While everyone agrees that digital transformation is critical to the success of all modern enterprises, no one claims that transformation is simple. Digital transformation is multifaceted, complex, and filled with challenges that can make the head of even the most experienced businessperson spin. If you need some encouragement before you head out on the digital transformation journey, check out these ten digital transformation benefits. These benefits are so fundamental to the success of a modern business, you won’t believe you even dreamed of forgoing them.
Here are ten digital transformation business benefits that you can't afford to lose out on:
1. Increases Customer Satisfaction
Customer expectations have never been higher. On the one hand, customers want personalized services that meet their individual needs. On the other hand, they want things to happen automatically and they don't want to have to deal with human beings to do tasks like accessing, updating, or deactivating and reactivating software. One of the clearest advantages of digitalization in business is that you will be able to implement robust digital tools and strategies, like per-location or per-industry license modification and automated processes. These digitalized processes lead directly to increased customer satisfaction.
2. Drives Data-Based Insights
One of the most significant benefits of digital transformation is that your business will be able to collect and analyze data that you can turn into actionable, revenue-generating insights. In the past, your data was scattered across multiple disconnected platforms, or even worse, you might not have collected and used data at all. Digital transformation will enable robust data collection, centralized data storage, and the creation of tools to analyze and translate data into information that promotes informed corporate decision-making.
3. Enables Software Monetization
Back in 2015, Natya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, looked out across the room full of business and industry leaders at the annual Microsoft Convergence conference and famously stated: "Every company is a software company." At the time, software-centricity was hardly understood. Today, all business leaders know that they must shift from a product-centric approach to a software-centric approach and that software monetization gives businesses the best ROI. Yet many companies are stalled at the launch pad because they don't know how to fire up the engines of software monetization.
Digital transformation enables software monetization. Use a software management solution like Sentinel to create a digital framework for your company’s software shift. The digital framework will help you locate new revenue streams , create software licenses, protect your licenses, engage with your customers, and access business-critical data.
4. Enables High-Quality User Experience
High-value companies know that they are not just delivering products, they are delivering experiences. Digital transformation enables beautiful, effortless experiences that hinge on automation, AI, and self-service tools. Prove that you've mastered the digital era by providing customers with a frictionless user experience.
5. Encourages Collaboration & Improves Communication
To drive innovation and output, you need to have a digital platform that promotes communication and collaboration across all internal departments. The digital transformation eliminates roundabout communication, redundancy, slow response times, lost information, and ineffective idea-sharing. When you digitalize the internal communications of your business, you will increase productivity, accountability, and creativity, and gain the edge necessary to outperform the competition.
6. Increases Agility
According to a 2017 McKinsey survey, only 8% of respondents said their current business model would remain economically viable if their industry keeps digitizing at its current course and speed. That means a whopping 92% of businesses recognize the fact that the ability to change and be flexible is the key to surviving the ongoing period of intense digital transformation. Products are changing, previously reliable revenue streams are drying up, and customer demands are drastically different than they were just a few years ago.
The solution? Digital transformation strategies. With the power of a digital business environment, your company will be able to anticipate challenges and build solutions preemptively so that you can remain viable for years to come.
7. Limits Human Error
An undeniable advantage of going digital is that digital processes stop errors by eliminating time-consuming manual data entry and human inefficiencies. Digital processes are inherently smoother and less risky than any process that involves error-prone humans.
8. Encourages an Environment of Employee Excellence
An important factor in a successful digital transformation is to get widespread company buy-in. You need to create a corporate culture where it is clear to everyone that they will ultimately see the benefits of going digital. To get employee buy-in, invest in the digital education of your workers. Host internal webinars, participate in conferences, and send your employs to courses that will update their skill sets. Excellent employees are your greatest asset, so don't undervalue investing in their growth.
9. Increases Operational Efficiency
Digital transformation gives you increased operational efficiency. You can consolidate messy manual processes and reduce overhead costs by integrating with back-office systems, automating delivery processes and product updates, enabling inter-device activation, managing multiple product variants, and more. With digital business processes, you'll save time, plug revenue holes, and decrease frustration. Because digital business is synonymous with efficient business.
10. Enables Future Digital Growth
The final benefit of digital transformation is the most fundamental. Digital transformation is the initial act that sets the stage for all subsequent business growth. Without investing in digital business transformation, your company will quickly become obsolete. In the past few years, we've seen industry giants like Blockbuster, Toys R' Us, and Kodak go bankrupt. Why? Because they failed at digital transformation. Digital transformation is not optional. It's not the icing on the cake of a thriving business. To survive the digital tsunami engulfing the world, you must take steps to transform. Once you do, you'll reap the benefits of digital transformation and become stronger and more profitable for years to come.
Modern high-tech equipment manufacturers are transitioning from what was once a pure hardware-based business model to a software-based business model. Read more about how hardware vendors are benefiting from digital transformation, with our free whitepaper.
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