What is the need for Digital Transformation?

It was already being told to you every day that you would need to "adapt or die"; that you had to "transform or die," that your company had to "evolve or go extinct." before this pandemic turned the world upside down.

Though all those warnings seemed significant, what did they really mean? Why so much hurry when everything was going well and your customers were satisfied? For today's even more urgent need to transform, it's important to examine these reasons in more detail.

1. Change is Inevitable

There is a simple reason, and it relates to the fact that change is inevitable. Are you going to be better at understanding your clients' needs if you are still conducting focus groups, or will you use data from transactions and social media as well as IoT sensors? 

Is the company that uses spreadsheets for supply chain management more efficient and profitable than that one that uses real-time logistics performance metrics and AI to the source material?

There's a whole host of things that have become obsolete or nearly obsolete due to technology in just the last decade - paper maps, film cameras, landlines, classified ads, DVD players, and on and on. Most standard Business processes have been affected as well. The technology revolution has opened up hundreds of new business opportunities, rendering the outdated business model unprofitable.

In the past, if a company did not change for five or ten years, it might be considered ok, just as paper maps tried to hold on after GPS became widely available. The pandemic has disrupted life in such a way that we have virtually abandoned the industrial era, as well as old-fashioned thinking and business practices.

2. The Customer Demands It

The expectations of customers were already changing dramatically and rapidly even before COVID-19. These changes did not just affect your organization or your industry. In addition to the interactions you have with your customers, all of their digital experiences also influence their expectations. Customer experience was already being controlled by customers before the pandemic, as they were more connected and empowered.

With so many of our lives moving online, companies have been able to respond quickly to customer demands, which has exponentially increased this control. The move to eCommerce platforms, increasing the availability of apps to place orders and deliver goods, enhancing social media communication, as well as offering new items for quarantine life are all part of the plan.

If all else is equal, customers will favor the digital experience that corresponds best to their changing expectations during and after the pandemic. Today's businesses must adapt or die, and it's not a scare tactic.

3. There's no going back

There will continue to be many people who work from home. With the right processes and systems in place, even companies who were initially reticent have seen reduced costs and increased productivity, as well as the benefits of hiring talent from around the world. The employee demands it too.

The convenience and benefits of e-commerce are now apparent to consumers forced into it, further increasing global adoption of online shopping & delivery.

Due to cost savings and convenience, telehealth and tele-education will continue to flourish. In order to keep up with changing customer needs, data analytics are more critical. Nearly all aspects of our lives will be enhanced by data-enabled services. Cloud computing will remain essential. Regardless of how we handled these changes, they were already happening.

All of them are being accelerated by the pandemic and will be a standard reality in 10 to 15 years instead of after 10 or 15. This is just the beginning. Other changes are also occurring across industries. A few examples are manufacturing automation, real-time supply chain visibility, and the integration of artificial intelligence into the insurance and mortgage industries. Businesses must adapt to the new digital norm.

Final Thoughts

It can be stressful to undertake significant change, especially when so much is at stake. One silver lining of COVID, however, is that businesses can use it to accelerate themselves into the new norm as well as prepare for future shocks.

Is your company in need of digital solutions, but are unsure of how to start? We, at Accelery, can help. A mindset change is crucial to your team's success and it helps them understand the whys and whats of your digital transformation process. We at Accelery give your employees the tools they need through training and development to succeed in digital transformation. In addition to process automation, our tools offer content and communication management capabilities. These can help establish new behaviors through transforming people which in turn aids your Business's Digital Transformation.