The environment where the business operates is ever-changing. It is also vulnerable to various risks. Not all the risks can be predicted, and so resilience is the only key for a business to survive in the long run.
Businesses achieve resilience through digital transformation. Putting it simply, the first step to business resilience is admitting that digital transformation is the answer to the toughest challenges faced by businesses operating in an environment of uncertainties.
Here is a beautiful thought explaining digital transformation for businesses in one sentence.
The biggest part of digital transformation is changing the way we think. – Simeon Preston
So, the next step is to understand how to use digital transformation to make business resilient; continue reading to find out!
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Brand Management
At first glance, connecting branding to digital transformation would appear a bit strange. But, after going into the intricacies, we can understand that business resilience depends a lot on brand value. And, to create a great brand image, you need to manage your brand with the use of digital transformation techniques.
The activity of brand management starts with building an excellent website that can attract users, engage them, and convert them into customers. Various digital marketing techniques can help you engage with the target audience through multiple digital platforms, including social media and third-party websites.
Last but not least, digital transformation assists you in maintaining the brand reputation by supporting your customers and engaging with them through all possible channels such as messengers, email lists, social media, etc.
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Automation
Automation is the most crucial factor in business resilience. Automation has reduced human intervention in so many processes, making them efficient and productive.
The automated processes can continue tirelessly, unlike the human-dependent ones. Also, there is no possibility of human bias in automatic processes. These are relatively error-free and faster. Moreover, automation can even be used in processes that are risky for humans to engage in.
What are the prominent business processes that must leverage automation? You can automate almost all business processes starting from the basics such as data collection, business communication, to the more complex ones like procurement, customer support, time tracking, supply, and even decision making!
Identify the areas relevant to you and implement digital transformation in stages. You can objectively evaluate the order of your priorities.
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Flexibility & Scalability
Digital transformation makes processes better. Process optimization involves extensive use of technology for improving process speed and reducing process time. Streamlining complex processes makes them less vulnerable to risks, damages, and delays. Flexible processes can accommodate uncertainties so that productivity is unaffected even in adversities. Digitally transformed processes are easily scalable as each part of the process adapts to circumstantial scaling in no time without affecting the coordination between the previous and next stages.
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Customer Centricity
Every business revolves around its customers. They are the ones who will decide the success or failure of your business. So, most smart businesses aspire to be customer-centric. But, being customer-centric is not easy. Right from thinking from the perspective of the customers, to going that extra mile for the customer, everything requires effort, time, and intelligence, apart from intentions.
Digital transformation helps businesses revamp their systems and processes to make them naturally customer-centric. So, the system is designed to make it responsive to customer needs.
With better access to customer data, customer profiling is easier. There is a standard common source for all the customer information which can be used by business across levels and departments.
So, everyone in a customer-centric business understands the customer needs and preferences equally well. They can thus synchronize the efforts across the organization to offer personalized services to the customer.
Also, no matter what channel the customer approaches from, he is always directed to the right front with the use of technology-driven smart processes.
To summarize, digital transformation helps businesses improve customer experience. It also enables omnichannel customer support. With the use of bots and virtual assistants, the process is faster and more consistent.
When you are so customer-centric, you will have more satisfied customers who will refer you to their network. And, you can expect to build strong and long-term customer relationships.
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Business Intelligence
Business owners suffer from strict time constraints. And risky decisions have to be taken in no time. No matter how capable humans are, it isn’t very easy for humans to assimilate so much data, and analyze it to make the right decision in a strict time frame.
Digital transformation has a significant contribution to business intelligence. Decision making is not just risky but also very time-consuming. It also involves a lot of data, and so, the data has to be accurately gathered, appropriately stored, and efficiently used.
Big data speaks volumes about your customers, competitors, market, trends, etc. Big data analytics is thus a significant source of data for business decision making. Big-data has also made it convenient for businesses to get access to large volumes of organically generated data.
Digital transformation has increased the availability of data to businesses. But, decision making requires using the right data and interpreting it correctly to make decisions. So, the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning are now helping businesses to make informed and data-driven decisions.
As AI improves with machine learning, the accuracy and relevance of decisions is very high and keeps increasing. Also, the processing of information is fast, and so the decision-makers can rely on business intelligence in situations of crisis.
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Overall Improvement
Digital transformation brings a change in almost everything that you do. It helps you implement Kaizen, the concept of changing for better, continuously.
Digital transformation helps you prevent errors, increase accuracy, improve reliability, reduce risk, maximize output, minimize waste, etc. It also prepares you for risks and disasters in the volatile business environment.
Wrapping Up!
So, now you know why digital transformation is vital in building resilient businesses. You are also aware of the various ways you can transform your business digitally to prepare it for any foreseen or unforeseen changes in the environment. But, it is easier to learn and difficult to implement as digital transformation means a complete overhaul in the way you think and work. Hiring professional digital transformation specialists can make it more accessible as they are experienced in change management.
Experion has helped Enterprises and early-stage companies be resilient, guiding their digital transformation journey leveraging the latest digital technologies. Experion’s team of specialists has enabled our global clients to handle dynamic business scenarios, enhance productivity, improve quality of service & offerings, and assisted them in intelligent decision making. To know more about Experion’s Digital Transformation Service offerings, drop a mail to sales@experionglobal.com.
Guest post by Jin Markov, Content Writer with GoodFirms, a research firm in the USA.