This post was updated in May 2023.
Today’s business environment moves fast, and organizations need the right mix of people, processes, and technology to keep up. Many savvy businesses are embracing digital transformation to stay competitive, become more resilient, and adapt to changing market conditions.
There are many definitions of ‘digital transformation,’ but here’s our favorite: adopting new–or modifying existing–technology to make your business run better.
Regardless of size or industry, there are five key questions every organization should be asking about digital transformation. Read on for brief answers to these questions and take a deeper dive with our eBook at the end.
Does Digital Transformation Make Sense for Our Organization?
There are several surefire signs it’s time to consider digital transformation. One is manual, repetitive data entry. This is common if you use small business accounting applications and spreadsheets. All that information keying, copying, and pasting takes too much time and leads to mistakes. And because small business applications are often difficult to integrate with other mission-critical systems, you’re constantly entering identical information into multiple places.
Another red flag is paper. If your routine tasks like purchasing, AP invoicing, expense approvals, and sales orders involve a forest’s worth of paper, you’re misplacing essential documents and making expensive errors. You’re also wasting time shuffling paper and entering data into different systems instead of focusing on tasks that deliver value or generate revenue.
Why Does Digital Transformation Matter?
Growing businesses emerging from global challenges, navigating an uncertain economy, and relying on an unstable supply chain need the right technology to support fast, effective decision-making.
No matter their scope, digital transformation initiatives drive customer engagement and satisfaction and positively affect an organization’s bottom line. For example, technology that delivers powerful analytics and real-time information helps you course-correct and make fast, confident decisions about your organization’s future, and solutions that automate and streamline core business processes free up time to focus on strategy and growth.
According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), companies that have embraced digital transformation are 26% more profitable than their peers who have not.
Is Digital Transformation Difficult?
Digital transformation doesn’t have to be overwhelming, expensive, or disruptive to your operations. It also doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a journey that begins with a single step: identifying your business’s biggest headache and finding a technology solution to relieve it.
How Do We Plan for Digital Transformation?
It’s essential to have open discussions with team members at all levels of your organization, including those who will use the new/modified technology. Digital transformation does involve a culture shift, so be sure to emphasize the value it will deliver.
Designate a person to head your digital transformation journey and work with them to determine where your organization is today, where it wants to go, and how it will get there. Establish a reasonable budget and engage a partner experienced in helping organizations implement digital transformation strategies.
Would The Organization Continue to Thrive if Disrupted?
Determine whether the organization would be able to weather a disruption and increase operational agility. By utilizing the right digital transformation technology, your entire business can thrive.
Is Our Team Able to Continue Innovating?
Empower your entire team to use digital automation tools in order to further innovation and productivity. It's incumbent on leadership to effectively communicate the advantages of digital transformation to their teams.
What's a Good Starting Point for Digital Transformation?
At Vision33, we’ve worked with countless businesses to help them find technology that solves common challenges. Our free eBook, Understanding Digital Transformation, explains where digital transformation begins, offers examples of technology solutions that enable a digital transformation initiative, and features success stories about organizations that digitally transformed.
Get your copy below!
