Digital Transformation: Rethinking your business model for The New Normal

The new dynamics and acceleration of the 21st century are transforming the way customers are behaving. In which social, information, and technological revolution have become a reality for businesses. Businesses are spending and embracing digital transformation models at an unprecedented speed. Because of these exercises, digital technologies are rapidly fueling key business processes. Today, from cloud technology, in-app support to social media and video analytics all have left the pits and gone to become an integral part of the technological setup of companies.

How digital transformation is reinventing your business model?

If your business was not already transforming, digital transformation in the new normal orders likely pushed you to quickly adapt. And chances are, you are still looking to enhance what you can to become more seamless. Digital strategies are to be implemented in many aspects of the operations. The foremost focus of this exercise would be to ensure in adjusting business operations to best serve your customers/clients.

Streamlining business operations

Digital transformation brings different opportunities to provide a makeover to the business processes. These methods are formed over time and often have projects that are repetitive and time-consuming. Digital transformation simplified such assignments through top-notch flagship technology. Business services such as customer support, data storage, analytics become more adaptable and collaborative utilizing cutting-edge technologies. As a result, it makes business operations swift and maximizes returns. This way digital business transformation can grow fast and combine resources to drive improvement and advancement.

Better internal communication

Businesses need to ensure that employees are on the same page on the work alignment. When too much irrelevant information is passed, employees tend to miss some of the important information, urgent updates, etc., which is not affordable. Digital transformation can eliminate this problem by implementing the appropriate employee communication technology, which will lead to the right flow of information to the right person.

Greater speed to market

Flexibility and rapid flow of information combined with automated operations result in a greater speed of products/services to the market. This is the outcome of immediate feedback and response collected from customers or clients. By leveraging automation businesses can increase production rate and improve product quality fast.

Digital transformation allows brands to build a market for the products/services with the aid of faster marketing touchpoints. As well as it helps to spread awareness regarding different products/services among new fields.

Remote working & employee productivity

To ensure efficiency, productivity, and continuous business performance, organizations are in search of digital solutions across all areas. Remote contact centers and work from home solutions are popular now more than ever for enabling seamless customer interactions.

These technologies, if implemented correctly, will make the organizations more resilient to operational risks and disruptions. There is a great challenge in transferring the culture virtually when physical interaction is missing. Employees are usually adopted to working in teams and tend to miss human interaction. New digital strategies have to be employed to bring the employees together.

Digitally transforming industries

According to a report, 70% of digital transformation business models do not reach their goal. (Source) Then how is it that businesses across industries proactively went digital in a matter of days? Digital transformation is not only about technology. The ability to adapt and reinvent is essential for businesses and brands to stand their ground, as the crisis passes over.

EdTech

For the Education industry, this transformation meant the replacement of the brick-and-mortar classrooms altogether, as the pandemic forced schools and universities shut.

BFSI

Digital banking transformation includes advanced analytics, integration of data and digital technology into all domains. For financial institutions, digital transformation is reinventing ways by setting priorities and delivering the work on time.

FMCG/ FMCD

The domino effect continued to the Consumer Goods & Durable industry. Having to partner with micro-delivery platforms, physical business ops (store activity) have come down to absolute essential functioning.

Media & Entertainment

Looking at the Media & Entertainment industry, there has been an accelerated shift towards streaming. With an already booming presence and popularity, OTT platforms like Netflix, Hotstar, and Prime Video have grown bigger than ever. With the change in the consumption of media, the digital transformation of the media and entertainment industry has also shortened the legacy theatrical window.

Healthcare

The Healthcare Industry is now hugely influenced by digital transformation. Several technological solutions and tools are applied in order to enhance patient care, security & safety, increase nurses’ productivity and make operations more streamlined.

Present & Future Opportunities

Digital banking services

Today all banks are providing mobile banking and in-app support in order to meet rising customer needs. The quick response and transparent data in customers’ hands foster relationships with banks and increase customer trust.

Remote classrooms

From the live-streaming of regular academic classes to cookery lessons, the Ed-tech industry is continuously booming. Remote classrooms have gone from contingency to conventional.

Work from home

Businesses are implementing working from home as a weekly practice to tackle any black-swan event in the future. Therefore, businesses must refine and expand their video conferencing capabilities.

Omnichannel support

By adopting omnichannel support businesses are focusing to enhance customer loyalty and satisfaction. It allows a personalized and seamless customer experience across all touchpoints. No matter where the customers choose to engage with the business, they will get the same delightful experiences.

Cybersecurity

AI and ML will significantly contribute to technological areas like intrusion detection, password protection policies, cloud-based services, firewalls, antivirus strategies, role-based access, security identification, single sign-on, etc. The enhanced features will also be introduced.

Giving way to the all-digital lifestyle

Keeping the employees’ motivation high, protecting them, and still delivering a great service and experience to the customers is today seen as the pinnacle of adaptability. As workplaces are unlikely to get back to the ‘old’ normal, it is the right time companies make decisions regarding the changes that are to be employed. The goal of digital transformation is to solve problems by integrating technology both internally and externally. It’s essentially a state of mind that allows brands to continually evolve (more so with lockdown orders having shut down workplaces).

“When traditional channels and operations are impacted by the outbreak, the value of digital channels, products, and operations become immediately obvious and CIOs can present a more convincing business case. This is a wake-up call for organizations that focus on daily operational needs at the expense of investing in digital business and long-term resilience”. – Gartner

Digital Transformation needs

Businesses will focus their digital transformation on the following top fields in 2021:

• Building new collaboration systems between businesses and remote employees.
• Discover new business models and growth points.
• Establishing a competitive digital culture among employees.
• Focus to reduce costs by enhancing operational efficiency and productivity by exploring business applications of 5G and IoT.

Building & Transforming your business digitally

Digital Transformation (DX) is not a simple process. Many steps are to be followed to successfully transform business models and operations.

• Firstly, the current digital state of the organization has to be assessed
• A road map of the transformation and the goals have to be defined
• Necessary tools and techniques have to be chosen
• A realistic budget has to be set for the strategy
• Empower educate and train the staff

As the change required by every company is different, there might be some addition to these steps based on the requirements. And given the current situation, each business has their work cut out for them.

Usually driving change takes time and effort. But, as the current situation demands, this process has been accelerated to keep up with the competition. Communicating the change openly with the employees and helping them adopt the same will ensure a smooth transition.

Digital transformation is an ongoing process. The new normal has accelerated the efforts of some and forced some others to transform and adapt. Change can be daunting, but the benefits of creating a digital, sustainable, customer-focused company will be lasting. Perhaps this is the silver lining for businesses in a post-pandemic world, where sometimes forced change may be positive.

Conclusion

The new normal digital transformation has forced companies to build the bridge between brands and technologies. With businesses across industries trying to keep up with the digital boom, it took a pandemic for the world to shift from physical to digital and flexible – for interactions with customers to remote working. Having business operations impaired and workplaces shut down, businesses have had to review their workplace strategies to stay afloat and weather this crisis. Creating a close relationship between digital transformation and business goals can also ensure that companies make responsible investments in their future without sacrificing business as usual.