Digital transformation is a vital element of any business strategy that aims to improve revenue growth, operational efficiency, employee engagement, or the customer experience. To put it another way, any organisation that wants to remain relevant and competitive will benefit from incorporating a digital transformation strategy into their overall business plans.
But what does digital transformation actually look like? Before we answer, let’s first understand why a digital transformation strategy is so important to the future of your business.
Why is a digital transformation strategy important?
Contrary to popular belief, digital transformation isn’t just about installing new digital technology. Whilst it’s a major part of the process, you’d be seriously mistaken if you thought you could implement the latest in artificial intelligence tech, for example, and walk away thinking “job done”.
The real value from having a digital transformation strategy is that it’s driven by the very people and processes it strives to benefit. For instance:
- A digital transformation strategy will streamline business processes by automating manual tasks, saving your teams’ time and reducing costs.
- Digital transformation tech like mobile apps and intranet software will enable teams to work remotely and flexibly. This has a knock-on effect of improving the employee experience.
- Digitally transforming your business to have an online presence will satisfy your customers’ needs for convenience and autonomy when using your services.
In essence, a digital transformation strategy is important because it makes your teams’ and customers’ lives easier by removing the barriers of offline-only processes. If your customers could only contact your support teams by phone or letter, for example, you’re likely to lose them to forward-thinking digital businesses who have utilised online self-service tools. Similarly, if your teams are forced to be in the office every day because it’s the only location that houses their paperwork, they would swiftly move on to a company that makes use of digital workplace tech to enable productive working from anywhere.
Digital transformation strategy examples
It’s clear that a digital transformation strategy is essential for moving your business forward into the digital age. But knowing how to create one is another matter entirely.
It can be helpful to see some digital strategy examples in action, so that you can visualise how these might power your own business transformation. With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of tech examples that will help inspire your own digital transformation strategy:
Example 1: Improve customer service with knowledge base software
According to the Aspect Consumer Experience Index, 73% of customers would rather solve product or service issues themselves. Amusingly, a corresponding report also asked if respondents would rather clean a toilet than contact customer services. Over a third said they would.
This customer data clearly indicates that people want autonomy over their problem solving, and are loath to engage with customer service representatives unless they really have to.
Thankfully, you can easily provide customers with the self-service tools they want by incorporating knowledge base software into your digital transformation strategy. This digital tool allows your customer services team to create content-rich user guides, how-to articles, and FAQs, as well as embed video tutorials, providing customers with 24/7 access to the answers they’re looking for.
Use knowledge base software to provide your customers with self-service support articles
Over time, the knowledge base software will generate data and analytics that will help you understand customer behaviour and trends. Based on these insights, your customer support team can create new content that fulfils your customers’ needs and provides a personalised experience.
Example 2: Streamline your business processes with e-forms and workflow automations
Living in the digital world that we do, your organisation can benefit from using a piece of technology that improves business outcomes such as productivity, efficiency, and profitability.
You may be wondering, what magical technology can do all this? The answer is: e-forms and workflows software.
E-forms and workflows software – also known as business process management software – replaces paperwork and automates manual admin tasks like booking annual leave, submitting invoices, and managing employee onboarding (bonus tip: look at our dedicated page for more e-forms and workflows examples).
Replace your paperwork and manual processes with e-forms and workflows software
This tech is a must-have for your digital transformation strategy, because it fulfils a lot of the criteria of a successful business model: being efficient, productive, and profitable.
For instance, by using e-forms and workflow automations, it improves efficiency by speeding up processing time and reducing human error. Productivity will increase, because teams won’t be laden with busywork that drains their time; they can focus on meaningful tasks instead. As a result of these enhancements, you’ll see better profitability too.
Example 3: Enable remote and flexible working with mobile-ready intranet software
Pandemic or not, we were already moving into an era of remote and hybrid working. And it would be unwise for businesses to go backwards into the 9-5 desk-based set-up, especially when 73% of workers want a flexible working arrangement.
For that reason, mobile-ready intranet apps are a perfect example of a digital transformation strategy done right. These allow your teams to conveniently access documents, company news, and communications on-the-go, as well as collaborate on projects and tasks, catch-up on e-learning courses, and process some e-forms, wherever they’re based.
Being remote work ready as a result of utilising mobile intranet tech can benefit other areas of your digital transformation strategy too. Without the limitations or costs of having a physical office, you can expand your recruitment search to national or even global levels. This will allow you to attract the most talented individuals, as well as beat any competition that doesn’t offer flexible working.
