Digital Transformation – And What it Means

“Efforts in customer experience often serve as the heart and soul of digital transformation” –Brian Sollis. (2016 State of Digital Transformation)

Digital Transformation, according to Wikipedia, ‘is the change associated with the application of digital technology in all aspects of human society’

In other words, Digital Transformation is the explosive and speedy transformation of business strategies, models and processes to fully dominate the changes and opportunities of digital technologies in all the aspects of human life and society.

The first stride in digital transformation is the radical change in the way you conceptualize  your business in the present scenario. To digitally transform your business strategy is no longer a phase or a beginning that needs to be pondered about, but has become a necessity to build innovative technologies to be able to survive in the world of ‘Tech Disruption’, ‘Cloud computing’ and ‘Internet of Things’.

Basic Ingredients of Digital Transformation

Cloud Computing– The distribution of hosted services like storage, databases, servers, analytics, networking and software over the internet. Cloud computing solutions are popular as they are cost efficient and flexible and has become an integral part of  business in the digital world.

Big Data– describes the large volume of data or data sets that flood a business on a daily basis. Companies benefit , not from the data in its raw form, but from the products, services and insights that emerge from the processing and analysis of Big Data.

Internet of Things– The interconnection through internet of computing devices ingrained with everyday objects to send and receive data.

Tech Disruption– A disruptive technology that forces out an existing or established industry and replaces it a completely new industry.

Cloud Computing, Big Data and Internet of Things, thebasic ingredientsof Digital Transformation, help companies:

• to make more profit,

• recruit the best resources,

• improve team productivity,

• get satisfied customers and partners.

• beat competition

The merging of SMAC – social media, analytics, mobility and cloud computing- will be a powerful business technology enabler for the next decade. It has become the driving forces behind the rapid evolution of digital businesses. SMAC and other rising technologies create new ways to develop products, interact with customers, partner with others, compete and succeed.

Mobile and Internet invasion

The newDigital in 2017 Global Overview reportfromWe are SocialandHootsuitestates that both the internet and mobile are rapidly growing. The few milestones attained are:

• More than half of the world uses smartphone.

• Two-thirds of the world population have a mobile phone.

• More than half of the world’s web traffic comes from mobile Phones

• More than one in five of the world’s population shopped online in the past 30 days.

Thereportshows the rapid growth of mobile and internet invasion around the world. The time spent on the mobile browsers far exceeds the time spent on laptops and desktop browsers combined.

Connected Devices and Sensors

The impending growth in the field of the Internet of Things opens the doors for the application of sensors. A point has reached where business and individuals have several ways of collecting and exchanging information without being bound to a location.

By 2025, it is being forecasted that more than 100 billion of Internet of Things(Iot) devices will be installed which will generate a revenue of close to $10 trillion. As the cost of sensors are on a decline, their demand has been on a rise in all major sectors including healthcare, transportation, retail and manufacturing among other.

Data Analytics and Cloud

Data analytics help organizations to harness and identify new opportunities , leading to smarter business moves, more efficient, higher profit and happier customers. ‘The cloud migration services market size is estimated to grow at the rate of 23.9% from 2016 to 2021.The cloud migration services market is driven by factors such as increased migration of workloads to cloud environment by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the inclination of enterprises toward improved security & increased business agility.’

User Interfaces

A better user experience is proving to be a major tech disruptor. People are now accustomed to downloading music, chatting, shopping and movies on their mobiles and tablets. This raises the bar of user experience at work too and that is disrupting existing IT models which are focused more on functions and features than end-user needs.

Natural user interfaces, which allows humans to interact with machines in increasingly intuitive ways, are becoming common.

Global Accessibility

The world’s middle class is set to grow from 1.8 billion in 2009 to 4.9 billion by 2030. Much of this growth will come from emerging markets, where higher incomes are driving increased access to digital technology.

Urbanization

Projections show that urbanization combined with the overall growth of the world’s population could add another 2.5 billion people to urban populations by 2050, with close to 90 percent of the increase concentrated in Asia and Africa, according to a new United Nations report.                   .

Effects of Digital Transformation

Everything, everywhere is constantly been connected – people, machines and businesses –  changing the face of the market regularly. It has become more than just selling products and sales transactions, it has becomes more about engaging your customers thru social media, mobile, online display, ecommerce and email marketing.

This immense change has leaders across the globe clambering to find out more about these technological strategies and services about digital transformation.They have realized that if latest trends are not up to date, they are gonna lose out on the race to win in an ever connected and changing world. .

According to a new research from Dell Technologies, an astounding 78% of businesses believe digital start-ups will pose a threat to their organization, either now or in future.

Software web and mobile development and consulting companies can help entrepreneurs make this transition with ease by accessing markets, developing new revenues sources and ecosystems and creating minimum viable products.

So, what should businesses do to be competitive and stay ahead?

Identify the right talent and Invest

Guarded business boundaries are now passé, your enemies are potential partners in the fast-moving business world. It would be more cost-efficient to partner with has the expertise, talent and model that’s lacking in your organization.

Customer – the focal point of Digitization

It is necessary to win the trust of the customers by providing unique and personalized user experience based on customer demand. When transparency and security is prioritized, the trust is further deepened.To earn the trust of the customer is the first step and failing to keep it, would mean losing out to competition.

Mobility

When the primary essentials of life can be accomplished by the mere touch of a finger, companies, which don’t evolve along with the transformation of new devices and technologies, might find themselves obsolete in the future. Customers value convenience and expect to have access to information and services from their mobiles. Such features should be incorporated into the business to ensure a successful transition.

Success stories

Uber, Google, Amazon, Airbnb, Flipkart and Facebook are few of the early birds who have jumped on the bandwagon of digitization and have reached the pinnacle of success. Their business strategies were able to envision and combine exquisite user experience with ingenious technologies, creating astounding products.

Toobler, a web and mobile application company in India, made digital transformation a reality for a supply and stock management company. The company wanted their stock management, which was done manually, to be updated electronically. Toobler was able to resolve this issue by fully automating all their requirements on stock replenishment and made it available on multiple interfaces(Web, mobile and tablet). This change from manual to automation resulted in  easy access, reduction of manual labour, time and expense for the company.

So, join the journey into the fourth Industrial Revolution of Digital Transformation by joining hands with the right partner to make a very smooth and profitable transition for your businesses.