Digital Transformation Strategy: It is mainly related to DevOps and cloud transformation. How the enterprise should go ahead and move towards the digital platform
Introduction
What is Digital Transformation?
Aspects of Digital Transformation
How a Digital Transformation Works
Why are Companies Worrying so much About Investing in Digital Transformation?
How to Start a Digital Transformation
Cloud Computing as the leading instrument for Digital Transformation
What Role Does Culture Play in Digital Transformation
Benefits of Digital Transformation for Organizations
How to do Digital Transformation
INTRODUCTION
Digital Transformation is on the agenda and an unavoidable topic for any company wishing to remain competitive in the coming years. The use of digital is indispensable to ensure maximum business efficiency at various levels. Digital has thus been changing companies and their processes, from sales to customer support, from research and development to management, from finance to marketing. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
You have certainly heard of concepts such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud, big data, augmented reality, blockchain or artificial intelligence. These are just some of the digital technologies that are transforming each other’s work and life – what we call Digital Transformation. More than a current trend, digital transformation is the present and the guarantee of success for organizations that want to survive and thrive in the global marketplace. Discover the opportunities that digital transformation can bring to your business processes and that at the end of the day can translate into greater efficiency and productivity.
Digital transformation of an enterprise is nothing more than three goals: business transformation, business innovation, and corporate growth. In addition, there are some small and medium-sized traditional enterprises. They have no purpose, purely to follow the trend and hitchhiking. In most cases, digitalization is a “useless” concept for them, and for large enterprises with a long history and foundation., Digital transformation is their important subject.
In fact, most of the “Internet +” practices in the past few years have become “+ Internet”, which has also caused social “cognitive confusion” To be more specific, for traditional enterprises, they need to apply for budgets and projects to implement business innovation and IT system construction.
Digital transformation is good and classic, but it will produce a big problem the information dilemma of “system chimney” and “data islands”, which will cause traditional enterprise management to suffer from “digital transformation”. We need to reach a consensus through the definition of “digital transformation”; digital transformation is a way and method to use digital technologies and capabilities to drive business model innovation and business ecosystem restructuring.
The purpose and core of digital transformation are to achieve business transformation, innovation and growth, and our cornerstone is digital technology. Digital transformation is a concept at the strategic level of an enterprise. It is not a smart tactic that pursues immediate benefits. Its essence is the use of digital technology to restructure business, process and organizations. So in essence, the traditional information technology is “people” driven “IT system”, “IT system” is a part of the human process. The nature of digitalization is that “IT systems” drive “people”. People are part of the system process. “Good or bad” is determined by the system. From the perspective of architecture comparison, the traditional information architecture is based on linear process automation, while the digital enterprise is based on the data and business capabilities serving as the core of network aggregation.
WHAT IS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION?
Digital transformation, a term that has literally taken by storm the boards of directors of major corporations in recent years, is largely due to these changes. Technological trends are often the focus of attention. However, the need for transformation is not posed by technology, as such, but by deep shifts in the external environment of the company caused by digitalization. For most companies, these shifts are manifested in changing consumer demand, as well as in competitive pressure from new market players: startups and global digital platforms.
Changes are felt in every industry, although their scale and speed vary significantly. Starting in industries close to the consumer, such as media, travel, financial services and retail, digital transformation is quickly penetrating the context of industrial consumption. Today, companies from engineering, energy, and the chemical industry are beginning to actively overestimate their product offerings and business models in the spirit of digitalization.
Traditional players experience digital transformation at many levels. For companies close to the end consumer, the focus is primarily on rethinking the channels and interfaces of customer interaction. A more comprehensive approach involves redesigning the company’s key consumer offer by turning it into an integrated solution or, possibly, a platform. Increasing the efficiency of the operational model by using new approaches to automation using robotics and artificial intelligence is another development direction.
Digital transformation is a cross-cutting process within an organization, through which it transforms and improves its management methods in order to add value to its products and services ultimately. This is known as the fourth industrial revolution. Digital transformation translates into digitizing all (or nearly all) business activities to improve customer satisfaction. Digital transformation impacts services and products, internal processes(sales, human resources, production, finance) and ultimately, everything that can be optimized through the introduction of technology. It is a disruptive process, based on new technologies, and therefore requires changes in a company ‘s business models and organizational culture.
This silent revolution optimizes the entire value chain of an organization, reducing costs and/or increasing process productivity. By digitizing and automating traditional processes – from design to production, through customer service and after-sales, they become more transparent and interconnected. The result is visible: greater customer satisfaction and greater sustainability for the company.
Although process digitization began about 30 years ago, the reality is that we have never been as dependent on technological modernization as we are today. If in 2018, digital transformation was a trend in the business world, today it is unavoidable – anyone who is not aware of risks rapid obsolescence. The projections for 2020 point to a further improvement of technologies existing and greater investment by the organizations in the promotion of digital transformation in business.
Areas such as Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, cryptocurrency, virtual reality, augmented reality, and chatbots will continue to be increasingly on the way for organizations in the coming years.
Whether it’s communicating with the domain of instant messaging applications (is your WhatsApp calling you?), Or in the most mundane activities, such as hailing a cab through your smartphone, digital transformation has already invaded our lives.
Nowadays, much is said about the great changes brought by the most varied technological advances in the daily life of society. And when we consider the business environment, it could not be any different.
Managers have long known that any organization that wants to survive in the marketplace needs to align its strategies with existing technology innovations. But even so, not all business owners understand the real meaning of digital transformation in their business. Many end up neglecting its breadth and relevance.
In business, digital transformation goes far beyond just a certain investment in IT or a concept associated only with “future times”. It is this change in behaviour that creates opportunities to create new products and services, catering to this new consumer.
