardware storage. Uber and Lyft have forced public transportation services to up their personalized, on-demand game to compete and cater to customer demands. In some places, Amazon offers doorstep-delivery-by-drone—all with a click of a button. Artificially intelligent chatbots have also transformed the customer service industry and the way we interact with brands online.
These examples show the power of digital transformation to change the world around us and how companies are shifting in response to current markets and demands. Beyond keeping pace with the competition, however, there are many reasons to embrace digital transformation:
- To enhance the customer experience
- To provide fast, seamless customer interactions
- To manage payments and billing online
- To improve internal communication
- To quicken product iteration and deployment
- To make more informed business decisions with data
Companies of every size and maturity level must find ways to implement changes across their organizations that help them stay relevant and meet consumer needs.
3 practical ways companies can start to make the shift
Digital transformation isn’t just for tech giants. There are simple and practical ways companies can start digitally transforming their business.
Reduce paper-based processes
Let’s face it—outdated, manual processes and traditional ways of working are slowing your business down. Printing proofs to gather feedback isn’t just inefficient; it also costs your business time and money that could be better spent elsewhere. Emailing documents back and forth isn’t just clunky; it’s also error-prone.
Map out a strategy to move current paper workflows to digital ones and watch your productivity skyrocket.
- Tools: From simple workflow templates like Kanban boards to full-service project management tools, plenty of technologies are available to help eliminate clunky, costly, and error-prone approval processes and drive integrated efforts across the organization.
- Benefits: Reduce reporting hours to drive time, material, and opportunity cost savings
Get your head (and your data) in the cloud
Traditional 9-5 office hours are becoming increasingly outdated. Today, 50% of remote-capable jobs are now hybrid–and 30% are fully remote. As a result, employees are often working different hours (sometimes in different time zones) and from different places. Implementing cloud-based technologies and other innovative tools frees employees to access real-time data and get work done wherever they are.
- Tools: Any tool that migrates on-premise legacy systems to cloud-based software
- Benefits: Maintain version and document control, enable remote work, increase productivity, store data and documents securely, create a more sustainable business
