Dual Achievement Business Benefits of Digital Transformation

Business Benefits of Digital Transformation

When companies comprehend the gains and potential of transforming their business with technology, they often look at tools and technologies that are both cutting-edge and transforming companies as market leaders. Decision-makers are amazed by the potential of mobile applications, automation, data management, or real-time reporting. However, they often face the challenge of changing the status quo of their operations or processes.

When investing in digital transformation, it is not only to digitalize current processes, but question the process itself while doing so. Is it achieving the goal? Can it be done in a different way?  Is it necessary? When companies invest in technology, decision-makers must have an inherent understanding that business processes and operations have to transform as well. There’s no point in investing in new technologies if employees are not willing to learn, or do not feel inspired to transform themselves and adopt new ways to conduct business.

When we think about the day to day in a company environment, we can think of any number of manual or semi-automated processes, from running reports, managing teams, creating deliverables, financial tracking, etc. It is the management or operations responsibility to ensure these processes are running smoothly and effectively, while increasing productivity by improving procedures when possible.

When companies make an effort to transform manual processes into digital processes, it is the project sponsor role to advocate redefining processes and get management on board to approve changes. In most cases, management doesn’t have the time or knowledge-base to do a thorough assessment, so the relationship with the sponsor is key to deliver successful projects.

Many times in consulting, the business engagement with the technology implementation partner can be one-sided. This results in digitalizing the current processes without exploring what technology can do to actually improve the business. Requirements and needs are communicated to the implementation partner, and the former will follow without assessing how the processes can be improved.

At Smartbridge, our Analysts work closely with business users to find new ways to optimize processes and propose new, efficient, and concrete solutions when delivering digital transformation. For example, one of our clients was once improving the way two systems were sharing data. However when our Business Analyst took a step back to look at the whole process, he noticed that the cause of the problem was not the communication between systems, rather the source of the information. Our client made a decision on re-training with best practices, and eliminating the extra work developers would do without addressing the real problem.

In another business requirement analysis example, our consultants were working closely with a client to improve the manual process of scheduling team meetings during the development of their web application. The client needed to keep track of the agenda work items and scheduling meetings, which was a simple and overlooked process. When our consultants did the analysis, they discovered more functionality could be integrated for reporting purposes. It was pitched to the client and approved immediately when they realized the potential to improve the process of storing the meeting data.

In this example, this small change in the storing process significantly impacted the data centralized repository for our client. The improved logic categorized the agenda items, allowing the ability to track, categorize and schedule different meetings. This gave users the ability to schedule meetings automatically with particular groups, without the need for backtracking items and set meetings manually. This also allowed management to create custom reports for outstanding items.

Inspiring the Workforce

One of the most impactful business benefits of digital transformation is empowering an innovative culture in your workplace. Once the decision to adopt new technologies to improve a business process is made, upper management has the responsibility to communicate key details to their team members:

• Why it matters

• Why the transformation is important

• What the expectations are

• What the benefits will be for the organization 

Having the whole team interested and engaged is key to have a successful digital transformation. Additionally, it is important to involve key business stakeholders to make the most of the collaboration with your technology partner. Day-to-day users are indispensable when optimizing business processes because their knowledge and insights can impact key performance indicators (KPIs).

In another recent project, our team had an on-site client visit to gather, analyze, and internalize the insights, feedback, and ideas of their users. Many of the assumptions by upper business management were cleared out to set the correct expectations. Our team made the recommendation to implement new platforms in order to deliver a successful project. When our consultants have the opportunity to experience the processes and understand the real pains and setbacks users have, we can make the recommendations needed to make our clients successful.

The Importance of Changing Your Landscape

Successful companies are transitioning towards using technology heavily in their daily operations. These companies are embracing digital transformation and acknowledging the importance of using various tools, such as artificial intelligence, mobile apps, cloud platforms, business intelligence, IoT, and automation.

It has become a reality to upgrade outdated systems or implement new technologies in companies operations. The business benefits of digital transformation are not only saving companies time, improving accuracy and responsiveness, but also generating long-term growth possibilities!

Keep Reading: Enhancing Customer Experience Through Digital Transformation