People have changed and constantly continue to change how they think, work, or simply live. And it’s all because of fast-paced technology.
As technological innovations take control of day-to-day life, there is a constant transformation going on in how people behave and adapt to the new normal.
Digital transformation refers to all changes human beings make in terms of adapting to the new normal; and in today’s world, the new normal is whatever technology brings. Since people continuously change every aspect of their lives following technological innovations, businesses are affected by this constant transformation.
Businesses and Digital Transformation
In the digital age, every business has to undergo radical changes to stay relevant – or just to stay alive in the first place.
The first step is to understand that digital transformation is not simply a shift from conventional to unconventional with the help of technological advancement.
Companies fundamentally need to transform the way they manage their business and undergo a complete organizational change. In this way, they can operate their business effectively and compete with other successful companies.
To understand the building blocks of managing businesses effectively in the digital age, it is important to take a look at the opportunities digital transformation brings. It is also equally important to know the challenges you may face while digitally transforming your business to overcome them.
So, let’s discover opportunities and risks associated with digital transformation and the ways companies can better manage their business in the digital age.
Potential Benefits of Digital Transformation
Digital transformation comes with various opportunities from optimizing customer experience to managing risks effectively and providing benefits. It guarantees lasting success for businesses in the long term.
Here are some of the most significant benefits of digital transformation.
Improved Efficiency and Productivity
Digital transformation provides a smooth work stream by optimizing processes and enhances efficiency as a result.
With the help of AI, repetitive tasks are handled fast and easily. Therefore, employees have more time to focus on more complex tasks that require human intelligence and creativity. In this way, human errors are minimized, too.
Enhanced Customer Experience
In the digital age, it is easy to get information and collect data on your customer’s habits and needs. So, it is easier to satisfy your customers by providing them exactly what they need – at a fast rate.
With the data collected and analyzed effectively, customers are always notified about products or services they might be interested in. In this way, they are encouraged to buy products or services that align with their preferences.
Customers also get personalized offers from businesses which overall improve their shopping experience.
Competitive Advantage
Digital transformation is a key to success for businesses to compete with other businesses in the market.
It is possible to say that businesses with successful digital transformation are pioneering companies. Integrating new technologies into your business and undergoing a digital transformation means that you can remain relevant and competitive.
In this way, businesses can quickly respond to customer needs and improve customer relationships – which can give companies a competitive advantage over other businesses that are slower to respond.
Improved Decision-Making
Digital transformation allows businesses to collect and make use of large amounts of data easily. So, businesses can analyze big data and use this data to improve the decision-making process and make efficient decisions as a result.
In addition to enhancing customer experience with data analysis, businesses can also improve their operational processes and streamline workflow.
All of the departments can gain useful insights from data analysis and identify their strengths and weaknesses; thus, employers take their game to the next level, which again increases productivity.
Increased Profits
According to a Deloitte survey that was conducted in 2020, companies with higher maturity levels in terms of digital transformation were almost three times more likely than less mature companies to indicate annual net revenue growth and profit margins.
It is evident that companies save costs and make a profit by reducing manual labor as they use AI, machine learning, IoT, and cloud storage while digitally transforming their businesses.
In this way, businesses both save time and money. By investing in the right technological tools and devices, companies can grow financially more quickly.
Businesses can also find diverse revenue sources by collecting and analyzing big data efficiently – which, in turn, results in profit improvements.
Facilitating Future Digital Development
Digital transformation is the key step in shaping your future digital growth. If you don’t put any work into digitally transforming your business, it is obvious that you won’t survive in the industry.
It is safe to say that digital transformation saves companies both today and tomorrow by paving the way for revenue growth in various ways.
To keep your business sustainable, adapting to new ways of doing business and undergoing digital transformation is essential.
Challenges in Digital Transformation
Every rose has its thorns – it is undoubtedly true that some of the benefits of digital transformation result in negative outcomes for businesses. It’s important to take a look at the risks you might face in the digital transformation process to find solutions to manage them.
Cybersecurity
As businesses move to digital, risks of getting attacked online and company information being leaked are increasing. So, cybersecurity is highly significant in terms of securing your data and keeping your business safe.
