Digital technology is rapidly evolving. It was previously simply a modest efficiency driver. It is now a catalyst for innovation and disruption. Companies in every industry are grappling with the strategic implications of digital transformation for economic ecosystems and organizations.
While digital technology will revolutionize most industries, company leaders need not be afraid to face the problems straight on to reap the enormous benefits of digital transformation. Benefits can include increased efficiency and income as well as lower operational costs. Organizations that can swiftly make the necessary digital transformations will gain a competitive advantage.
The good news is that all of the buzzwords for digital transformation trends for 2022 appear to be the same as the previous year. Furthermore, the year carries the promise of turning buzzwords into something extremely tangible and substantial.
The bad news is that while 89 percent of executives believe digitization will disrupt their organizations this year, just about a third believe their digital strategies are correct or up-to-date. With these sobering facts in mind, we’ve compiled a list of the fundamental building blocks for digital transformation to encourage businesses to embark on the correct path to success in 2022.
CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
Companies that successfully use customer-centric strategies reap substantial benefits from improving customer experience. Holistic customer profiles, which incorporate offline and online consumer information utilizing identity resolution tools and integrate transactionally, CRM, and third-party data, are at the heart of any successful digital transformation.
Most firms do not lack the technological component on this front, as CRM software suppliers provide them with capabilities such as artificial intelligence (AI) and process automation. The key challenge is deciding what data should be collected and keeping these profiles clean and usable over time.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Every intelligent firm on the path to digital transformation relies on data-driven decision-making. Data is used by successful firms to get insights and predict customer behavior for more effective marketing initiatives. As discussed previously, holistic customer profiles are essential for data-mining consumer intelligence.
On the other hand, AI has the potential to accelerate the current rate of digital transformation by making machines more intelligent and the interaction of technology with humans more visible and understandable. AI might help businesses improve innovation, create marketing and sales strategies, provide excellent service, attract the best applicants, and keep top staff happy, among other things.
We may also add that today’s data-driven firms better understand the data’s value, influence, and potential. As a result, they will be better positioned in the future to use machine learning to continue enhancing their processing power.
Emerging Technologies
To stay up with the digital transformation, it’s critical to have one’s finger on the pulse of new technology. Mobile apps, identity resolution, virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), AI and machine learning, tailored digital videos, digital portals, wearables, addressable TV, the Internet of Things, and blockchain are just a few of the emerging technologies.
These digital technologies give all businesses new ways to acquire customer information and insight while improving data integration and distribution across channels. Companies will interact and communicate with customers digitally, develop better products and services, shorten the sales cycle, reduce operating expenses, and remain ahead of the competition.
For example, augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are expected to grow in popularity in 2019, with the development of AR in particular expected to accelerate. These technologies are projected to be used in various industries, including employee training, conversational platforms, and machinery maintenance and repair.
Another rapidly advancing technology is blockchain. Though fintech is perhaps the most well-known application area for blockchain, it has also been used in places other than bitcoin, such as delivering products and services.
Social Media
Customers nowadays demand customer service to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Social media communities are an excellent way to meet these needs by assisting in maintaining and growing the appropriate level of consumer involvement and interaction, which leads to customer acquisition and retention. These communities could be considered a company’s best lead nurturing tool.
Companies should begin working on cross-channel customer journey mapping and Omni-channel management for consumer interaction. Shortening sales cycles, increasing customer spending, lowering customer turnover, raising brand recognition, and securing stronger client loyalty and advocacy benefits effective customer interaction. The most popular tactics employed in their digital transformation initiatives to attain these benefits and secure digital customer engagement are videos, content sharing, ChatBots with conversational AI, and robotic process automation solutions.
Data Management
When discussing data in general, it’s important to remember that new data is regularly generated on a vast scale. For example, 90 percent of the current data was created in the last few years, and only about 2% of that data is used. As a result, the volume of data created today and the insights that cannot be derived due to the lack of analytical tools application are perplexing.
That’s where Big Data and advanced analytical tools come in, as they’ve made it possible for most businesses to access and extract information from vast amounts of data. Data Value Management is predicted to be a hot topic in boardrooms as insights from existing data become the source of emerging business and revenue models. We believe that 2022 will be a year of significant investment in Data Value Management.
Wrap Up – Impactful Digital Transformation
The digital transformation focuses on customer management and doing everything necessary to provide a better customer experience. Companies have a variety of innovative technologies at their disposal for this purpose, but their priority should understand how to make the most of the data they have.
The digital transformation process should be built on an integrated framework that connects and supports different projects. For example, using data and analytics as a foundational platform to analyze and provide insights for CRM, social media communities, and customer engagement; utilizing customer journey mapping and customer experience surveys to feed holistic customer profiles; using emerging technologies like AI to provide next-best-action recommendations for individual clients, and so on.
In other words, an excellent digital transformation plan draws together all of the buildings mentioned above components and relies on a long-term road map that emphasizes people and process challenges as much as technology.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the main areas of digital transformation?
It’s about technology, data, process, and organizational change. Over the years, we’ve participated in, advised on, and studied hundreds of digital transformations.
What are the key drivers influencing digital workplace transformation?
At work, we theorized that effective digital transformation is supported by three main factors: team communication and collaboration, workplace relationships and team identification, and team adaptability and resilience.