Digital transformation began decades ago. Earlier technology deployment included computer-aided design, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, and e-commerce. Recent years’ focus has been around social media platforms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence to name a few. With rapidly advancing technologies and evolving customer needs, businesses struggle to keep up with where they need to invest.
While technology investment is a necessity to compete and grow, there are four areas to consider.
- Core processes efficiency
Operational efficiency drives the bottom-line. Clunky and error-prone processes lead to rework and bottlenecks.
Core processes for a business need to be streamlined for simplicity both for the employees and the customers. Simplicity is difficult work because it requires functional teams to collaborate tightly so tasks are succinctly coordinated.
Investment in automating streamlined core processes delivers productivity gain and capacity enhancement. The improvements free up manpower to tender to tasks that require human involvement. As experienced talent is difficult to find and retain, core processes efficiency is essential to every business.
- Business analytics
The abilities to conduct analyses and draw insights from data require technical skills and business acumen. Certainly, an appropriate analytics tool would expedite data extraction and aggregation, as well as the creation of easy-to-interpret presentation.
To treat data as a strategic asset, business leaders would need to develop a data-driven culture to instill the discipline. They steer the shift in mindsets by demonstrating how analytics guide decision-making.
Here, investments in developing the expertise in-house and applicable tools would empower employees explore and exploit the power of analytics.
- Internal and external information sharing
Speed is of essence in the competitive marketplace. This implies timely access to relevant information for proactive business management. This is important for internal operational efficiency. It also holds true with external partners.
Internal team members need information to perform specific tasks. The ability to access data directly from the source eliminates an intermediary to extract data. For external partners, timely information access boosts cycle time.
Investments in proper applications with managed data access and collaboration tools improve transparency, trust, and working relationships.
- Innovative value proposition
Customers choose to do business with a specific company are attracted by the value they receive. Value proposition adaptation to suit evolving customer needs and expectations cannot be overlooked. Value proposition adaptation to suit evolving customer needs and expectations cannot be overlooked. Share on X
Creative incorporation of technologies to enhance the existing products, or develop refreshing ways to deliver them, or change the entire business model are few ways to be innovative.
Investments in adapting value proposition are generally more risky. Hence, a business needs to put the right personnel with the proper skills on the team to work on these initiatives. The business also needs to be prepared to learn from failures, and be committed to explore. The outcomes could be rewarding.
Getting the business operations in good order is fundamental to serve customers well and keep employees happy. Investment in analytics capabilities fosters a data-driven culture for informed decision-making. Ease of information access facilitates expedient collaboration and work execution. These investments also build trust. Finally, adapting the business’s value proposition is a critical mission for every company. These four areas would be a good starting point for digital transformation investments.
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