According to Digital Transformation & Cloud Survey: A Wave of Change, cybersecurity ranks among the top areas of investment in data security with a percentage of 71.
Investing in cybersecurity is a clever move in terms of creating a safe work environment. You might start by making a cyber risk management plan and investing in antivirus software programs.
Data Privacy
In the digital era, collecting and utilizing data for enhancing customer satisfaction has become effortless; however, ensuring the security of all this data poses a significant challenge.
Businesses are facing the risk of having the data of their employees and customers leaked. As both employees and customers trust the company with their personal information, businesses are responsible for protecting their privacy.
To ensure data privacy, companies might start taking precautions to keep data safe with measures like identity access management and multi-factor authentication.
Resistance to Change
Not everyone is open-minded when it comes to digitally transforming their mindset and behaviors in the workplace. As some employees resist changing the way they work and do not want to adapt to technological innovations, it might be hard to make them a part of the digital transformation process.
Businesses might start giving their employees information by conducting seminars on digital transformation and its benefits. In this way, you can reduce prejudice and motivate your employees.
Establishing workshops to educate employees on the use of digital tools and devices is also a sound initiative.
Best Practices for Navigating Your Digital Transformation Journey
Since digital transformation is an essential step to take for your business to remain alive in the digital age, it is clear that you need the main strategies to better manage your business.
Here are the best practices you can follow to make the best of your digital transformation process:
- Define Your Objectives: Your company’s digital transformation plan should align with your company’s objectives and goals. Pay close attention to what you want to achieve with digital transformation!
- Have a Strong Cybersecurity System: Now we know that cyber-attacks are one of the threats coming with digital transformation. So, it is crucial to have a strong cybersecurity framework to follow to ensure data privacy.
- Invest in Your Employees: Collaboration is a key element in digitally transforming your business. You can be a great leader who makes time for training your employees and encouraging them to develop their skills.
- Constantly Monitor & Give Feedback: Digital transformation is a process that needs constant attention. Make sure to always monitor to spot the rights and wrongs.
- Stay Up to Date with Technology: Digital transformation is an ongoing process, so you constantly need to keep informed about technological advancement to successfully transform your business.
Meet Your Companion on Your Digital Journey: OctaMeet!
With the strong impact of the ongoing digital transformation, companies started to move business processes to the online environment. This led to an increase in the importance of video conferencing platforms, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
So, finding the right video conferencing tool has also become an essential part of digitally transforming businesses.
OctaMeet allows you to carry out both internal and external communications and becomes your best friend during your digital transformation journey with its user-friendly interface design!
OctaMeet provides you with everything you need from a video conferencing tool and more. Here are some of the advantages you can have while using OctaMeet:
- Don’t Miss Your Meetings: With its calendar integration feature, you never have to worry about missing your important meetings. You can receive notifications from your iCalendar, Outlook, and Google Calendar.
- Watch Together with the Participants: You can watch YouTube videos simultaneously with your participants without having to share your screen. You can do it with only the YouTube link, so it is easier & practical!
- Have High-Quality Meetings: With a noise suppression feature, you don’t have to worry about background noise during important meetings. You can also have the best image quality with the automatic image quality adjustment feature.
- Make Captivating Presentations: By creating engaging and impressive presentations with OctaMeet’s exclusive features for presentations, you can easily attract your team members’ attention.
- Spread the Word: You can easily share your presentations, reports, or documents with your colleagues and feel the joy of working collaboratively!
- Easily Join Your Routine Meetings: It’s highly practical to join your routine business meetings with only one click using the meeting rooms module.
- Keep in Touch with Your Teammates: With OctaMeet’s in-app chat module, you can always chat with your team members – even when you are not having a meeting.
- Record Your Meetings: You can easily record your meetings and access your past screen recordings. It’s also possible to have access to other data – such as meeting statistics and attendance times. You can always go back in time!
To learn more about OctaMeet’s special features and modules that will take you one step forward in your digital transformation journey, you can contact us or book a demo now.
