Here is everything you need to know about the process of digitization from the business, social and consumers' perspectives.
Main Things You Should Know About Digitalization
High technologies, automation and digitalization has become part of our everyday life which we now strongly depend upon. It is really quite difficult to imagine any consumer segment without the possibility to purchase goods or services remotely. The current rhythm of customers' lives literally makes the company to be "ahead of its time". In this present generation, If you are inactive, not mobile and client-oriented, then it could quickly seem that, one has ceased to exist. And as in Sci-fi movies and cartoon "Wall-I", in which robots take control of all processes and humans are forced to leave the planet, that just seem so impossible. So the primary goal of WOXAPP is to help your business be in the trend of digitalization of society, get the most out of minimum funds and efforts and not be thrown overboard of consumer preferences.
What Is Digitalization
It is quite difficult to give the clear concept of digitalization since this term is in a broad sense. In the most general form, digitalization strategy is the gradual penetration of digital technologies into all spheres of public life.
From an organizational point of view, social digitalization corresponds to a change in the process and organization of work in connection with the integration of new information technologies. From the user's perspective, it can be defined as a real boom of online life and apps development. As for the global view of business, here we will see even the greater importance of digitization, as new information technologies destroy the boundaries between professional and personal life, as well as between private and public. Next, we will look at this process in detail from the business perspective and consider the main steps of digitization that the company should perform in order to have a competitive advantage.
Business Digitalization
What Is the Digitization of Business
Digitalization is a profound transformation of business, involving the use of digital technologies to optimize business processes, improve the company's productivity and improve the experience with customers. One of the primary digitization steps is the satisfaction of consumer needs, which change along with the development of technologies, namely, the creation of a more comfortable and prompt interaction between the client and the company. However, proceeding from the question of what is digitalization of business, it is possible to say that this process may also have the following purposes:
- Improvement of the product (or service): its quality, attractiveness, ease of use, delivery;
- Automation of production and other internal processes of the company;
- Simplification of internal and external communications.
Real Indicators You Should Take Into Account
Let's analyze the following statistics in order to understand the real scale of digitization impact on business.
- Only 10% of companies are proud to say that they have implemented all the benefits of digitalization to their business processes. As for the rest 90%, their founders believe that digitalization is the main driving trend of their sector, but only 25% of them have the corresponding strategy and only 15 have done some real steps towards this goal. The question is obvious - why are you not among these 15 percents? This is not the great indicator of competitiveness so it would be reasonable to start implementing digitization business solutions right now.
- 27% of companies are sure that digitization work should be done in order just to survive on the market and 87% think that most would be the great competitive advantage.
- If to consider Global 2000, two-thirds of the companies were intended to make digitalization their key priority already by the end of 2017.
Thus, in a few years, the digital transformation will become a vital necessity for business, so the leaders of companies need to think about switching to digital now.
The Importance of Digitalization Implementation
Today, more and more executives of companies and entrepreneurs have realized the need for changes in their business. It is useless to struggle with the concept of universal digitalization - it needs to be accepted and companies should understand how it can be built in.
This is one of the most important directions that will help to make a new technological breakthrough in the world economy, while significantly reducing costs and optimizing production processes to preserve the environment, save human, money and time resources, and also improve the standard of living in general.
Companies that do not start the digital transformation of their business today will be ineffective and will simply disappear under the pressure of new market realities and more pragmatic "digital" competitors of tomorrow.
How Does the Process Digitization Increase KPI
If you still doubt that the digitalization will eat all those who are not adaptable according to the law of the jungle, let's look at the following indicators. The way in which the introduction of digital processes improves key performance indicators demonstrates this very clearly.
Returning to the research we talked about, we will find out that 39% of companies have improved the process of real-time transactions making, 32% improved operational efficiency and 28% were able to get new customers, thanks to the digitalization of their business.
If to analyze more detailed data, the results will be as follows:
32% of marketers already use email marketing in order to increase ROI and this approach really works;
Online advertising is a tool that helps to increase the recognition of your brand by 31%.
Since millennials are now the main buying segment, a third of them prefer to interact with companies through social networks, according to B2B Community data.
How You Can Get New Services by Combining Information
All the KPIs increase due to the very fact that the digitization changes the way the companies interact with customers. This process allows firms to get information about their clients and develop the offers that are the magic perfect match for this particular customer in this period of time from the perspective of quality, price, service and the way of delivery. With a great deal of success, this is achieved through the massive use of smartphones and applications for them.
There is a colloquial bridgehead for gaining profit. Moreover, you can do this with the help of information that users themselves will tell you about themselves using mobile devices. For example, by analyzing the requests of a single person, the search engine will offer products or services related to the object of previous requests. Knowing the location of your customers, using their own smartphones, you can offer them the most convenient places that provide the services most needed by the user.
