New technologies have been rapidly entering the market for years, offering small to medium businesses the opportunity to innovate and compete like never before.
Then when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Australia in early 2020, digital workplace transformations that would likely have taken years for businesses to implement had to happen in a matter of weeks or months.
For many Australian businesses, the pandemic highlighted the need for more scalable and agile solutions, and technology is a fundamental aspect of strategy that has to be integrated across the organisation.
What Is Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, replacing non-digital or manual processes or replacing older digital technology with newer digital technology.
It fundamentally changes how a business operates, and the value it delivers to customers. It is also a cultural change that requires organisations to challenge the status quo and experiment with new types of innovation and creativity.
Why Digital Transformation is Important for Growth
For businesses to grow and stay ahead of the competition, digital transformation is essential for the following reasons:
Better Collaboration
Cloud-based software like Microsoft Teams enables real-time collaboration with both office-based and remote teams. Tools such as instant messaging, shared calendars, and video conferencing allow workers to collaborate better and work more efficiently. Documents can be updated in real-time, or automatically synced after being edited offline.
Seamless, real-time collaboration through digital technology is now an expectation and requirement in many workplaces.
Customer Engagement
These days customers expect a professional business interaction and technical experience, whether they interact with a website, mobile app, or even in-store. Customers often rate organisations on their digital customer experience first, so digital-first requires you to re-think your customer experience.
For sales teams, this could mean moving from cold calls to social selling and video calls. Marketing teams need to focus on data-driven digital strategies rather than traditional offline marketing activities. And customer service needs to be proactive, using a wide range of channels and contact points such as reviews, social media, forums and community chats.
Increase Productivity and Effectiveness
Technology can play a pivotal role in helping employees become more effective, both in-office and remote environments. Core functions such as HR and finance can move away from manual processes and automate things like payroll.
Cloud-based software can provide businesses with best-practice technology that is less expensive and requires little or no onsite support. It also facilitates seamless remote work, ensuring employees outside an office environment can still work effectively.
And real-time data and reporting can drive continuous improvement and more effective decision making and expenditure.
Strengthen Partnerships
With stretched resources and increased competition, many companies are becoming more reliant on partnerships, whether it be suppliers and distributors, sub-contractors or consultants. Traditionally, this partner management and communication relied on paper-based documentation, making it cumbersome and inefficient.
However, new technology provides the opportunity to streamline workflows and communication. For instance, e-signatures, cloud-based file sharing and image management, provide easy, more timely and secure documentation and file management.
Make faster and better decisions
Digital transformation places analytics and data at the centre of business strategy. With the right set of analytics tools, it can be converted into valuable reporting and insights. This can, in turn, be used to make more accurate and faster decisions.
Embedding analytical tools into core business operations can deliver even more in-depth data and value.
Security
Cybersecurity is a constant and ever-increasing threat for businesses both large and small. Data security is an increasingly complicated and costly task to manage, requiring rigorous enforcement, staff education and compliance to prevent attacks.
Digital transformation provides the opportunity to implement a cybersecurity strategy that is consistently managed and implemented across all networks, data and applications, regardless of the services being used.
Businesses can select and implement system, software, and technology partnerships that deliver superior cybersecurity, whether in-office or remote networks and devices.
Need Help With Your Digital Transformation?
Urgent and visible business priorities often take precedence over more transformative projects, especially if budgets and resources are tight.
However, implementing new digital processes and technology that can be integrated across your business can help you stay ahead of the curve, compete more effectively, and help your business become more efficient and flexible.
Over time, digital transformation can deliver benefits far more significant than the initial outlay of time and resources, and in some cases, could contribute to an organisation’s ability to survive.
Surety IT can work with you to develop a tailored IT strategy based on your business objectives and goals, and then implement digital technology and process that can transform and future-proof your business.