Digital transformation, therefore, is not something internal in companies; it comes from outside. As a result, companies are increasingly seeking to improve their bottom line, and the digital world gains more prominence within the organization, but as a means, not as an end!
And make no mistake. The digital transformation, as its name implies, calls for a transformation, a significant change. That is, do not think that just creating a page of your company on a social network can already count as a sufficient sign of digital transformation.
This process goes much further. It is a radical change in the enterprise, where technology is receiving high strategic business value and not just a small investment. Because of this, digital transformation is not just limited to the most common association with areas such as marketing or IT in a company – it is a true management process.
In this context, the opportunities generated by the digital transformation of people may require profound changes in business processes.
ASPECTS OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Leadership transformation
if the leader, general manager, and CEO do not transform, it will be difficult to push forward. So there must be leadership transformation, recognizing the value of digital transformation to the entire business transformation of the operating model, more about how to improve efficiency and reduce costs. The transformation of work resources is actually the transformation of human resources. Every business owner wants to say that I want my sales to increase by 20% or even 50%, but the number of employees will not increase or decrease. Obviously, the business increases by 20% and the number of human resources increase by 20% in proportion. Everyone raises their wages again. The result is a decline in profit margins. Therefore, they are thinking about how to transform resources, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, etc., and how to use information technology to integrate more resources, so this will become particularly critical. Comprehensive experience transformation, especially if the users of the enterprise are consumers, the experience is extremely critical. Information and data transformation is a very important point in the future. The percentage of total revenue generated by information and data in the future will become a target for future transformation and will likely serve as a very important indicator for assessing IT departments. It just happens that these transformations can correspond to business scope innovation one by one. In other words, through the transformation of 5 aspects, digital enterprises also have the innovation capabilities in 5 aspects:
Leadership transformation corresponds to decision-making mode, and operation mode corresponds to operation mode innovation, working resources correspond to production mode, comprehensive experience of services corresponding to products, profit model corresponds to information and dataBased on the above description of digital transformation, we can also find that digital transformation has empowered enterprises in three aspects:
AI empowerment
Empower enterprise intelligence, change linear human-made experience decisions, and assist decision-making with machine intelligence based on big data and algorithm models, including perceptual intelligence and cognitive intelligence. Therefore, the digital transformation of an enterprise must achieve at least the following points:
The essence of digital transformation is to take customer needs as the “leader”, “force” internal changes from external needs, and thoroughly implement the “Internet +” strategy implementation; accordingly, the values and strategic direction of enterprise development should be based on past production capacity Driven to data-driven.
Creating lightweight / service-oriented PaaS, containerization of enterprise application systems, one-stop agile IT development and operation and maintenance Data empowerment: realize data intelligence, data normalization, unified data governance and services, data entity integration, and data association.
HOW A DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION WORKS
in order to understand why digital transformation is important, it is relevant to consider how the process occurs. The digital transformation occurs externally and influences the internal processes of the company. It is outside in phenomenon. First and foremost, managers need to evaluate their business and consider how the technologies considered will change their processes. Professionals need to be willing to accept the necessary changes and to understand the magnitude of the digital transformation in the organization.
When thinking about digital transformation, it is very important to consider that the process is not driven solely by technology, but by the strategy of the organization. Considering the main global demands, we can list some areas that need the attention of companies when it comes to digital transformation:
Tools: Analyze which existing tools can help your organization.
Processes: Reformulate processes according to digital tools
Expansion: Explore New Business Models and Markets
Partnership: Using technology to restructure partner relationships
Loyalty: use digital to increase brand identity and build customer loyalty
Digital: Digitize and Create New Ways to Market a Current Product or Service
Mindset: Assessing the Impact of the Digital Transformation Process on Company Performance
People: Performing the necessary adjustments to sustain mindset change
- More efficiency
The greatest digital transformation undoubtedly occurs within the organization, especially in business operations. Using technology, one can transform operations and reduce, or even eliminate, more mechanized processes that do not require human judgment or strategic thinking. This transformation can be accomplished through applications and programs that reduce operating time and automate processes. See yourself as Uber applying technology has completely altered a traditional business model. In some countries, notably the US, the app contains a chatbot feature, integrated with Facebook Messenger, whereby you can request an uber as easily and safely as if you were using the app itself.
The implementation of digital transformation also presents an opportunity to unite work teams, build bridges between departments and invest in the development of new technical skills and creative thinking, which will increase the productivity of the organization’s employees.
- Higher Customer Satisfaction
The customer is currently a digital consumer. In this sense, organizations have at their disposal relevant data about their preferences, which they can use to boost their business, bet on innovative products and more personalized experiences. This is the case for online advertising that uses users’ search data to suggest certain products and services to them according to their preferences, geographical location or past purchase and search history.
The information collected through structured (consumer personal information) and unstructured (social networks) data allow the customer to establish a positively differentiated and more useful relationship with the customer. The better the company knows its customer, the easier it is to serve according to their expectations and thus increase the level of satisfaction – and in this, both the company and the customer wins. For example, if the airline I use regularly knows that I am allergic to peanuts, you can immediately schedule my meals on board with that special request, avoiding a bad experience.
- Better decision-making process
The delivery of information and data in real-time, the so-called big data, enables access to insights fast and precious to improve the decision-making process and help solve the challenges more simply, quickly and effectively. As data analysis becomes faster and more powerful (using big data analytics and machine learning techniques), the information companies gather more detailed and powerful, allowing them to make more informed decisions based on data. More complex and reacting faster. Today the commercial director does not have to wait for the end of the month, and often not even for the end of the day to get the performance data of his sales teams on the ground – of course, this allows him to exploit opportunities and correct the trajectory fast and agile, minimizing waste of resources.
