Today's consumers ask for more than what you display on your website - they check your app and explore your digital signage and presece, by engaging with your brand across social media platforms. That said, the tools you employ to keep up with trends, manage growing consumer demands, and create value for your customers are vital to your business growth. These tools play a significant role in helping companies deliver continuous innovation and creativity across their digital space. 

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This article will examine the importance of undergoing digital transformation and how it can strategize and extend your business growth.

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• What is Digital Transformation?
• Why do Businesses Need Digital Transformation?
• How to Execute Digital Transformation in Today's Tech World

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What is Digital Transformation?

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Digital transformation can look different, depending on the branding and objectives of a company. For some, it might mean unlearning outdated practices in their marketing strategy to make room for new business processes popularized in today's digital market.

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Regardless of the specifics, digital transformation involves integrating digital technology into a business' operational strategy, by creating new processes or modifying existing ones to enhance the company's culture and provide value for customers. In most cases, digital transformation involves a cultural change that reevaluates a company's digital identity and implementing technology tools across conventional sectors like sales, marketing, and customer service. In this regard, your digital transformation journey involves the cycle of interaction between your business and its customers. Also, in terms of operations, this transformation can include a change in the management process, like moving from paper to spreadsheets or incorporating an AI tool for HR to monitor team activities. 

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Businesses take on digital transformation for different reasons, including reducing operational inefficiency and cost. However, another likely reason is the need for a survival plan. Since the pandemic, many companies have had to adjust their policies and strategies to adapt to changing market trends and consumer demands, like supply chain disruptions, time-to-market pressures, and rapidly evolving consumer behaviors. Companies have optimized their automated systems in areas of operations to make room for these growing and changing demands.

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Why do Businesses Need Digital Transformation?

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Digital transformation emphasizes the importance of technology in defining a business strategy. With this analysis, businesses can create a unified system across operations, using technology tools to achieve goals and objectives. Here are some fundamental reasons your business should take on its own digital transformation:

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• Improved customer experience - Since customer perception is paramount to a company's growth, it’s essential to consider what influences their opinion - a main factor of which is user experience. According to a recent survey from Harvard Business School, senior business executives revealed that a number one objective of digital transformation is enhanced customer experience. With today's market rave about the newest technologies, consumers are looking for more accessible, valuable ways to solve their problems. For example, a business may introduce a machine learning tool to answer customer questions or queries from a knowledge base, saving time and resources that the company would otherwise have had to employ to solve a simple problem. 

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• Data-driven insights - In every business, tracking data and key metrics is crucial in measuring company growth and aligning marketing strategies. Going digital puts you a step ahead, by providing insights that allow you to optimize your company strategies and make the best decisions for your business and customers. When estimating cost and revenue, data-driven insights can improve your statistics, by helping you understand customer needs and integrate them into your next business strategy. To this end, companies use structured (personal) customer information or social media metrics to optimize their processes and aim for better results in Returns On Investments (ROI). 

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• Team-building and collaboration - A digital transformation can be a massive change for the entire organization, as it sometimes involves revamping the operational flow for different teams. While this kind of change can be challenging, revisiting processes during this transition fortifies communication between leadership and teams and helps to ensure an excellent employee experience. It’s important for companies to include employees in the purpose and goals of their digital transformation journey, to enable them to see how the development strategy benefits both the business and its customers. Furthermore, this inclusion helps the company clearly navigate risks, while defining responsibility and accountability as sustainable goals. 

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• Enhanced digital culture - Digital transformations help develop a strong digital culture that allows teams to remain productive and engaged, without feeling overwhelmed by the transition. While applying digital technology tools is vital, developing a digital culture encourages companies to adopt change that builds customer and employee experience through an advanced digital environment. 

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• Improved operational workflow - By going digital, businesses can improve their operational workflow, making it easier for businesses to connect and interact internally. Companies can offer flexibility through adequate tools and software, like remote or hybrid working or relevant training that enhances career development. By introducing corporate, social responsibility, companies build a digital learning environment that helps employees upskill for years and build digital savvy. When it comes to customer service, a logistics enterprise can improve its services digitally, by offering delivery options via its website, or integrating a process for customers to track or retrieve their goods virtually. 

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How to Execute Digital Transformation in Today's Tech World

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As a startup business, it helps to initiate a digital process from the onset and build from there. As enterprises embark on digital transformation, they think, plan, and ask different questions to determine if they are on the right path to creating an agile and flexible digital environment. Here are some factors to consider when undertaking digital transformation for your company: 

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• Explore your opportunities - When businesses embark on digital transformation, it's always helpful to understand the potential of the technology you're implementing. By familiarizing yourself with each technology, you can adapt your business processes to make the most of your technology investments. For instance, data-driven technologies help companies assess what aspects of their service need improvement. By exploring this technology, businesses can provide recommendations and reviews based on user preferences.

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• Develop a clear strategy - Digital transformation is a journey; going too deep too quickly might harm the business in the long-run. It is crucial to develop a clear strategy before starting this transition. First, determine the end goals and what the project aims to achieve. In doing so, you can identify the ways that new technology will help improve old operations. 

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• Adaptation - Your business may need to adapt to new marketing methods when integrating your existing process with the latest technology. In this regard, especially for customer service, social media is changing how businesses interact with their customers in advertising, sales, and marketing. However, to adjust your marketing strategy, it's best to know what social network best meets your target audience and extends your services. By interacting with customers on platforms where they are usually sociable, brands can build stronger relationships with their customers and expand their marketing campaigns.

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• Leadership & team management: Leadership and team members must be in sync when embarking on digital transformation. This ensures that the whole company fully understands and interprets the objectives of this new project and can move forward with a shared vision. Stating clearly what each role is and how they affect this transition is key to developing a smooth process company-wide.

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• Monitor & measure transition progress: The work doesn't end with implementing a digital strategy; businesses must also follow up with the progress of what they initiate. It’s paramount for business growth to know which systems work for your product and how to improve them. Similarly, regularly reevaluating your digital plans helps you understand what’s not working and how to make it right. 

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Starting a digital transformation journey may be challenging for a business to take on alone, so we offer project strategy and analytics as part of our services. Outliant has helped numerous startup companies identify the best digital strategy for their products and has successfully helped launch various transition campaigns for brands across different industries. At Outliant, we’re experts at helping you define your brand voice, optimize your user experience, and reach your target audience. Book a discovery call with us today, and let's help transform your business!

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