Staying competitive, your business must continually improve its operations. Of course, because your organization—like every organization— has finite resources, you have to choose which areas to focus on. But how do you know which initiatives will deliver the best return on investment (ROI)?

One way to make that determination is to learn from your peers. If you notice a trend in their actions, those tactics are likely delivering positive results.

What We See Regarding Digital Transformation

At a high level, most successful companies are pursuing digital transformation to some degree. Moving from manual business processes or processes that rely on outdated technology to more advanced and automated ways of doing things delivers many benefits. They include faster processing with less human intervention required, greater accuracy, and improved customer satisfaction, to name just a few.

Plus, freeing employees from mundane tasks means they can take on more meaningful and productive projects, which leads to all sorts of advantages.

But within the broader context of digital transformation, what are the trends that are emerging? From our work with organizations in a wide range of industries, we see four notable changes:

1. Increased focus on leveraging “human capital.” Organizations have intelligent, experienced people working for them. Unfortunately, the value of this expertise has been underutilized historically. However, companies today are increasingly realizing that digital transformation makes it easier to capture that knowledge and make it available across the organization. Now, instead of interrupting Susan to get her insights on a particular issue or problem, a coworker can access her notes and observations from a similar engagement online and use them to guide their next steps.
2. Greater willingness to re-engineer processes. Digital transformation does not deliver maximum ROI when used as a “bandaid” for an existing inefficient or ineffective process. But, frankly, that’s the way many organizations have utilized it in the past. It takes time and effort to step back, reassess your approach and then implement better workflows supported by advanced technology. But the payoff can be huge, and more companies are starting to make that intelligent investment.
3. Increased attention to customer engagement. Digital transformation can be limited to internal processes that customers are never aware of or affected by what a company chooses to do. However, significant improvements can be made in how an organization engages with its audience, as well. More than ever before, businesses are committing to understanding and improving the customer experience for many reasons, not the least of which is that happy customers are a company’s best and most believable advocates.
4. More effective use of data. In the same way that companies are looking to do more with their team members’ expertise, they are also trying to get more value from their data. Too often, information is received or generated only to gather “digital dust” as it sits unused. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, predictive analytics, and other capabilities enable businesses to extract their data’s total value and gain a competitive advantage in their industry.

In observing these trends, we see that companies taking these actions tend to be moving beyond surviving to thrive.

What Would Digital Transformation Look Like in Your Environment?

“Digital transformation” is one of those terms that people understand intuitively. But what does it look and feel like when a transformation initiative is undertaken? Having completed countless system design and implementation projects through the years, our digital transformation experts can paint a very clear picture for you.

In a free, 30-minute exploratory phone conversation, they can learn about your objectives and your challenges, explain possible solutions and, in general, give you a feel for the process and timeline for your project. Schedule a session by calling 720-739-1773 x102 or contacting us online.

About the Author

Charles Weidman is the President and CTO of Buddha Logic. Charlie has over two decades of experience in the design, development and implementation of content services and business process management solutions. He is also an expert in robotic process automation. Charlie founded Buddha Logic with the idea that well-architected digital document capture and management processes are both beautifully simple and powerfully logical. Find and connect with Charlie on LinkedIn.