Take Kohls’ example where store managers can get real-time sales information and see if there are any deviations between their store performance and other counterparts. This allows you to react in a short time and ensure greater business efficiency without wasting opportunities.
- Greater organizational optimization
The focus in business, derived from the new digital paradigm allows the organization to become more competitive and stand out from the competition. Access to valuable information about consumers’ tastes and activities is a huge competitive advantage in creating more personalized products – that is why so many brands have and actively drive loyalty programs. Increasing customer awareness translates into new customers and higher revenue per customer.
The digitization of processes and the use of technology also reduces the costs in different areas. For example, employee mobility enables virtualization of workspaces, thus reducing physical spaces. Even working remotely, there are numerous applications that allow employees in an organization to work as a team and generate success metrics that measure their performance.
A highly digitized company operates faster and more efficiently. Automation allows the human element to be removed from many processes, and this reduces the likelihood of errors and failures. On the other hand, it also allows you to focus resources on tasks where the machine does not replace man – whether in customer relations, be it in processes that require greater flexibility, innovation and creativity!
- Greater Market Expansion
Introducing new technologies into organizational processes, as well as helping to build customer loyalty, also helps reach new audiences, opening the door to globalization. Digitization also enables organizations to set up their operations anywhere in the globe, especially through faster communication and the establishment of shared services.
For example, if your company decides to have a team of professionals across the globe, collaboration through the cloud-based tools is simple and agile. Real-time collaboration using tools like Google Drive is available to all organizations and promotes teamwork between people in different places.
Generally speaking all markets in the world are accessible to any organization; This is because it is easy, fast and cheap to travel to any capital a few thousand kilometres away, as well as because it is possible to operate e-commerce by taking advantage of the many marketplaces that exist.
Going back to Uber’s example, it is easy to see how this company can operate in a foreign country without having a physical presence on-site – just a set of people are available to drive, and others seek their service through the application.
WHY ARE COMPANIES WORRYING SO MUCH ABOUT INVESTING IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION?
Thus, considering this scope, it is possible to observe some very relevant transformations to companies, such as:
Improve the customer experience
It is no longer the price or the product that is considered the most decisive factors in the decision making process by customers. In 2020, 86% of consumers will be willing to pay more to get the best shopping experience. With this in mind, it is possible to state that it is essential that companies invest in this field. Otherwise, they will see their business collapse.
And at this point, technology is capable of delivering significant change as it has become a direct channel of communication with the public. No wonder that digital transformation presents as one of its pillars, precisely, the customer experience.
It is through the internet, for example, that customers can be most effectively influenced while building a brand’s reputation. Note the influence of sites such as Complain Here, the breadth of Facebook ads, or the ease of communicating with the company through chat tools.
Today, it is much easier for a business to be in touch with its buyers, create ways to interact with the brand, and better understand their preferences. Thus, with a digital transformation, your company will have tools that can help, among other areas:
Targeting: Segmenting your audience through data collection and customizing approaches is made possible by analytics tools, for example. It’s easier to know what your target will be, what your preferences are, and try to meet them to attract more leads.
Customer Service: Increasingly common strategies, such as Customer Success, will provide ways to ensure your customer will be properly served. After all, it is now much easier for shoppers to communicate with the company via digital service than to seek interaction with employees in person.
Sales Simplification: Consumers seek more simplicity at the time of purchase, avoiding certain costs, travel and valuing agility. Imagine how digital influences this process, such as through e-commerce.
More agile business models: With digital, speed has become a major factor. Consumers charge faster problem solving, meeting needs and improving. Everything seems to work at a constant speed. This is why it is important for any company to be able to shorten customer buying time and get marketed quickly. Research shows that, through the digital transformation process, a company can reduce 32% of the time to purchase decision and get to market 33% faster.
Automated operation: When a company decides to take advantage of the opportunities generated by digital transformation, technology brings with it a wide range of methodologies, tools and techniques that can automate processes. Management is made easier, and communication becomes faster and easier, data sharing is more accurate. In this context, the most varied operations and tasks have their results accelerated, and the chances of errors and rework of activities are diminished.
Thus, in addition to the consequence of saving time and costs, there is also the generation of greater productivity in the processes as a whole.
CLOUD AS THE LEADING INSTRUMENT FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Everyone is talking about it and companies are doing their best to actually create a strategy that can ensure their entry into the Digital Age we are currently living. The goal is to innovate effectively and not just use the term transformation as a marketing campaign.
There are several reasons for turning all attention to digital: the pace of disruptive technology, the need to do more with less, the condition of maintaining competitive advantage, and, above all, the importance of being more customer-centric.
While digital tools and technologies significantly affect the way business is conducted, many organizations still do not know the best way to implement a comprehensive and effective digital transformation process.
Cloud Computing Secures Technology Infrastructure for Innovation
IT leaders are embracing the cloud as the primary technology foundation for innovation. They are discovering how the cloud can be effective in creating new products and services that are innovative and potentially revolutionizing their business process and its customers.
Companies today to be successful must adapt to major market changes or face extinction. Organizations that do not anticipate new technologies risk making their own products and services obsolete and without meeting the new consumption patterns of their over-connected customers.
One of the great examples of this transformation was the emergence of Netflix. This was at a time when Blockbuster, famous for its size as well as its movie and game rental service, dominated with nearly 10,000 stores worldwide and its market value was billions.
What Blockbuster did not expect was that it would be a victim of innovation. Netflix, which left the DVD service, migrated to the streaming service, quickly expanded around the world and bankrupted the giant rental network.
