No matter their scope, digital transformation initiatives positively affect an organization’s bottom line.
There are many definitions of digital transformation, but Vision33 likes to keep it simple: Digital transformation is adopting new—or modifying existing—technology to make your business run better.
Digital transformation is a must for your organization to become a resilient enterprise and stay relevant and competitive in an uncertain economy.
The good news? Embracing new technology and beginning a digital transformation isn’t complicated. You don’t need to fix everything at once—small changes make a big difference in how your organization operates.
Where Does Digital Transformation Start?
Organizations typically begin a digital transformation when the headaches of at least one business area become unbearable.
When asking how to solve the pain points, these are a few common questions:
- How can we get our systems to talk to each other?
- How do we connect our web store?
- Can we integrate shipping?
- Can we use handheld bar code readers?
- How can we create custom reports and distribute them automatically?
- How can we accept credit card payments?
- How do we respond to a big box store requiring us to automate electronic data interchange (EDI)?
- Can we automate labor-intensive accounting tasks?
- Is there a better way to manage our inventory?
Here are examples of technology solutions that enable a digital transformation initiative.
Cloud ERP Solutions
The most common solution at the heart of digital transformations is a cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.
Cloud ERP brings every aspect of an organization—including accounting and finance, customer relationship management (CRM), inventory, reporting, eCommerce, supply chain, and projects—together on one powerful, unified platform.
“One of the selling points of our ERP solution was its programmability at the user level. I’ve built a bunch of queries, and I’ll keep building them. That’s how you get the power out of the system.”
- Ray Marler, president of Marler Integrity, Inc.
Automation Solutions
Growing organizations can easily and affordably automate labor-intensive core business processes like purchase-to-pay, expense management, and sales order processing.
Automation compresses hours of manual effort into transactional workflows that keep the organization moving forward.
“We have far greater confidence when paying suppliers. And since only 5% of invoices require special checks beyond our predefined parameters, we’re saving a ton of time.”
- John Nichols, IT manager at Community Foods
Integration Solutions
Integration is a fast, easy way to get your business applications talking to each other.
Integration eliminates duplicate data entry and human error and empowers you to transfer data at lightning speed.
The new way to connect applications is an integration platform as a service (iPaaS) solution—a low-code, low-risk option that allows even the least tech-savvy users to quickly create integrations and workflows.
“Integration creates a better experience for our customers and gets everyone on the same page, since online shoppers can see product availability by store just like sales can.”
- Danni Wang, eCommerce manager at The Tile Shoppe
Your Business, Your Digital Transformation
Your growing organization can begin its digital transformation somewhere simple and easily justifiable. But because you have budget and resource constraints, a digital transformation plan is a must.
Read our comprehensive eBook, Understanding Digital Transformation, to learn how to take the first step!
