Digital transformation is the process of completely replacing manual, traditional and outdated ways of doing business with the latest digital alternatives. This innovation affects all aspects of business, not just technology.
Digital transformation for organizations – a condition for rapid response
Digital transformation allows an organization to respond to constant changes in the market situation. Such a complex fundamental change requires a complete overhaul of the culture, operations, technologies and principles of creating new business products and services. Once this process begins, an organization’s digital transformation will impact products and services, marketing and distribution channels, business processes, supply chains, and new market partners.
Improvement of organizational processes
As a result of this incremental transformation, organizations often find that new technologies are improving nearly every process in the value chain, from customer and supplier relationships to product and service marketing. The introduction of the latest technology can also open up new sources of income. Robust CRM technologies help companies drive sales through customer feedback on personal experiences.
The need for digitalization in enterprises
Obviously, constant technological breakthroughs are forcing companies to switch to digital solutions in order to survive. Consumers are waiting for more digital experiences and rejecting offers that can’t deliver. Although the introduction of new technologies comes with some risks, the potential benefits can justify the effort and cost of digitalization.
Increasing economic performance
Recent studies confirm this. While not all sectors have yet been embraced by digital transformation, those organizations that adapt to new and emerging markets are more likely to retain revenue as revenue sources change. In fact, the McKinsey study makes a clear link between economic performance and the adoption of integrated digital processes.
Learning by example
While the need for digitization will be even more urgent in the future, it is not clear what investments will be required and how to implement it. Moreover, as expected, some digital transformations bring higher returns than others. The deeper the researchers delved into the complex process of digital transformation, the more complex the strategies became. The success of digital investments varies greatly by industry, so taking a closer look at the leaders in your own market will be the best way to predict what to do first.
The evolution of digital transformation
The term “digital transformation” did not appear yesterday. This topic has been studied and discussed for decades. In fact, during the 1990s, retail was promoted in the media through advertising campaigns, which was the beginning of the digital transformation. Although purchases were still made in brick-and-mortar stores, the process had already begun.
Then, starting in the 2000s, social media platforms and mobile devices spurred new ways to communicate and do business. Customers expect companies to be available to them instantly and across multiple channels. One-on-one digital communication in real time has become not only possible, it has become the norm. In addition to these evolutionary changes, new payment methods for purchases have appeared, such as Paypal, Venmo and Zell. Not only in retail, but also in the banking and service industries, more and more transactions were carried out on Internet platforms and e-commerce. Companies are now using the vast amounts of personal data generated on social media and mobile apps to improve the customer experience.
Companies that are digitizing use this vast pool of personalized data to improve their products, communications, services and interactions, so consumers see their needs as personalized and feel more satisfied in the process.
As such, it is clear that the future holds more data-driven approaches to business strategy that will help reimagine entire markets and drive better decision making at all levels of the company. Digital transformation opens up much more opportunities than just improving individual processes. It allows you to transform any industry on a massive scale.
What steps need to be taken for a successful digital transformation?
While digital transformation is rapidly permeating all market sectors, there are many choices and pitfalls between making a strategic decision to go digital and implementing it. Many experts have assessed the situation, and it turned out that the recommended methods boil down to a few basic steps.
1. Definition of tasks
Remember the old adage “Failure to plan means failure”? This has never been more fair than when deciding where and how to adapt new technologies. Before embarking on a digital transformation, an organization must define its goals. Are customer retention and revenue enhancements needed? Do we need to increase productivity, simplify service management, increase flexibility, differentiate offerings? Obviously, many goals can be achieved with the help of technology, but it is not so easy to determine which ones are important for a particular organization.
2. Exploring leading technology solutions
Very quickly, today’s revolutionary technologies are becoming the basis for the work of the future. Awareness of the available offerings can expand the opportunities for business benefits. This requires creative thinking about the potential of each new technology and how to use it.
3. Architecture design
Deciding which new digital offerings to implement is just the first step towards digitalization. IT professionals should focus not only on what new efforts are required, but also how to build a workflow. Is the DevOps organization transforming into cloud operations? Will the new applications use intelligent automation? The answers to these questions will determine the cost and scope of digital transformation, as well as the structure of the platform ecosystem.
4. Dynamic transformation
It is likely that this platform will be a highly virtualized, distributed network of providers to meet the needs of the organization. For practical application, enterprises choose from a variety of solution options to optimize infrastructure and simplify management, considering user friendliness and the ability to transform business services. Of course, for the success of digital transformation, it must take place in several stages with flexible adaptability.
HPE Digital Transformation Solutions Deliver Business Value
As a recognized global leader, HPE provides the knowledge and experience to rapidly implement digital transformation while effectively adapting to rapid change. We help customers transform the way they do business by bringing intelligence to the edge and connecting it to the rest of the organization. Customers can then take advantage of these intelligent solutions to improve workplace conditions for both employees and customers.
With over 15,000 service experts in 200 countries and rich experience in digital transformation, HPE Pointnext Services helps you get the right strategy. What sets us apart from the competition is that we do everything on your terms, focusing on your unique challenges and goals, and drawing on a wealth of experience working with similar customers around the world.
Whether you’re cloud-ready or just looking to digitally transform certain products, processes, or machines, we’re your trusted partner to accelerate your digital transformation with a unique, multi-vendor methodology based on industry best practices, years of experience and guidance, taking into account the specifics of the implementation of similar projects.
HPE helps bring intelligence to the edge with the following services:
- Network Services: Build a switching network to securely and efficiently achieve business results.
- Services for the digital workspace: Determine how your employees and customers will interact and conduct business.
- IoT Services: Use data collected from devices at the edge to solve business problems.
You can also implement HPE Fast Start Solutions to quickly jump-start your digital transformation with a pre-integrated solution that reduces setup effort and gives you quick access to insights. HPE Fast Start solutions provide condition monitoring, video surveillance, quality assurance, and smart hardware.
We believe you will succeed if connectivity is ubiquitous and intelligent, automated and flexible, secure and interoperable. We offer customized services and support to help customers identify and resolve their unique issues. Our sole purpose is to empower you to get the most out of digital and grow your business.