It is also worth remembering the impact of Spotify music service in the face of the serious problem that record labels were experiencing at the time, the huge CD and DVD piracy market. Despite some early resistance, music sold as a service virtually saved the music industry.
Digital transformation helps a company keep up with emerging customer demands sustained by the future. The Digital Age enables an organization to compete in an ever-changing economic landscape as technology evolves rapidly.
To do this, transformation is necessary by keeping pace with new innovation trends, consumption patterns, and a customer actively presents on the Internet and social networks, using a lot of technology and mobile devices.
Cloud Computing and the Innovation Process
To understand why cloud computing is so important in the innovation process, you need to understand its concept. Cloud computing enables companies to consume diverse computing resources, such as servers, storage, network and security assets, miscellaneous software, as well as electricity and data traffic.
With low operating costs and hosting from specialized companies such as Amazon AWS, Google, and Microsoft, companies that embrace the cloud as an IT infrastructure need not make investments to build, acquire, and maintain internal computing infrastructures. In addition, migrating to the cloud enables access to cutting-edge technology, integrated directly with today’s digital transformation.
Types of Cloud Computing Services
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a way for cloud computing to provide virtualized computing resources over the Internet. In an IaaS model, a cloud provider hosts the infrastructure components traditionally present in a local data centre, including servers, storage, and network hardware, as well as the virtualization layer.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a cloud computing model in which a provider provides the hardware and software framework required for hosting and application development for users across the Internet. Adopting PaaS means freeing organizations from the need to acquire and install hardware and software assets within their internal structure, resulting in consistent cost and time savings.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software as a service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which a provider hosts applications and makes them available over the Internet. SaaS eliminates the need for companies to install and run applications on their own local servers. This eliminates hardware acquisition, provisioning, and maintenance expenses, as well as software licensing, installation, and support.
FaaS (Function as a Service)
FaaS, which is also known as Serverless Computing, consists of event-driven application design and deployment paradigm in which computing resources are delivered as scalable cloud services. Translating this, in a serverless computing deployment, the cloud client pays only for service usage, i.e. uptime. No costs will be associated with that technology infrastructure if it is down.
Backup as a Service (BaaS)
Backup as a Service (BaaS) is an approach to backing up data that involves purchasing backup and recovery services from an online data backup provider. Instead of backing up through a local, centralized IT department, BaaS connects systems to a private, public, or hybrid cloud managed by the external provider.
Desktop as a Service (DaaS)
Desktop as a Service (DaaS) is a cloud computing offering in which a provider has the ability to host the backend of a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). With DaaS, desktop operating systems run on virtual machines on servers located in the cloud. All the necessary support infrastructure, including storage and network resources, also resides in this cloud structure.
Infrastructure as Code (IAC)
Infrastructure as Code (IAC) is a type of IT infrastructure that operations teams can automatically manage and provision through code rather than using a manual process. Infrastructure as Code is sometimes referred to as programmable infrastructure. Imagine operational productivity when you can build and destroy complex IT environments in minutes, made possible with a code-written infrastructure.
Key Technology
it is worth highlighting how much Cloud Computing has the real potential to drive digital transformation and support business digitization. In addition, there is not a single application or technology currently that is not supported by cloud computing and can be used to develop new technology-based products and services. Cloud computing has become the key technology for the new generation of smart businesses.
IMPLEMENTATION OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
To answer the question in this chapter, I will tell you right away that to start the digital transformation of your business you don’t need to change your computer, buy the super-cool smartphone or hire dozens of programmers.
Following the scan, the path seems easier than it really is. In fact, many people (and in turn, the organizations in which they are integrated) fear that change might become challenging and uncertain. From startups to large companies, from retail to retail, they all report some difficulty in putting their digital initiatives into practice, particularly those that have been operating in traditional industries for many years.
But what makes the transition to the digital model so difficult? Contrary to what might be expected, technology is not the main obstacle to digital transformation. Business models and structure, together with the organizational culture, constitute the main challenges to change. Changing the culture of an organization is possibly the most difficult task in the process of digital transformation and should, therefore, be done progressively, dynamically and evolutionarily.
First of all, Digital transformation is more a way of behaving and relating than a set of technologies. This means that digital technologies must be used to exchange information, to achieve what you want faster, to have better offers. I’m not talking about advertising on the social of the moment, Facebook or Instagram that is, but sharing the first thing to do is to be found.
So, enough websites that are difficult to navigate because they are flooded with images and words, just little-visited social pages. Your website must be based on simplicity and speed of navigation, an image optimized to make you understand immediately who you are, a few words of presentation, contacts, email, phone, Linkedin or Instagram profile.
Before selling a product, you must tune in to your future customers, establish a relationship of knowledge, if not friendship. There is no use putting your entire shelf (I think of wine, but it is also good if you sell bolts or nail files) on the front page: Amazon does it better than you do and with better customer service. So, the same loyalty that you normally do with customers you know personally, you must do it with those who only know you digitally. Otherwise, it will not work. It takes time, of course, but for this, the customers who usually come to visit you in the cellar, or at fairs, or in a wine shop can help you. Or at the National Nail File Exhibition, it does the same.
So here we come to the second step: to make the digital word of mouth to loyal customers, those who until now have never abandoned you and that a couple of cases of wine a year always buy it (or bolts).
Now you have to start catching new customers. I hope you will leave your email address when they first visit you in the cellar or at the counter of the wine fair; I can tell you for sure, having visited more than a few in recent years, that there are very few producers who after explaining their wines to you take the trouble to ask the visitor for an email.
