What is digital transformation? This is a crucial question when thinking about the future of your business. It really is a matter of success or failure, so the sooner you understand this important concept and how to implement it, the better for the future of your enterprise.
Before digitization technologies took off, computers were handy tools to speed up our regular duties, such as number crunching and letter writing. But as more businesses began adapting to the increasing powers of computing, replicating human activities was just the beginning. With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), digital technologies gained the boost it needed to revolutionize the world of business. Now more than ever, you need to “get with the times” if you intend to succeed.
Digitization, Digitalization, and Digital Transformation
As you read and learn about digital technologies, you keep running across three terms: digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation. Although they may sound identical, they are three different processes that you need to understand to fully appreciate the power of digital transformation.
Digitization – Converting Analog to DigitalÂ
It all began with digitization; that is, shifting from the pen-and-paper model of tracking information to using bits and bytes of computer data. As computer systems became more commonplace and useful in the workplace (and at home), users began realizing the power of digital data as compared to the old method of analog data collection and management. Through the use of the right applications (word processors, spreadsheet programs, and database managers), all of a sudden those old Rolodex systems and photo albums looked absolutely ancient and inefficient (which they are!).
Digitization takes two forms: migrating to a system that collects and manages new data digitally while converting old analog data to a digital format. Depending upon the volume and age of the analog data to be digitized, this can be a modest or massive project; however, as this is a one-off task, the bulk of digitization refers to the ongoing collection of data.
Digitalization – Speeding Up the Job
Now that you have digitized data, what do you do with it? This is where digitalization comes into play; with the right tools and utilities, performing time-consuming tasks is a thing of the past, because computers can manipulate, sort, and find data in multiple ways and with lightning speed. By using digitalization, you aren’t transforming how you do your business, but you are doing it much faster by harnessing and using that computing power.
A classic example of this would be a customer support call center. In the old days, when a call was answered, the representative would need to ask for their name, ask them to wait, and then comb through various books or file folders to find their account. Let’s say the customer then asks for a history of their purchases from the previous year. In all likelihood, another book of records (company sales) needs to be accessed and searched. With an active customer, care must be taken to ensure that all transactions from the previous year were identified and listed. This leaves lots of opportunities for error and inaccurate information being relayed to the customer.
In a digitalized system, all these records pop up immediately, with queries as simple or complex as you want, delivering accurate information and results.Â
Digital Transformation – The Evolutionary Leap in Customer Interactions
With digital transformation, data comes alive. You are informed of trends, activities, and behaviors of customers, making you better able to flex to their needs and desires. Even more exciting, digital transformation tools are now informing businesses of newer methods for marketing their products and services to existing customers and live prospects.Â
And consumers eat up digital transformation; they love having their “mind read” and their innermost feelings (many of which they weren’t even conscious) satisfied. This all happens through intelligent translation of digital data into meaningful pictures of the mind, heart, and soul of every human encounter. Once you see and understand what drives your consumer base, it’s easier to develop the right marketing strategy to capitalize on this valuable data.