In practice, this means that you can create a business page in Instagram and adjust the display of advertising only to those users who regularly check in different luxury places (for example, if you sell an expensive product or service). And there can be dozens of examples how you can turn in your favor the fact of ubiquitous use of smartphones and applications.
Use of Mobile Applications in the Modern World
Just take the following statistics into account.
The most popular mobile apps in the world are Facebook, YouTube, FB Messenger, Google Search and Maps, Instagram, Snapchat, Google Play, and Gmail. All of these apps are great business tools, of course, if you are already going digital and understand how to use them. All these instruments are used by millennials and as we have already said that this is the main target audience of almost any modern business.
An average user spends approximately from 2,6 to 3,2 hours with digital media on mobile.
According to the forecasts, the number of mobile app users will reach 6.1 billion and the number of application downloads will be 284.3 billion by 2020.
74% of companies proved that the costs of mobile apps development are fully paid off in the nearest future.
79% of all US companies state that the mobile app is a great part of their business success.
What Are Implementation Difficulties Your Business May Face
No one will give you a step-by-step instruction on how to perform digitalization - it can only be personal responsibility. Only knowing the business from within, it is possible to correctly set the goal and develop a promising digital strategy. Also, on the way to digitalization, you need to be prepared for mistakes and turns "not there" and try to treat it calmly. Mistakes are the standard component of any changes, so these problems should not become an obstacle - sooner or later you will have to switch to digital in any case.
In general, the digitalization of business takes place in 3 stages.
- Analysis of the company, goal setting and strategy development. To begin with, it is necessary to analyze all business processes and strategic assets of the company: to determine the efficiency of all its departments, production, internal and external communications and to think how it can be improved with the help of digital technologies. At this stage, it is necessary to set a clear goal, which the company should come to with the help of digitalization, and form an approximate strategy for achieving this goal. To minimize risks, you need to approach this very carefully and responsibly. Of course, with the help of experts (we hint at ourselves). When drafting a strategy, remember that new technologies should not completely change the business, their main goal is to simplify business processes.
- Introduction of digital technologies. When you designate a clear plan of action and select the necessary digital tools, you can start working. You will need time to implement new technologies, test, fix technical mistakes, train staff/clients to work with services, etc. Therefore, to see any results, you will need to wait.
- Analysis of the results. After implementing each digital solution, you need to analyze its effectiveness and make sure that it brings additional revenue or any other benefit to the company, rather than damaging the budget.
The Human Factor as the Main Obstacle
Sadly, the most important brake on the way to innovative business changes within a single company is, strangely enough, its employees. As a rule, a small group of people and their worldview determines the fact how deeply digitalization will take root in your company and how much benefit you can get from it. Therefore, the process of external change as usual should begin with changes inside.
The Most Digital Industries
To this date, there are some industries that can be called fully digital, according to the Harvard Business Review case study. Information & Communication Technology, Media, Finance & Insurance are the leaders of this digitization rally. This situation is easily explained.
There is no sense to pay attention to the IT sector since this is the sphere that gave birth to all the innovative solutions that are implemented in all the spheres. Therefore, it was digital from its very beginning.
Answering the question what is digitization in banking, it is possible to say that this is, first of all, the development of mobile banking platforms, the availability of instant transactions, the possibility to perform almost any financial operation without living the house and of course, an increased security of payments.
As for digitization in insurance, the most suitable example is the advanced services of registration and payment of policies. The great importance of digitization in banking and insurance is in its increasing transparency and decreasing centralization.
The digitization is already a reality in the spheres of education (online courses, virtual learning tools) and retail (shopping apps). It can be expected that this process will conquer all the other spheres of public life and will change our worldview (for example, we can already observe the process of museum digitization).
WOXAPP in Business Digitalization
In conclusion, now that you have realized that watching general digitalization and doing nothing is a direct way to a business crash. We suggest that you not only avoid this but also increase your chances of success with digital solutions implementation.
Since digitalization is a complex process, the mobile apps developed approach is that we also look at this issue in a comprehensive manner. In practice, this means smooth and joint passage of all the stages described above, from business process analysis and ending with a real penetration of innovations into your business.
The advantages of this decision are obvious. For example, with the development of mobile applications for business, your company will adapt to the modern day realities. It is also possible to give dozens of examples regarding the importance of digitalization in relation to your KPI because this is the thing that really works!
Do not hesitate to contact us right now in order to discuss how to direct your business on the path of digitalization in order to extract the maximum benefits from modern day realities!