Email is an important channel, people read it, and when the email arrives it stays there on top of the list until it is checked as ‘read’. A post on Facebook, unless you have put notifications for everything, is likely to go unnoticed if you do not catch the right time of day. All these strategies cannot be easily achieved with an individual. In order to implement a digital transformation, there are some common habit an organization need to implement;
Corporate strategy
For digital transformation to succeed it must first place it at the centre of the organization’s agenda! And second, understand the magnitude and complexity of this commitment. This requires strong, committed and committed leadership, willing to make significant investments and set clear and ambitious goals. A vision that should be shared with the entire organization to make transformation a collective process. Keep employees informed of the reasons and objectives for the change, as well as the strategy to follow, is halfway to the success of the digital transformation.
Teamwork
The driving force of an organization is its human resources and the more skilled and informed they are, the better. However, it is these same resources that often create barriers and resistance to change, as they form the basis of a company’s organizational culture.
To introduce digital transformation in any organization, a change in the organizational paradigm is required, so effort and work must be done as a team. It is important to involve all parties in strategic planning, which will avoid any opposition to the idea of digital transformation. This will ensure that everyone is aligned with the organization’s values and mitigate the risk and cost of the operation. The success of digital transformation will depend on how it is integrated into the company’s DNA. Setting medium- and long-term goals for all stakeholders is one way of ensuring that digital initiatives are successful.
Appropriate Technology
In addition to the important role of organizational culture for digital transformation, there is also a technical issue. Digital transformation requires access to technology that is robustly implemented and tailored to the needs of each organization, which may lead to significant investments. Ensuring that you have a solid technology structure and prepared human resources is one of the first steps to the successful implementation of digital transformation. No use investing in technology for customer support, such as artificial intelligence, if you do not have a team that can serve customers in a traditional way or if afterwards, the systems with which the customer can request information are not available in real-time. Imagine that you have a good artificial intelligence system to interpret customer requests and that the customer requests a duplicate of an invoice. The experience will only be satisfactory if the billing system has the ability to quickly and promptly provide it. Way the process will look archaic.
This prior investment in information technology, particularly for companies whose systems are out of date, will not be reflected in immediate profits but is indispensable for maintaining a competitive position. The introduction of new technologies enables automation, but requires process systematization – we are still at a stage when technology is particularly good at eliminating repetitive and systematic work. However, we can already think ahead, new technologies with artificial intelligence, allow endowment of computer systems with greater autonomy and decision/processing capacity, something that translates into greater organizational efficiency and the reduction of associated costs.
Tools and indicators of success
The success of digital transformation within an organization also depends on the tools and indicators used to analyze its impact on business models. The latter is very important in assessing the success of implementation and change of mindset of the organization.
These indicators should cover areas such as customer satisfaction (customer loyalty and satisfaction), operation efficiency (employee productivity, recruitment and retention, IT spending, process quality, investment in innovation, etc.) and the business model. (decision-making time, new product development time, growth and new revenue streams, digital reach, competitive differentiation, among others).
WHAT ROLE DOES CULTURE PLAY IN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
The role of IT has changed radically in recent years. CEOs increasingly want their CIOs to help companies generate revenue. IT becomes the main driver of business innovation, instead of focusing on cost savings. Accepting this change requires everyone in the company to reconsider the role and influence of IT in their daily experience.
Solution ‘has become’ Building and Creating New Features That Did Not Exist Before ‘. We see that most startups do not use huge, packaged software packages as the basis for the company. If you want to do it inside a large enterprise Innovation should not start there. You are no longer running mainframes, servers, data centres, networks or operations here, and those are just chips and things you can outsource. ”
Although IT will play an important role in advancing digital transformation strategies, the task of implementing and adapting to the tremendous changes that accompany digital transformation lies with everyone. Therefore, digital transformation is related to corporate culture and is a collective issue, covering all functional departments from top to bottom.
IT leaders find they need to work in cross-functional teams more than ever. Digital transformation initiatives often reshape workgroups, positions, and long-term business processes. IT leaders feel stressed when people worry about their value or their work at risk. As a result, leadership “soft skills” are in great demand, and these skills have proven to be quite difficult to master.
The important factors of digital transformation are, of course, technological progress and innovation. But usually, rather than adopting new technologies, it is better to eliminate obsolete processes and backward technologies. In 2017, more than 70% of US federal IT spending was spent on government-wide operations and maintenance of older systems.
In the medical industry, despite the widespread use of smartphones and other mobile devices by healthcare providers, nearly 80% of clinicians continue to use pagers provided by hospitals, and 49% of them say they receive patient care-related The most commonly used message is a pager.
Examples like these are found in all industries, and the spread of backward technologies hinders the ability of CIOs to implement digital transformation strategies successfully. Forrester research shows that CIOs spend an average of 72% of their budget on existing IT focus issues, while only 28% are on new projects and innovations.
If companies want to grow with the rapid development of today’s digital transformation, they must use technology to improve efficiency as much as possible. In most cases, this means adopting agile principles throughout the enterprise. Automation technology has also helped many IT organizations increase speed and reduce technical burdens.
If all this makes you pessimistic, don’t worry. One of CIO’s biggest misconceptions about digital transformation is that all of their competitors are far ahead of them. Tim Yeaton, Red Hat’s chief marketing officer, said, “Because people (and the mass media around them) praise the fastest transitioners, how difficult or long it takes for a typical global 2,000 company to transform Time is rarely commented. ”
IMPORTANCE OF CLOUD COMPUTING TO YOUR BUSINESS
Integration, security, flexibility: These are just a few advantages of cloud services for businesses of any size or product segment. But the importance of the cloud reveals an even greater complexity, not always known to managers.
In an increasingly competitive, companies must seek technological differentials that can increase the quality of their products and services, as well as offer greater security and profitability to their business.
