3 Ways a Digital Transformation Will Change Your Business

It’s a buzzword, peculiarly circling through popularity. Digital transformation. It’s a word many people say, but few understand. After all, it requires a profound shift in the activities, processes, and competencies of your organization.

That’s not something many entrepreneurs or executives can handle. They’re too busy putting out fires and growing an empire.

The misstep is the fact that a digital transformation can help you do less firefighting.

And more growing.

It’s a win-win for the leader brave enough to invest in it.

Once you understand technology, you can open your mind up to endless possibilities. You start to see the different ways innovation can increase your efficiency, leaving you more time to do the things you actually enjoy.

Results of a Digital Transformation

If you haven’t figured it out, I’m a big fan of this concept. It provides a missing-link for business owners and entrepreneurs struggling to efficiently operate their business.

And, if it’s done strategically, it also positively impact the community and environment.

Results don’t happen overnight, and the journey is full of challenges. However, if you find the determination to persevere, your business will see growth. And this growth will come as a result of how a digital transformation impacts the position of your business in the world.

You Transition And Adapt Easier

Adaptable creatures survive.

This is true in natural evolution, and it’s true with businesses. If you can’t keep up with the ever-shifting technological culture, you’ll fail. To succeed in today’s environment, you need a pulse on the innovations and advancements happening every day.

You won’t just see the benefits of a strong company, but it will keep you creative as well. Figuring out how to see a Facebook advertising ROI while marketing your door handle manufacturing company may seem like a difficult task. But when you mix creativity AND technology, it can change everything.

You Can Compete With the ‘Big Guys’

Major corporations are selling assets and going out of business. They believed they were bigger than the Internet than technology. They scoffed at small e-commerce startups like Amazon. And now they’re closing their doors.

No one is too big for technology. We need a digital transformation because otherwise we’ll get eaten by it, and by those who invest in it.

In the past, small companies often had higher quality but the distribution was limited. So, they had to raise their prices to compete. Not so anymore. Any player can compete against (and take advantage of) today’s big players.

You Gain the Trust of Customers

If a restaurant doesn’t have a website, I’m going to think of a few other new places to try. Quite frankly, as a millennial, I want every restaurant in town to deliver food to my door in 30 minutes… for free.

And it’s okay that restaurants can’t do that. I operate a business, and know what that’s like. Profit margins, expenses and such… But why not try to get as close as possible?

“There’s nothing wrong with making incremental changes. But don’t let it get in the way of doing something bigger. Digital transformation is about changing from a caterpillar into a butterfly. It should make you faster, more agile, and closer to your customers. It should give you wings so you can fly.”

-- George Westerman, Principal Research Scientist

The real transformation occurs when you keep your sights on something bigger. Don’t look at this like a simple act of installing some software. Find the bigger why.

… Customer experience.

Find ways to use technology to enhance that, and you’ll win.

How Digital Transformation Will Improve Your Business

Now that you understand what a successful transformation looks like, let’s dig into the dirt for a while. It’s important to understand the why, but you also want the how.

So, how will a digital transformation improve your business? Well...

You’ll Gain Better Insights

A digital transformation often starts with collecting more data.

And that’s because data is power. The more you have, the more you’ll understand. And the more you understand, the more you’ll achieve.

Decades ago (and even today), people paid agencies thousands of dollars because they had the data. But now that’s completely in your control. No one is stopping you from running $100 in Facebook ads against your target market to collect the information yourself.

Businesses can utilize this data to improve and support various initiatives including, marketing, product improvement, and customer service. These insights are priceless… or at least worth lots and lots of money if understood properly.

You’ll Protect and Control Data

Once you have data, it’s important to protect and control it. After all, this is valuable information -- whether it’s the birthdays of every customer, or their credit card number.

Some more sensitive than others, obviously. But valuable nevertheless.

A commitment to technology means you’ll put in the work to keep you company and customer data secure. This means practical things like installing the right security system and selecting a strong server.

You’ll Simplify Business Processes

No one works efficiently when locked under rigid and complicated procedures. Projects get stalled, employees feel frustrated, management gets embarrassed, and clients are unhappy.

However, if you use technology strategically, it can simplify business operations. This eases the stress of employees learning new systems, it streamlines the workflow to keep projects on time, and customers feel pleased that the work is high-quality.

Conclusion

If you want your business to make it into 2020… 2030… or longer… you need technology.

This isn’t going away. You’re just going to fall further and further behind, not have the upper-hand when it all collapses. That’s not how this plays out, my friends.

It’s time to invest in the digital transformation.

Learn about mobile, cloud, social, and Big Data analytics… Understand how they’re accelerating the pace of technology and evolving businesses like yours.

Implement security measures to keep you and your customers safe. Hire a specialist if you need to because it’s that important.

Just get started.

Not tomorrow.

Today.

It’s time.