In today’s internet-driven world, business is increasingly conducted online, and companies are rapidly recognizing the importance of developing a digital transformation strategy to engage millennials and younger audiences with their brands.
The COVID-19 pandemic affected companies and institutions of every size, businesses have had to face challenges and take a hard look at developing a digital transformation strategy faster than anticipated. Many that choose to make this strategic shift, have seen some significant benefits.
Importance of digital transformation
To develop a digital transformation strategy business leaders must rethink and reimagine how work gets done and how they reach their customers. A digital transformation strategy involves people, processes, and the tools or technologies the business uses.
The primary takeaway from the pandemic is that virtually every company or enterprise in every sector was impacted, regardless of company size or location. The pandemic, and other events, have driven online business activities up by 27.9% since 2020. This trend will only continue and likely at an accelerated pace.
According to a State of Tech Spend Report by Flexera, 56 percent of CIOs agreed that digital transformation initiatives were a top priority in 2021, a 2% increase from 2020.
Why is digital transformation a priority?
Here are five benefits of digital transformation.
Digital transformation Increases productivity and reduces stress
With a majority of employees working remotely in a post-pandemic world, mental wellness, and increased productivity have become key factors for business leaders to consider in evaluating the success of their business operations.
Developing a digital transformation strategy that involves embracing digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence or other online tools, allows processes to be streamlined or improved to reduce employee workloads. Digital technologies can automate routine work and ensure smooth workflows. It reduces manual effort, reduces errors, and improves productivity. The turnaround time for teams to complete tasks is significantly reduced, freeing up more time to focus on higher-value work.
Boosts agility
With increases in business automation and enhanced productivity comes greater agility. It is only by developing a digital strategy that companies can truly become agile within projects and business operations. By allowing digital technologies to do the heavy lifting throughout your processes, teams across your entire organization can become agile. This speeds up deliverables, reporting, and decision-making.
Digital transformation increases customer engagement and satisfaction
Today, most millennials interact online, and they constitute a significant demographic. Adopting a digital transformation strategy can meet their ever-evolving needs and expectations. It places your business where customers are: on social media, and self-service platforms, engaging with them using chatbots and other tools. It is about customers and how they perceive your business, making it easier for them to shop, bank, interact, and do business much more effectively and efficiently.
Increased opportunities
Opportunities are abundant, but so are competitors. In developing a digital transformation strategy to identify and address change and challenges, your business can better position itself to take advantage of opportunities. Almost 85% of business executives reveal that new business opportunities have emerged throughout their digital transformation efforts.
New ideas and opportunities that may not have been possible before and the tools that help make realize these opportunities can be achieved by rethinking current business strategies.
Higher profitability
Almost every company dreams of growth and increased profitability or they would not be in business. A digital strategy can provide a roadmap to deal with uncertainty, the speed of change, and evolving customer expectations, and leverage the right technologies to increase profitability. Around 43% of companies that have achieved high digital maturity report much higher net profit margins than the industry averages.
Closing thoughts
Developing a digital transformation strategy can pave the way for these desirable benefits. It just requires a vision for change and factoring in the right ingredients for digital transformation success.