For many, especially small and midsize businesses, when migrating to cloud computing, the game seemed to turn in their favour when it came to market. Here’s how important cloud is to your business and what benefits await your business!
The term Cloud Computing, or cloud computing, refers to the ability to execute processes over the Internet without the need to install programs or purchase desktop licenses. All routine business and document and information sharing tasks are performed or allocated to cloud servers (online) through powerful servers.
The manager has more assertive decision-making conditions, as well as the teams, integrate better and can propose better service to their clients with this type of technology.
Which company doesn’t want to produce more, at the lowest cost and the best quality? This is possible if the manager chooses to hire a company specialized in this segment. This type of service is increasingly popular in Brazil, and it is no accident. In the tone of competitiveness, businesses with the best technologies have the best results – which in practice necessarily impact their productivity.
By choosing to migrate program and file storage to cloud computing using a credible, expert consultancy or company, your company has a structure that many would not be able or meaningless to invest.
With the support of experts who ensure cloud computing, the manager can focus on other business demands, such as more specific tasks in the production and quality of products and services, for example. Your IT staff can be more productive, as the integration and good information infrastructure of industries is no longer a constant problem.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CLOUD
You may have heard that digital transformation is a reality that will only remain in the market for companies that invest in assertive technologies in their processes. This is a fact! Experts ensure that over the next 5 to 10 years, we will see unprecedented technological developments based on the economics of experience, sustainability and customer emotions. It must be understood that digital transformation is built on various converging technological trends. And the computation cloud is among them.
Many companies invest heavily in machines, licenses and software, servers, state-of-the-art hardware to keep their processes current and competitive or to meet a specific demand. However, managers are often unaware that they can purchase more cost-effective custom services and solutions.
Anyone who invests in physical and technological infrastructure requires being able to keep them up to date. The costs of this are high, idleness and obsolescence are imminent risks. The cloud has a more modern, secure and dynamic structure that makes it possible to optimize and customize the work routine much more economically.
Another great advantage of the cloud is the ability to work with the files and programs necessary for the productivity of your business through mobile devices, such as tablets and mobile phones. This optimizes time and streamlines actions throughout the process. The impact is significant for all sectors of the company.
Information security is the challenge of this new decade. More and more cloud services companies are up to date and investing in practices that ensure information security through innovative data encryption and access authentication protocols.
At first, reducing the costs of all kinds is the main advantage that managers see. The cost of installing idle servers has been waived and replaced by variable costs and more with cloud solutions.
Because you can customize your resources online, you can prioritize certain areas over others, optimize contracted resources, and gain better operational and financial control of your business.
Managing teams can be a problem when resources are out of compatibility or disconnected. This is another advantage of cloud computing, which allows all employees to have access to documents saved in the cloud to make use, make corrections, share and take any necessary actions with much more flexibility.
All cloud process tools are automatically updated without requiring the company and its managers to update contracted programs. Updates and improvements take place gradually and on a regular basis without anyone dedicated to following up.
Everything that happens on a cloud platform is recorded. This avoids conflicts and allows tracking of actions taken. These records can be reviewed at any time. Cloud technology gives you greater control of information and access.
Integration, whether information or resources, is a challenge for any business. Compatibility is not always possible, and errors are constant. However, solutions with openness for
BENEFITS OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FOR ORGANIZATIONS
Today, brands are more close than ever of consumers, being able to generate expectations and influence their choices. The customer relationship paradigm has changed profoundly – the customer has become a digital consumer. Connected at all times, you are now more informed and demanding, search more and more online before making a purchase. It is, therefore, essential to focus on differentiating experiences that excel in innovation, as this will strongly influence purchasing decisions.
This dynamism of digitization puts strong pressure on companies to meet their customers’ performance and security expectations, but also makes them more sustainable, resilient and profitable, staying ahead of their competitors.
But more than the relationship between brands and consumers, customers and businesses, digital transformation brings with it a number of business benefits – from better strategic planning to increased activity value and process improvement;
Automated Check-In
Recently, China, a pioneer in artificial intelligence, has once again surprised the world by launching a fully automated check-in based on facial recognition at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport. Individual kiosks are used, which, through the collection and processing of data (biometric data) and the use of artificial intelligence technology, allow for faster check-in, security and boarding processes, increasing the reliability of controls – the total time of Check-in is reduced to less than one and a half minutes.
Currently, the measure is for Chinese passengers only, and the system is being implemented by only one airline, Spring Airlines, which claimed a total of 87% of a total of 5017 passengers on the first day of use.
Real-time transports
The Carris, transport company, is preparing to launch a mobile application that allows users to obtain, in real-time, information about their means of transport – updated schedules, arrival time, routes and travel diary plan. The information is collected in real-time on the company’s buses and trams via GPS and made available to its users. With this measure, Carris intends not only to get closer to its customers, addressing possible difficulties and increasing their level of satisfaction but also to improve its offer., the time frame of its transport and its operations. Such an application naturally represents a competitive advantage over competitors.
Decorate through augmented reality
From products designed for future needs to customer service, Swedish giant IKEA is one of the most dynamic examples of using digital technologies to improve its operations and satisfy the most capricious consumers of this digital age.
Through the “IKEA Place” app and its augmented reality, customers can try products before they buy them. A fun way to decorate your home without leaving it, whose goal is to attract new customers more effectively and at reduced costs. The application has been downloaded about two million times.
Interview with a chatbot
More and more companies, such as the Hilton hotel chain, are using artificial intelligence to recruit people through chatbots. The chatbot is a program automated communication, which uses artificial intelligence to talk to people via chat. It is commonly used on platforms, such as websites or social networks, and its main objective is to optimize certain company functions, such as recruitment and customer service.
