Digital transformation has become synonymous with future opportunities for businesses. The benefits and opportunities presented by embracing new digital technology are abundantly clear for businesses and organisations of any size. From helping increase awareness and sales, to streamlining internal processes, businesses in any industry and of any size/model, can utilise new digital technologies in their businesses.
This makes the concept of digital transformation something that businesses can’t ignore.
But what exactly is digital transformation and how can businesses ensure they aren’t missing any opportunities through new digital technologies?
What is Digital Transformation
Digital transformation can be broadly defined as integrating digital technologies into business processes, models, competencies and activities. The truth is, digital transformation is bound to look slightly different depending on what a business is trying to achieve, but the general concepts are likely to be aligned.
For businesses, digital transformation, continues a trend in which the role and culture around IT is changing considerably. IT and telecoms can no longer be seen as a separate department or supplementary service, rather it is a core aspect of every process and activity within a business. The phones you choose, the type of broadband you selected, the computers used, all define what a business is able to achieve. As a result, the importance of this has started to be understood and prioritised.
A culture and mindset that values the role of IT and digital technologies is one that is likely to do well in today’s commercial climate and certainly one in the future.
Digital transformation goes beyond simply “going paperless” and can be seen as much about a mindset of seeking innovation and opportunity as the technologies themselves. Digital technologies are going beyond simply supporting business processes to now allowing vast innovation and creativity in how businesses are run. Artificial intelligence and machine learning is an example of this, whereby digital technology is fostering completely new concepts and opportunities, not just for business, but for society as a whole.
Benefits of Digital Transformation
In many instances, businesses going through digital transformation is less about trying to gain a competitive edge but simply trying to remain competitive. The internet and the access to communication and information means businesses that rely on technologies from previous decades are simply at a huge disadvantage when it comes to business.
Industries and long-established organisations are suddenly being disrupted, and it’s usually the adoption of technology by a competitor that allows this to happen.
The adoption of digital technologies by businesses must at least reflect the rate at which the general public is adopting new technologies. E-commerce, for example, reflects a new era of commerce, whereby customers often enjoy the benefits of ordering online over visiting physical shops. Businesses selling physical products that understand this cultural shift and embrace technologies that allow them to sell over the internet are likely to stay competitive, compared to businesses failing to offer this kind of service that customers want.
Similarly, businesses that enable their employees to work more productively by being able to access information on their mobiles, use VoIP technologies, and work remotely, will be able to outperform very rigid business processes whereby employees are limited by the processes and technology available.
Getting Started with Digital Transformation
Although embracing digital transformation is clearly important for businesses, statistics show many projects that aim to enable digital transformation, fail. This has been identified as a lack of sufficient collaboration, integration, sourcing or project management.
This illustrates the need to prioritise and dedicate time to create plans and roadmaps for how new technologies will be adopted and integrated into a business. The specifics of a project to improve digital technology with an organisation will vary, but is likely to fall into; customer experience, operations, culture and leadership, workforce enablement, marketing and sales, or communication.
As a telecoms provider in the South West, we are perfectly positioned to help support digital transformation and ensure businesses have the infrastructure and equipment to leverage new digital technologies.
The equipment, hardware and network infrastructure are aspects of telecoms that can’t be ignored if businesses want to get the most out of new technologies. For a business to use technology, whether that’s phone lines/handsets, computers, laptops or other forms of technology, there is a need for cabling, switches, routers and other forms of equipment to ensure technology is networked, connected and linked to the outside world. Failing to have this set up correctly in the first place, can lead to inefficiencies and limitations further down the road.
File storage and back-ups can also be hugely important and relying on cloud storage as a means to run a business can be risky at the best of times. Often businesses can get attracted to the latest in digital technology and forget about the infrastructure and foundations that’ll allow a business to leverage such technology.
Similarly, the connectivity and access to fast, reliable internet will be a defining feature of how well an organisation can embrace all the opportunities of new digital technologies. Trying to compete with others in your industry by using home broadband is an example of how the type of communications you have set up will impact what your business can do. As the apps and technologies used in a business grow and advance, the requirements of business-grade broadband that is built for such requirements becomes vital to avoid downtime and complications.
The strategy and approach of integrating new digital technologies into a business will likely be a key role in the overall success. Nevertheless, the telecoms and foundations that allow technology to thrive, is equally as important, which is why we’re so passionate about helping businesses see the potential of better telecoms and IT equipment.
If you’d like to learn more about how better telecoms can help your business achieve more, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our friendly team here at PureComms.
