If Covid 19 has taught us anything, it’s that the world can fall apart when physical interaction is dialed down to zero. The same goes for businesses. Most brick and mortar stores saw a steep decline in traffic, revenue, and growth during the initial stages of the pandemic, so much so that many closed down. The few that made it through did something pivotal: they digitized their business. In light of the pandemic and the growth of online services, digital transformation has helped many organizations improve service quality, increase revenue, and heighten productivity. Here’s how you can do it too.
Laying the Groundwork
Your first step in going digital starts with laying the groundwork. This involves properly analyzing your organization, its processes, and its personnel to determine the best digital transformation strategy. You’d think that this starts with looking at your technology, but instead, it starts with your business’s philosophy.
This philosophy is encapsulated in your company’s overall mission and objectives. Review the mission that your product or service is trying to achieve and see how going digital will help you better execute that mission. As you orient yourself towards digitization, this might require you to tweak your mission and objectives. From there, it’s a domino effect.
When your business’s philosophy evolves, so do its processes. You will soon see opportunities for growth in how things are done. Closely examine operational, support, and management processes so that you can optimize them for digitization. For example, banks have moved from in-branch account openings and check deposits to offering online account set-ups and mobile app check deposits.
The most crucial factor in executing this digital transformation is getting the right personnel. Along with issuing a company-wide bulletin about your decision to go digital, you should select the right team to get it done. This prepares everyone for the upcoming changes and allows you to identify those who have the required skills and qualifications to support your strategy.
Embrace Online Platforms
Ideally, your online presence should begin with your website. This will be your storefront or office in the digital world. Here, customers can learn more about you, what you offer, and how to get your products or services. Businesses typically aim for a .com extension as a sign of authenticity and professionalism, but with those extensions running out, many new companies explore cheaper .biz and .guru domains.
Once you have a reliable website set up, you can start working on social media platforms. This is how you will extend your reach and interact with customers, making it easier to handle customer queries, advertisements, and important company updates. But it goes beyond that. Even setting up your company can be done online. If you operate or plan to operate in Singapore, registering your business in Singapore can now be done remotely. This saves time and effort in organizing everything and greatly reduces frustration.
Additionally, you should explore online platforms to support your new digital operations. This includes meeting, collaboration, and content management software that can be widely accessed by anyone. The most notorious, real-life example of this is businesses using Zoom for meetings since the pandemic.
Adapt, Adopt, and Automate
Once you’ve announced that you’re going digital, you’ll quickly learn that not everyone will be on board. Due to a wide range of factors, some individuals either won’t accept the changes or won’t be able to keep up with them. It’s your job to introduce a culture of adaptability and progress, encouraging everyone to embrace the transition and upskilling those who find it difficult.
After you’ve established that culture, it will be easier to adopt new methodologies and technologies. Going digital requires the introduction of new tools that increase productivity. Even though most of them come with a learning curve, they will be critical to the company’s transition. These are usually automation software that makes everyone’s lives easier. Project managers can utilize time-tracking software that gives key decision-making insight. This enables them to work more efficiently.
In our current economic climate, digital transformation is vital to a business’s success. It increases growth, revenue, and productivity – all factors currently crippled by the pandemic. You can start your digitization by reviewing and reshaping your business philosophy to match your transition. Once you’ve laid the groundwork, leverage online platforms to extend your reach and execute job functions. All of this will need to be supported by skilled and adaptable personnel; so you have to educate and reskill people as required. This will make it easier to adopt new technologies that can automate business processes and significantly boost productivity.