The use of this technology allows companies to analyze more candidates in a shorter amount of time. Some even offer video functionality with real-time data analysis, which lets you evaluate what candidates say and how they say it – through algorithms, they can also help you identify the best candidates for certain roles.
Gboard with custom emojis
Google recently launched the “Mini” app via its Gboard keyboard (available on Google Play), which creates custom emojis from selfies. Using artificial intelligence technologies and machine learning, the application is able to analyze the information contained in the image and create an emoji similar to the person in question. For this, neural networks are used that suggest skin tones, hairstyles and accessories, which can then be enhanced by users. According to Google, the idea is to give people the freedom to use emojis that best represent their characteristics.
Blockchain supports the trading platform
“ETrade Connect” is the name of the financial trading platform, launched in Hong Kong, which brings together twelve international banks – including HSBC and Standard Chartered. Based on cryptocurrency technology, the blockchain, this platform aims to increase the efficiency and speed of international transactions, which in 2017 alone moved 9 trillion dollars. According to HSBC, the platform reduces the time required to approve loan applications to four hours, which can usually take several days on the side of a bank. Access to new technologies, notably blockchain, will revolutionize the banking industry by streamlining traditional processes, making them simpler, more efficient and safer.
Clothing brand Kohl’s uses technology to monitor store performance
By improving the collection of store performance data now captured in real-time, Kohl’s can provide managers with useful information for decision making.
Typically, making performance data available can be time-consuming and prevent management from reacting quickly and thereby missing opportunities.
With the collection and availability of data in very short time frames, in the case of Kohl’s is a weekly assessment, the company can analyze the indicators and identify deviations – it is possible, for example, to detect a product that is selling well in all stores. Except one, and try to identify the cause of that disparity. Note that the fact that this analysis is done in a short time can be critical to success – let’s say it is a specific product for a special date, such as Valentine’s Day or Halloween.
Other retail area businesses, already have equipped their employees to store smartwatches through which they are presented in real time their goals, thus allowing control effectively the same. Each employee can know throughout their shift how many business or sales approach they are still aiming to accomplish on that day. This is only possible with a system that records store transaction data in real-time, compares it with the objectives and makes this information practical (in this case through the clock) to your store staff.
Greater control over health
Normally, we humans, only when we have symptoms or have changes in the results of medical tests, do we worry and reflect on our habits (eating, lifestyle, etc.).
The use of wearables can thus help us improve our health. The fact that monitorization of automatically our habits/lifestyle (how many steps we take each day or how many hours sleep, for example) and even our vital signs (such as heart rate) allows to keep them under control. But the usefulness of the wearables does not end with our own control. The recorded information is also useful for share with our doctor, allowing him to understand better our habits and the way our body has been working.
In this context, more or less advanced devices have recently appeared on the market, from Fitbit to the Health application on Apple devices, which already control this information. But these advances will also lead to the emergence of new wearables for more specific medical use.
Valedo is an example of this – a wearable device, created by doctors and recommended for individuals with scoliosis and other back problems. YoursSensors transfer the body image to a 3D model and capture movement in real-time.Valedo, in addition to teaching some exercises that train the lumbar muscles to correct the spine and ease pain, monitors movements and shares the results.
The adoption of this technology by healthcare systems will thus reduce costs by minimizing the number of hours doctors and patients spend, the number of consultations and utilization levels of hospital facilities while giving greater control to the patient about your health.
More Services for Self-Care Customers
Roger Communications is the leading communications service provider Wireless in Canada and a major cable TV providers, broadband and voice internet.
At the beginning of the decade, Roger Communications committed to modify its service and offer a more autonomous experience to its customers by serving the channels they use most. These include community forums, chat support, an application developed by the company (MyRogers), and also social networks. Customers have the ability to interact with your convenience, and you can now ask questions, change contracted service plans, update accounts, set up a new line, and more.
The MyRogersApp has a new tool of “self-care” designated DeviceAid, which allows diagnostics remotely technical, analyze and solve common problems and all this takes place without the need to speak with a support technician.
Rogers Communications has also simplified and clarified billing to ensure a better customer experience. With this evolution of services, the company registered a significant increase in customer satisfaction rates.
WHY DO TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIES NEED TO IMPROVE THEIR COGNITIVE ABILITY
Let me talk about the relationship between digitalization and the industrial Internet from a micro perspective. The biggest challenge in the research of enterprise organization is that during the transformation process of traditional enterprises, it is difficult to accurately understand the digital economy, digital age and digital technology. Cognitive ability is the most important ability to understand the objective world and acquire various knowledge. In the past, a lot of cognition was based on experience, and experience can help us solve problems. The cognitive impact is not so great. Everything we have experienced can be judged directly. However, the biggest challenge brought by the Internet is that experience is useless. The understanding of many traditional industries is different after entering the digital age. This is a very big change. This includes five areas of competence. The first is your understanding of verbal information, that is, what kind of world you want to answer. For example, after entering the digital age, we answer different questions about the world. The second is whether you have the skills to answer “why and how” questions. The third is your strategy. Can you adjust or take into account or process cognitive processes. When the digital economy and the Internet reach every industry, its changes are completely different. The fundamental differences between 5G and 4G have also been introduced just now. Many people may not fully understand where this change is exactly. This is the difference in your cognitive strategy. Coupled with attitude and motor skills, that means you have to be aware that the cognitive capabilities of traditional industries and enterprises have not adjusted fast enough. There are different formulated policies, but they are difficult to implement in traditional industries. The industrial Internet requires the industry to improve its own cognitive capabilities; if the industry’s own cognitive capabilities are not improved, then it is difficult to graft in the industrial Internet and technology empowerment and digitalization.
