Digital Business Transformation

Technology is transforming people’s work lives. Each aspect of work is being redefined, where people work, how they work, who they work with. Work is shifting from collaboration and communication to conversation and coordination, and conversations power the routine aspects of business processes.

A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR DIGITAL BUSINESS

There’s little doubt that digital technologies and tools are profoundly impacting the way that business is being done these days. Already, they have disrupted a lot of industries and threatening to disrupt others.

DEFINING DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION

There’s a great hype nowadays about digital transformation. The term is used often but seldom defined. Wikipedia states that it could mean anything from ‘going paperless’ to ‘the app of digital technology in all aspects of human life. The business aspect of digital transformation has attracted plenty of attention, especially from consulting companies. However, the attention has led to confusion in the marketplace regarding what digital business transformation means.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

Fundamentally, transformation is about change, and organizational change is the foundation of transforming the digital business. Organizational change is related to processes, people, structures, strategies and competitive dynamics where most of the opportunities and challenges reside.

MORE IMPORTANT DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION OPPORTUNITIES

The more important digital business information opportunities lie in the make money aspects of a business. The following are where businesses could have a game-changing effect on their value creation processes via superior insights gleaned on the company’s customers, operations, products, partners, channels and markets. The game-changing impacts manifest in three ways:

1. Optimize key value chain methods. Exploit superior customer, operational and product insights to not only enhance existing business processes but to actually alter or re-tool the whole process.
2. Discover new monetization opportunities. Leverage superior product, customer and operational insights to determine ‘white spaces’ or under-served, un-met market or un-served that yield new money opportunities.
3. Make a more prescriptive, compelling customer experience. Leverage understanding of a customer’s tendencies, behaviors, preferences, trends, passions, interests, associations and affiliations to offer a more rewarding partner and customer experience.

With the three perspectives in mind, now a business could have a ‘frame’ against which to make business and technology decisions on the application of digital technologies as well as the prospective financial return.

KEY TECHNOLOGY TRENDS DRIVING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

The following are some of the key trends in technology these days and how they affect businesses all over the world.

1. Hyper-connectivity. Machines and consumers worldwide are now connected, disrupting all established rules around business channels. It drives movement of services, goods, people, wealth and knowledge. These days, there are already over 75 billion connected devices all over the world, a number that is predicted to grow to over 220 billion in the next four years. Companies could deliver higher value through engaging with hyper-connected world to reach new clientele, build new products and services and enter new markets ultimately.
2. Cloud computing. Infrastructure in technology nowadays is rented, rather than built, eradicating barriers to entry and allowing technology innovation and adoption to move at lightning speed. B2B transactions are moving to cloud-based, new collaboration platforms wherein millions of users and businesses are connected within days. Cloud computing could hasten the time to value, drive higher new technologies adoption and connect value chains in real time.
3. Supercomputing. Gone are the limits of 20th century computing power. In-memory and networking computing enable creating infinite new business opportunities. In-memory, large-scale computing collapses analytical and transactional processing into one platform, significantly lowering costs and allowing massive business simplifications and creation of value.
4. Cyber-security. Hackers in and out of the businesses have new expansive capabilities to attack, undermine and disrupt growing digital businesses. Trust stays as the ultimate currency, providing security-focused businesses a remarkable advantage in brand reputation. With the ever-growing risks of corporate spying as well as digital theft, cyber-security would be a main focus as businesses set and execute their digital strategy.
5. A smarter world. Robotics, 3d printing, sensors and artificial intelligence are the new norm. The new ‘outcome-based economy’ replaces services and products with innovative results, such as what Uber and AirBnB have done for transportation and hospitality customers. Smart products and devices would thoroughly reshape industries, value chains and ultimately the world.

For a lot of business users, digital transformation is no more than a buzzword. It is hard for most professionals to know how and where they are affected or what tangible results could they acquire from digitizing their organization. Embarking on a digital transformation journey means efficiency in real business terms.

Definitely, there are several steps to realize the benefits of digital business transformation as well as how to achieve concrete results.

Ritesh Mehta is the Sales Director at TatvaSoft Australia, a Software & mobile app development company. For Over 15 years, he has been professionally active in financial management, software development.