When a business’s existing processes are transformed with the use of digital technologies to achieve more efficiency, it’s the digital transformation. The gist of the concept lies in applying technologies not only to digitalize existing services but to totally transform them into something notably better.

A digital transformation does not depend on a single technology only, but it uses a blend of IoT, AI, ML, the big data, and cloud computing. And also, these technologies aren’t adopted because they are new, but bringing changes to a business’ processes and its corporate culture are the key goals to be achieved through them.

Digital transformation projects are generally large in scope. In most of the cases, they are adopted by large organizations which want to compete with the rivals who have already digitized them.

Let’s learn some facts and figures

• As of an IDC report, the global spending on hardware, software, and services needed for the execution of digital transformation technologies hit $1.3 trillion in 2017. The report further suggests the spending to double by 2021.

• 63 percent executives in a Gartner’s survey conducted over 460 executives said that their organizations have begun to transform their business with the use of digital technologies. 54 percent executives said that their business goals are transformational.

• According to a study conducted by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by Accenture Interactive, the key digital transformational drivers are customer-satisfaction, profitability, and improved speed-to-market.

Three Reasons making the Digital Transformation as the Demand of Time 

1. Acceleration of Change –Digital changes are taking place at a commendable high speed. Doubtlessly, it’s not easy for all leaderships across industries to cope with this pace. They require an acceleration of new-age digital solutions brought in to the market.

2. Digital Competition –Organizations are struggling with an ever increasing digital competition. On the other hand, new start-ups are “born digital” and, since they are making the technology their foundation, they are posing challenges to those businesses which have not yet completely adopted the digitization.

3. Customer Expectations – When customers want to reach an organization, they want the best of the means to do this. Interactions between customers and an organization need to be faultless and outstanding in every given case. 

Why does digital transformation matter?

By digital transformation, organizations and executives are able to change the typical economic order. Its effects can be seen everywhere. Organizations with no proper digitization are prone to risks similar to small retailers. As a matter of fact, 75% business-executives know that they will have to face disruptions due to the lack of the digitization, but they are still not taking the risk seriously.

According to a Dell EMC’s research, there were only half of all participated enterprises serious for the born-digital start-ups and, nearly 1 in 10 believed that these new digitally-driven start-ups could pose a challenge to them. In fact, 7% of all executive also said that they aren’t bothered with the digital disruption threat whatsoever.

Why the digital transformation is required

Entrepreneurs are already using technologies like AI, IoT, Big data and cloud-computing to develop a new business model and influence traditionally running processes by the disruptions. Organizations struggling with decreasing productivity and increasing costs can now reap the benefits of these all-grown technologies and provide them tangible value.

Digital transformation or detail disruption has now become an escalator that is quickly taking start-ups to the heights where non-digitized, typically-running organizations have reached in decades.

It has been seen in researches that many organizations, regardless of what industry they belong to, are still operating them through legacy systems. Needless to say, these organizations are focused more on their policy & processes than adopting the latest trends, technologies, and insights.

Nokia and BlackBerry are two examples of how companies face failure when they do not adapt to innovations. They both didn’t go by the latest trends and technologies that had already started ruling the mobile market. Soon, they were left far behind by Apple and Google.

According to Gartner, 67 percent of business-leaders believe that the digital transformation must be adopted by their organizations to stay competitive and relevant in the market.

Thing to be focused while digitizing a business

• The digital transformation journey should begin with rethinking of current business model, process, and operations
• It’s hard to enhance or map out a traditional system and force it to mimic as a new technology. Doing so will deliver failure.
• Whatever the cast of digitalization is, it must enhance customer experience, improve productivity, and streamline several process & operations to be driven by data. New offering of products or services should be based on the insights obtained from data trends.

Few examples

• McDermott International is developing a digital twin, a computer model of the oil and gas platform facilities it provides to clients. The firm expects a growth of 15 per cent by applying the model to predictive maintenance.
• The R² Data Labs of Rolls Royce is based on ML, AI, and Big Data analytics. The company uses it to develop new services. With this system, the company has attained more than £250m in value through engine-health monitoring activities.
• UPS is introducing analytics & insight at the core of its operations. The firm will rely on real-time data, advanced analytics, and AI to help employees make better decisions.

Author Bio. :- Sofia is a digital marketing expert in Rapidsoft Technologies, an offshore software development company She loves to write on latest mobile trends, mobile technologies, startups, and enterprises.