The digital revolution is changing the way we consume information, make choices and conduct business. Gartner says that nearly 1,25,000 large organizations are launching digital business initiatives now and predicted that their revenues would increase by more than 80% by 2020. Gartner also predicted that within the next two years, around 70% of CEOs would be placing digital transformation at the center of their corporate strategy.
It is then no surprise that every business is figuring out how to use technology to deliver the best user experience for their customers. This use of digital tools to radically improve the performance or reach of your business is referred to as digital transformation.
Digital transformation can mean different things for different companies. For some, it means acquiring customers through digital means, and for some others, it refers to improving operations by implementing connected systems and processes. For a few, it is a mix of both of this.
Simply put, digital transformation means building and connecting systems together across various enterprise functions so that insights generated from the data thus collected can be used for continuous improvements, aimed at bringing about profitability for the enterprise.
The touch points for such interactions may be mobile devices, web applications or social channels, giving providers ample opportunity to improve their client’s business through innovation. Embracing digital advances like analytics, mobility, social media and smart devices to keep up with the ever-changing customer expectations and behavior is the only way ahead for businesses now.
The tale of tables
Check this amazing example of how digital transformation happens. Humanyze is a Boston-based people-analytics company. It wires up employees of its client companies with wearables, sensors, digital data and analytics to map and measure how they collaborate with each other and how it correlates with the company’s productivity. The tale of tables started when Humanyze was called on by a famous online travel company to analyze their employees’ productivity. Humanyze found that productivity levels rose when employees had lunch together, which was positively correlated with an increase in the number of employees at a table. At the travel company, Humanyze found that employees always had lunch in groups of four or 12. And, that was because all the tables in their cafeteria were for either four or 12. The company took the unlikely step of increasing the table sizes to increase productivity.
This example makes it clear that digital transformation is not centered just on technology or on the acquisition of latest gadgets or software. It is on how a business effectively uses the information they collect from their digital technologies to bring about a positive business outcome and customer satisfaction. The real success mantra stems from how each business integrates such useful analytics and social technologies to transform the way their business works. This also highlights the fact that businesses should build their digital transformation strategies with a people-centric motive.
The Suyati way
At Suyati, we believe in enabling digital transformation using customer relationship management (CRM) systems, content management systems (CMS) and other related technology to make sure that businesses remain relevant to their customers and can adapt to changing customer expectations without delay.
How are we achieving this? We are building skills in technologies and in new areas such as IoT, cloud, analytics and data science through our experiences with various clients. As an organization, we are combining each of our employee’s skills in an effort to create a suite of frameworks and utilities called Mekanate to easily enable our delivery of digital transformation services.
In layman terms, we believe in putting people–both our customers and employees–in the center of every business equation, and empowering them with high-performing technological solutions.
Every process of digital transformation that Suyati enables involves three distinct steps:
- Extracting insights from the collected data.
- Understanding the relevance of that insight and converting it into an actionable solution.
- Reinventing existing models to incorporate this action and driving a positive outcome for the business.
Why your business needs to adopt digital transformation
Even five years ago, it was a nice add-on to have access to and use digital tools in your business. But, now it has become a necessity. According to a report by Capgemini and MIT Center for Digital Business, 78 percent of business leaders believe that achieving digital transformation is critical for their organizations. Here’s why:
- It encourages collaboration: Digital transformation requires your teams to work together in real-time, sharing and collaborating on various processes. This helps hone the end product or experience into a well-rounded one. This empowers, engages and connects your team.
- It increases productivity: As people drive this transformation process, there is continuous action happening and the scope for delay is limited. There is open access to information for employees via all devices, thus enabling them to work from anywhere, using the best device for the process at hand. With increased collaboration and simplified workflows, it is not surprising that productivity will go up as well.
- It ensures transparency and builds trust: Using real-time insights from data collected gives way for a rather open workflow and sets ground for a new level of transparency. And, transparency breeds trust which in turn builds relationships, using which you can get access to real-time feedback and work on continuous reinvention of your products and services.
- It drives innovation: By using models that work faster, foster collaborations and factor in customer expectations, the chances of creating a better and more innovative product and service is high. The focus is on delivering value to your end-customer, and digital transformation forces one to think creatively to deliver the best results.
Digital transformation efforts should be directed by a clear vision of what lies in the future for the business. Bringing together your teams and empowering them with required digital tools is the starting point for a successful future run.
