Digital transformation has affected all aspects of our life, and this is just the beginning. When the pandemic broke out in 2020, most organizations were forced to accelerate their adoption of digital systems. Many have encountered the development of new technical equipment and new business strategies in just a few months, which would usually take years in the rhythm of normal life. Enterprises aimed at development and success are forced to accept the challenges of modern economies by adopting high technologies into business and industrious processes to help them become leaders in the worldwide market.
Digital transformation is often intermingled with digitalization. However, do not confuse these two concepts, because there is a significant difference between them. Digitalization is a process of applying digital data to facilitate old methods of working. Technological advancements and digital devices by themselves do not cause any transformation in business and industry. What really matters is how these digital technologies are implemented and adopted by businesses, partners, customers, competitors and other business participants.
When it comes to digital transformation, it deals with the way we run a business or build a completely new business. Digital transformation is called a paperless office, the transformation of a company into a modern, mature, and efficiently operated business. Digital transformation deals with the latest techniques to set up new, or change existing business processes of a company, its culture, or customer experience in accordance with business and market requirements. These changes are indispensable in order to increase company’s productivity and competitiveness and to set new interaction models with clients, consumers, and business partners.
So, digital transformation is a kind of metamorphosis of a company into a business robot. After all, how was it before? A couple of decades ago, people wrote down all the information in documents and register books; read, counted, controlled processes and results, and made decisions on their own. Today, a computer makes it possible to generate up to 90% of information without help, and it performs all tasks faster than people.
Could this be why digital transformation is responsible for many enterprises’ success in this modern age? Perhaps. But even successful companies are forced to keep up with the growing demand for newer, faster, and better digital technologies. Sooner or later many enterprises will simply not be able to adapt to consumers’ requirements, and they will lose their customers to more high-tech companies.
It may surprise you to learn that a great deal of well-established industrial enterprises are afraid of adopting new technologies, as they consider digital transformation to be in some way risky for them, due to equipment upgrade costs, personnel training, marketing strategies, etc. However, the pandemic spurred a kind of global shock and rapidly boosted the need for digital transformation, so companies could not afford to slowly introduce new technologies. Today enterprisers must make decisions and adapt quickly to stay competitive in the marketplace.
Many companies now are already on their way to digital transformation. The pandemic has effectively forced them to improve operational efficiency and quality of service. Those enterprises that are vigorously integrating digital technologies today are well aware that digital transformation is not only a major goal, but also the main factor that will determine the fate of their business in the context of any economic downturn.
Moreover, during the pandemic outbreak, companies had to adapt to another change that previously had seemed impossible – the remote work of many employees. And it is again digital transformation and digitalization that came to the rescue and helped in many ways to overcome barriers and work online with the same speed and efficiency. The introduction of digital transformation in companies is sure to entail the emergence of new job positions and professional responsibilities, especially related to the IT domain.
To sum up, information technologies are becoming an integral part of any enterprise, as it makes them faster, more flexible and more competitive. Digital transformation puts information technologies at the forefront of organizations and enterprises, using them to dramatically increase productivity in customer interactions, internal work processes, and their business model, as a whole. Today, it is critically important for businesses to embrace digital technologies with social media, big data analytics and cloud computing. Once you start the process of digital transformation, you will have a flexible and competitive company with more qualified employees and satisfied customers. This, in turn, will have a positive effect on the financial performance of your business, give opportunities for new areas of development, and allow you to outwit competitors and prepare for any unpredictable changes in the near future.
