Understand what digital transformation is and how it can impact on the company

Big Data, Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, Business Intelligence... all these concepts are on the rise and make up one of today's biggest trends: digital transformation. 

Throughout this article you will understand what this concept is, where it came from, how it can be applied within organisations and the impact it can have on their processes. 

Contrary to what many people imagine, digital transformation is already happening. It is a reality, and those who do not adapt will certainly be left behind. If you want your company to be one step ahead, keep reading this article and learn from us. Check it out below and find out!

What is digital transformation?

Digital transformation shapes a profound and significant change in the way businesses operate in relation to technology in a variety of ways.

It is necessary, at first, to understand that the concept does not involve purely and simply the practice of adding different technologies to processes. We can consider the concept as a process, a disruption of a traditional model.

The central idea is to structurally change organisations in a scenario where technology is at the centre of this change. Essentially, it transforms analogical processes into digital ones, and this is the most important of its impacts.

We can therefore define digital transformation as the use of technology to optimise, enhance and bring more breadth to the company's processes, which can impact from business results to employee satisfaction.

Exactly because it is an extremely broad and vague idea, many people believe that everything that is digital makes up the so-called transformation. In fact, it is a profound change and is not only linked to the IT area.

Digitising the operations of all areas of a company is one of the paths that leads to digital transformation, for example, but that's not all.

How important is digital transformation?

Digital transformation is already happening, and organisations that keep their processes analogue or outdated will be passed over by modern companies that implement industry news quickly and on a larger scale.

The idea is to use technology as a solver or facilitator of processes, both for the client and for the company itself and its employees. The fact is that today, bringing ease to people's lives involves technology and digital systems, and this cannot be denied.

How to implement digital transformation in organisations?

Now that you understand what digital transformation is and how important it is for businesses, it's time to understand how you can implement it in your company.

Firstly, we will give you a very simple example of something that could be considered part of a transformation process, but today it is already so embedded in our daily lives that we do not even realise its importance: the ATM.

The ATM is a technology that replaces a human effort, i.e. the act of having to have an employee to understand your request and fetch the money for you. Do you understand how this is an enabler?

The first thing you need to do if you want to implement transformation in your organisation is to stop and rethink your entire digital strategy, and not just operationally, but structurally as well.

You will then need to go through a process of changing the culture on the ground. Show employees why the change is happening and why it's important. Many processes they already know will change and if you can't change their mindset, you will probably have problems in the future.

With process change, you will also have to empower your team and train them for the new things that will come over time. This requires planning, so it's important to understand that digital transformation is a complex process and that, yes, it can take time to achieve your end goal.

From there, you can really map out your processes and start thinking about digital flows and projects. Numerous factors can help determine your company's revolution, such as your business model or the experience you want to pass on to the customer or employees.

The impacts can come in numerous areas. Digital transformation has changed the way people work, brought digital products to market, created different and more advantageous platforms for processes that were already consolidated (such as flexible benefits platforms over traditional employee benefits), brought digital wallets, revolutionised security and hundreds of thousands of other examples.

Do you understand how important it is to keep up to date and look to implement digital transformation as soon as possible? If you want to know what's latest in the market, keep following the Alymente blog!