If you run a company and haven’t yet made the switch to digital, you may be wondering whether it's time for your business to undergo a digital transformation and if so, how to do it.
In this guide, we’ll be looking at some of the reasons why you should consider a digital transformation for your business and how to create a digital transformation plan.
What is Digital Transformation?
Put simply, digital transformation is the effective application of digital technology across all aspects of a business in order to solve problems and streamline operations and constantly developing this to meet your business' latest needs.
Signs that a Business Needs a Digital Transformation
If you have noticed any of the following signs within your business, it could indicate that you should undergo a digital transformation:
1. You aren’t connecting with customers digitally
One of the biggest benefits of going digital is the ability to connect to customers far and wide and advertise your products/services to a larger audience.
From engaging with customers through social media and blog updates to marketing emails, creating a digital connection with your customers is an excellent way to generate brand awareness and loyalty.
2. You don’t have a website or your website is currently outdated
Businesses from all kinds of industries are now online, either selling their products/services with an online store or generating leads.
This can significantly drive your sales and allow you to sell your products or services to a greater number of customers.
However, without a website- or a website that works properly and fulfils the user’s needs- you are significantly limiting your selling ability.
3. Your processes are slow and inefficient
In order for your business to run effectively, you need to find ways to lower costs, automate workflows, reduce your carbon footprint and improve your security and regulatory compliance.
Without an effective workflow strategy in place, you can end up wasting time and staff resources on endless paperwork and menial tasks that slow down your day-to-day operations and costs your business thousands of pounds each year.
According to research from the International Data Corporation (IDC), companies lose roughly 30% in revenue each year due to inefficient processes.
4. Your files would be at risk in the event of a fire or or flood
If your company still does all of its filing by paper, not only is this incredibly inefficient, it also puts your business at risk of losing all of its data in the event of a disaster such as a fire, flood or break in.
Not to mention, your business could be in breach of GDPR if your paper filing system isn’t secure enough to only allow certain individuals access to certain documents.
Similarly, if you store all of your data to individual computer hard drives, all of that information could be lost if the hard drive becomes damaged or stops working.
5. Your data isn’t secure
If your business computers and software aren’t kept updated regularly, your business can become vulnerable to hacking and other threats that could put your data at risk.
How to Conduct a Digital Transformation for Your Business?
Technology Audit
To begin with, you need to evaluate your business’ entire IT infrastructure, operations and policies with a technology audit.
This will be able to highlight any areas for improvement in the current infrastructure that could lead to greater efficiency, cost saving and better security.
Things to look at:
- Assess your organisation’s culture
- Evaluate your workforce’s skill set
- Map out your current processes, operations, roles and structure
- Look at what’s working well and what could be improved
Work Out Your Business Goals and Desired Outcomes
Now you know where your business currently stands, you can start to look towards the future.
What are your business’ goals? What are you hoping to achieve? What kind of experience do you want for your customers and employees?
When thinking about the answers to these questions, make sure to consider the long term. A digital transformation is all about facilitating your long term business goals.
Carry Out a Gap Analysis
So now you know where you are and where you want to be, it’s time to work out the gaps and opportunities that exist between the two.
Think about:
Are there any areas that need to be bridged?
What inefficiencies exist?
What resources, processes and information do you need?
Create a Digital Transformation Roadmap
Now that you have established your business’ long term goals and what you need to do to achieve them, you can start to plan out your digital transformation roadmap that will take you from A to B.
This might include implementing all new technologies such as computers and phones, a managed print service, cloud computing and a new website.
Whatever it is your business needs to do in order to digitally transform, it’s important to make sure your roadmap is adaptable and will evolve with your business and its changing priorities.
Constantly Update Your Roadmap
With such fast paced changes in the business world, it’s absolutely critical to regularly re-examine the market you’re in and your business’ position in it.
Look at the way in which technology is affecting your industry and customers and how your competitors are responding and use this to update your roadmap.
Leave it to the Experts
At DMS, our experts can conduct an independent and thorough investigation of your business’ current IT infrastructure to help us gain an in-depth understanding of the opportunities and challenges you face both in the long term and short term.
We then work with the best business partners in the industry to deliver bespoke technology bundles tailored to your business’ needs. Without being tied to a specific supplier, the solutions and technology we offer is driven by performance, not limitation of options.
Once implemented, we can guarantee that our recommendations will generate a noticeable difference.
You’ll start to see visible reductions in operational costs by paying less for paper, consumables and power and notice a significant increase in your workforce’s productivity.
Under DMS One, we can take care of it all for you: IT consultancy, cloud services, audio/visual equipment, cyber security, software solutions, document workflow and MPS.
Get in touch with our team today to discuss how we can help your business to digitally transform.
