How can digital transformation impact your business?

Posted on November 8, 2022

How can digital transformation impact your business?

As we dive into 2021, the on-going global pandemic still having its toll on us, organisations are being forced to boost IT investment and prioritise Digital Transformation initiatives. There are several reasons why a business may take on the digital transformation strategy but by a long chalk, the answer is clear from the fact that now digitization has become the only means of survival in this extremely competitive marketplace. Additionally, in the wake of the pandemic, an organization’s ability to quickly adapt to these uncalled business disruptions has become critical. To efficiently utilize the benefits of the digital transformation strategy during complete lockdowns, we need to understand the significance of integrating all possible business operations into the software otherwise the strategy does not entirely fulfill its purpose.

The world is now slowly realizing that consumer behavior has altered in many ways since the start of the pandemic. During a recent MIT Sloan Symposium series event, a professor at MIT described how optimized automated systems in zones like supply chain collapsed when faced with rapid variations in both demand and supply – an eye-opener for everyone at a personal level during these COVID times.

In this article, we will discuss what is digital transformation, how the epidemic is globally affecting it, the current market trends, the success, and the different industries leveraging through the digital switch-over.

What is digital transformation?

By definition, an effective digital transformation strategy is the integration of digital technology into different areas of business which involves the way they operate and deliver value to customers. Moreover, it has now become a norm for businesses to experiment with new technologies – drifting from traditional practices that companies were built on to relatively new practices that are still being defined. Learn how much does it cost to build an app

Current World Dynamics Impacting Digital Innovation

According to McKinsey Global Survey, the company has accelerated the digitization of its internal operations by three to four years as the COVID-19 crisis has brought with itself years of change in the way businesses operate. Many companies across the globe have accepted how these changes will be long-lasting and are already making investments to digitally enable their products. It is, however, still early to predict which of these amendments will be long-lasting but Rodney Zemmel, global leader at McKinsey Digital, states that on the consumer side,

“digital has been accelerating in just about all categories.”

A rapid shift can be seen with consumers interacting through digital channels as this means less human intervention with technology playing its part to fulfill the consumer needs. It is obvious that in times like these, digitization is the only way to help your businesses thrive.

Digital transformation trends in 2021

During the pandemic, self-isolation has become a necessity with amendments being made in most aspects of life to account for the dangers of the virus. Amid this chaos, let’s delve into questions like what is digital transformation for businesses and the altering trends being put into practice in the year 2021:

Working remotely

Before the pandemic, only 30% of U.S. employees worked remotely. The transition to working remotely full-time hence became challenging for companies especially when the user demand exceeded the system bandwidth. The bright side, however, to working remotely is the dramatic improvement in digital transformation to facilitate the worker’s level of comfort.

Omnichannel commerce

The consumer mindset is altering as even those who were historically reluctant to the idea of shopping online are now utilizing this new trend to meet their needs. Online grocery shopping with apps like Instacart Business Model has gained tremendous popularity through digitally transforming their systems and proving contactless delivery methods for their customers.

Increased Consumption of Digital Content

According to Statista, 51% of internet users are watching more shows online using streaming services like Netflix. In just the first three months of 2020, Netflix had about 16 million new signups. Meanwhile, many industries are also pushing their movie launch dates early to captivate audiences.

Platformification

Different institutions and companies are adopting digital technology to stay afloat during the pandemic. The fitness industry has opted for virtual classes, schools and universities have shifted to online classes, conferences are being held virtually, etc.

Some industries intend on going back to the traditional methods after the pandemic abates, while others may opt for the hybrid approach considering the vast recurring revenues it is generating.

Telehealth solutions

Much of America’s health system has gone digital with the help of telemedicine and remote patient monitoring. Medical advice and diagnoses are being made accessible to patients. Digital contact tracing is also an effective method being used across the world to effectively slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Successful Digital Transformation – ROI

The consumer interactions cannot be quantified using traditional means hence identifying the return on investment (ROI) of digital transformation can be very challenging for businesses. Using one metric does not fully facilitate the procedure as you need to evaluate the business as a whole and recognize the enhancements in customer experience, business processes, and workflow.

Below are some of the metrics that can help evaluate the transformation:

Improved sales
Increase in new customers, customer preservation, and customer satisfaction
Process and quality improvement
Improved effectiveness of engineering productivity and design

If you have a well-established product and business then calculating the ROI is easy but when a new technology is introduced in an organization, the potential for digital growth is high.

It is crucial to get a headstart on your competitors especially when you are releasing an innovative product or service as timing is of utmost importance here, which can lead to long-term and elastic ROI. Some pointers that must be kept in mind are:

Exploring Customer Needs

Through social media interactions and as a digitally-driven business, you need to emphasize creating compelling digital content that helps you strive towards exceeding customer’s expectations.

Digital Innovation Investment

To help foster a digital culture at the workplace, business processes should make customer experiences more engaging and improve the workflow.

Data-Informed Decisions

For an effective digital transformation strategy, customer data is one of the biggest sources of reliable information as its impact is felt directly by the customer base. Their history on purchasing behavior, customer reviews, and feedback can help form the basis for data-informed decisions.

Performance Tracking

Through tracking all of your digital transformation efforts, increased revenue, sales, and customer satisfaction can be translated. The swiftness of adapting to the new technology for your business affects your efficiency at digital transformation.

A peek into How Different Industries are being Digitally Transformed

Digitization can be seen spreading to various industries where production sectors are no longer using the traditional ways but gradually joining the revolutionized industries, is an undeniable fact that the digital economy is booming. Let’s delve into some industries that are being digitally transformed to meet the needs of the target end-user:

Healthcare

Technology is altering the dynamics of many industries but it has yet to make significant inroads into the healthcare sector. Digital transformation in healthcare requires streamlined processes to meet the patient’s requirements. Investing in technology when it comes to healthcare can be very overwhelming as deciding which tech to invest in can be very challenging.

The healthcare market in the U.S. is expected to reach US$ 504 billion by the year 2025 at a CAGR of 29.6%.

Fintech

Innovative technology that enables financial services to help establish new business model applications and processes can be termed Fintech. New consumer-centric ways are being introduced in this industry so people can conveniently manage their finances, make payments, invest money and create personalized budgets using apps.

eCommerce

Based on research, the B2B market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.1% between the years 2018 to 2025 and will reach a value of US$ 24 billion by 2025. The rise of the e-commerce market globally is due to the following factors:

New tech innovations in the e-commerce industry.
Increased usage of mobile and internet.
The availability of advanced e-commerce solutions for an enhanced customer experience management.

Digital marketing (marketing automation)

Digital transformation in marketing means refining your digital channels to gain greater insights that appraise your approach and boost the customer journey. Below is a list of what digital transformation might look like for the marketing department:

Upgrading your digital channels.
A well-optimized customer data platform (CDP) that connects different platforms providing you with the view of your entire customer base.
With the help of a well-equipped marketing funnel, you can easily identify weak spots and possible improvements.

Begin your digital transformation journey with Mob Inspire

The Corona pandemic is, undoubtedly, the catalyst that compelled many industries to devise digital transformation to support the new remote workforce which also gives a peek into what future enterprises will look like.

If you wish to transform your company by adopting these new digital initiatives then, get in touch with us to discover more about the new upcoming digital age.