In the past few years, digital transformation has become one of the most discussed topics across all media. More often we see the headlines from the well-known news portals of how large corporations go bust because they weren't ready to keep up with the new technology trends and how newborn startups are becoming enterprises because they're offering never discovered before solutions to comfort customer life. What’s even harder to imagine is how far industries will go with this digital revolution. But one thing is clear for sure - “if you are a business owner and serious about your growth, you should go digital, otherwise, there’s no point in trying”.
There is no generic and 100% successful strategy to follow, but there are several tips to keep in mind before you go with your digital transformation:
1. Think fast in terms of innovation
In a digital world, everything is moving very fast. So when you see an opportunity to improve your business you’d better use it asap. While large enterprises are only considering possible digital transformation strategies, small startups are implementing it. Based on the Hubspot's research, 55% of startups have already adopted cloud migration strategy, by contrast, only 38% of traditional enterprises did.
2. Go with trends
While considering possible ways to digitalize your business, you should keep in mind market trends. Like being ready to connect with customers via mobile phones, for example. Just think about it: “The average person spends about 3 hours per day on the smartphone”. We live in a “mobile-first world” where mobile traffic has long ago surpassed desktop traffic (52.52% vs 43.63%, based on the latest information). Even Google is rolling out “mobile-first indexing”, which is a strong signal that every business should be not only online but mobile-friendly. That's why the website speed and performance optimization became one of the most important factors while considering legacy modernization optimization.
3. Adapt to the new needs of customers
Have you ever heard about “The death of traditional retail”? Ten years ago the future of global retail enterprises looked bright and stable. The value of the US most known retailers (Walmart, Sears, Target, Nordstrom, Best Buy, Kohl’s, JCPenney, and Macy’s) was $400billion in 2006. But a decade later the number decreased by 26% which is $297 billion in 2016. In comparison, Amazon was only valued at$17.5 billion. But the global online retailer gained 1,934% in value over the same timeframe and the number has risen to $356 billion in2016. Why? Because there was a vivid market tendency back in 2006 -US consumers increasingly went online to do their shopping. The modest online bookstore Amazon responded to a market change and today it is one of the biggest online stores we know.
4. Think outside the box
Recently, there are more and more successful startups offering conceptually new ways to help customers in daily life. Let’s take for example the financial industry. There is no need to carry around your wallet while you are grocery shopping or go to the bank department in case you need a loan. In 2005, one of the small financial startups Prospers offered a significantly new way to connect people who need money and people who can lend them. Today, ProsperMarketplace Inc is a peer-to-peer lending industry leader with revenue of $116.23million in 2017.
5.Empower business with technology
ArtificialIntelligence, Machine Learning, and the Internet of Things software development are the three top technologies enterprises are after. The whole list goes as follows:
Most enterprises are adopting technologies because they help to improve process efficiency through automation, create better customer engagement, improve business decision making and drive revenue.
In our regular life, we use UBER-like applications to call a cab or google maps to find “pizza near me”. I guess it is clear – the world around us is digitizing and your business should too.