Six key cognitions
- Everything is being transformed into data. It may have been product-centric before, service-centric later, and then technology-centric. But today it has changed, with data at the core. When data is at the core, business models are changing, and efficiency is changing. Serving the consumer side of Internet companies at the beginning was precise because that was the fastest-growing part of the business model. Next is the manufacturing side, which is to solve the efficiency problem of all industries. When everything is transformed into data and data is the core, the first change is how you understand this market. I call it “data is insight.” You understand that the market cannot rely on its own feelings but on data.
If companies are not able to expand your inclusiveness, your links, and your connections with each other, you have no way to really understand what the changes brought by the numbers are. The application of data is omnipresent. There are already products that can convert text into sign language, which uses numerical calculations. This has changed the direct relationship between more than 30 million deaf children and the world. So digital action plans are very important today. If you don’t have the ability to do digital action plans, you may be far away from the world today.
- One of the disadvantages of connecting industrial enterprises is that they are more important than owning. They must be controlled, the boundaries must be clear, and they must be owned. Even the simplest talents are considered to be their own. But in the digital age, this cognition must be adjusted, which means that you can understand what is open, what is iterative, and what is collective intelligence. From the mode of human operation to the way of organization, all the values of connection, sharing, and innovation are revealed step by step. We can see why Haier’s transformation has attracted so much attention because it uses a very open digital platform to allow more people to connect together and form a very large joint innovation. Huawei is also connecting a large number of innovative projects and institutions, fully embracing an era of full of the digital transformation plan.
- Credibility and open collaboration are key. In an unstable environment, commanders may not be able to see more clearly than their subordinates. At this time, letting the people who can hear the artillery fire to set goals from the bottom up always can exceed the commander’s expectations and defeat a beautiful war of uncertainty. The most important thing in the digital age is trust. Without security and trust as the bottom line, digitalization cannot be achieved. Whether you can build a community of destiny is fundamental. 7-Eleven is not an Internet company, but it has a stronger growth because it has met the requirements of today’s digital age early, achieved credibility and open collaboration, and established a community of fate.
Xiaomi is a very competitive company because of its relationship with developers. It gathers individuals, institutions, and intelligent devices from two platforms. When these are put together, we can imagine its future development. When Tencent empowered the Industrial Internet, one of its positions was that it only served as a connector. Under this connector, the range of connection becomes very wide, and people-to-people, people-to-business services, and people-to-smart hardware are all connected. The strategy of autonomous growth of partners has no boundaries, and everyone can feel and imagine the development space and the power of scientific and technological progress.
From competition logic to symbiosis logic, I have been pushing the word “symbiosis” recently. The reason is very simple: In the past, for things that could not be done due to technical constraints, only comparative advantages could be used to meet demand and gain profit. Today, if you can pass the elements of productivity through technology and digital capabilities to make it more space and more flexible, all industries can be redefined. This is why we must turn to the logic of symbiosis, which is a very important concept without a win or lose.
The most important strategic change in the digital age is to shift from being enterprise-centric to being customer-centric. Our traditional strategic logic is bounded by what we want to do, what we can do, and what we can do. What I want to do is my original intention, what I can do is resource capacity, and what I can do is the industrial environment. But in the digital age, all three can be changed. What you want to do can be redefined. What you can do can be connected to others. What you can do can cross boundaries. You will find that the boundaries are all changed when there are numbers as the basis. This change explains why there are so many unicorns today, why there are so many iterables, and why many emerging industries are growing much faster than we think.
- CustomerismYou must return to the customer value side. Numbers can help us truly stay with our customers. Today we know the needs of people more clearly, the environment of the entire market, and what the customers need. The strategic logic of customers can be developed from two dimensions, one is from the customer side, called demand, and the other is from the technology side, called technology. You have four brand new choices in strategy. You can be a disruptor, a leader, or a promoter, or an innovator. Digital help for industry, manufacturing, and traditional industries can exceed everyone’s imagination. At least strategically, there are opportunities in the four dimensions of space. If you’re willing to return to the client, there are opportunities to do it based on four directions. Today, we must ask ourselves four questions: Do you know what customers expect? Can you bring imagination to customers? What technological advances will affect our field in the future? Do you have the determination and ability to break the rules and apply radical technology? The core of these questions is whether you can really return to customer value.
- Long-term; Today, you may need long-term practice more than ever, how to determine in uncertainty. We have always wanted to face uncertainty. How to determine in the context of basic uncertainty becomes very critical. Today, high-speed railways are flying across the land of the motherland. You look back at the development process of the entire technology. From 2004 to the present, it is the process of continuous learning and tracking advanced technology. Of course, in the process of learning and tracking.
At the same time, we must return to human nature. Only by returning to human nature can an enterprise truly have long-term capabilities. Huawei’s pursuit of the entire 5G technology is to promote ubiquitous connectivity. When the paradigm changes, the world changes at any time. In the digital age, paradigms have changed, so the world is changing. If we don’t work hard and make changes in paradigm recognition, we may really have no chance.
CONCLUSION
The importance of digital transformation is defined by the exceptional capabilities for companies, whose biggest competitive advantage is offering individual realities not only to customers but also to employees and business partners.
New technologies play a central role in optimizing processes and strategic decision making and growing businesses. Technologies such as:
- Artificial intelligence (AI)
- Cloud computing
- Intention-based technology
The relationship based on experience results in a broad understanding of consumers and uses their digital identities as a basis.
As a result, digital transformation creates a new generation of offerings that foster a lasting and trusting relationship with customers.