The era of traditional marketing has long passed. Today, it’s easy to collect information about customers and understand them to respond faster and measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. The phrase “digital transformation” has been a popular buzzword for some time now. While some marketers perceive a new website, or a social media update equals digital transformation, real life experiences show the opposite.
Digital transformation refers to the changes associated with the application of digital technology. Any department in an organization can use digital technologies to transform their business processes and the way they work – from sales/marketing to customer service, HR, finance and product development. IDG goes further with this definition, that digital business transformation is the creation of new business designs using 3rd party platform technologies to create value and competitive advantage through new offerings, new business models, and new relationships.
Optimizing your business processes is a long-term approach
With the dynamic nature of technology, digital transformation is not a single, one-time project that can be completed over night. It’s a long-term strategic development and evaluation of organizational, technological and operational approaches to using digital as a means to improve status quo. This digital transformation roadmap will make it possible to offer new services and to serve existing customers in new ways.
A global study found that maturing digital businesses are integrating digital technologies to transform their overall business processes. Less-mature digital businesses are using individual technologies to solve separate business problems. Regardless of the type of business the IDG The State of Digital Business survey confirms that 89% of businesses surveyed are thinking about or on a path of digital transformation. 56% of IDG interviewed companies indicate that they need data availability to manage their business performance.
89% of organizations have adopted or have plans to adopt a digital first strategy. (IDG)
Customer experience is the heart of digital transformations
Companies use multiple channels to engage with people who are interested in their brand. Each piece of digital content that your brand delivers across touchpoints, whether it is visual or written, form the whole customer experience. As customers are flooded with endless sources of information, they have increasingly high demands for relevant content to serve their needs anywhere and anytime. In the format of their choice. On the device they are using right now.
To satisfy customers, businesses invest in new technology and adjusting to new ways of approaching customer experience. Forrester Consulting’s online survey of 396 organizations shows that 21 percent rated “improving the customer experience" as a top business priority for the following year. Forrester’s report, Digital Transformation in the Age of the Customer, also found that companies who focus on digital transformation are using digital ‘to help them sell profitably (58%), quickly (51%) and with superior customer satisfaction (48%)’.
73% of businesses state their online customer experiences meet their customers’ expectations. But only 5% feel they are exceeding expectations. To entice, win and retain customers requires a united effort across the entire organization. People and culture must be in place before technology.
Digital Asset Management enables digital transformation success
Digital Asset Management (DAM) makes content easily available for everyone, providing businesses with a central repository to place all rich media content and business-critical digital assets while optimizing every process from upload and management, to search and distribution on multiple channels. Global brands use digital asset management as a single source for brand assets. DAM enables them to share relevant content to the right people at the right time, achieving a faster time-to-market. In a world where success is defined by pace, agility is crucial.
Easy to find and share content on any device
A DAM system enables and supports an integrated approach to the entire content life cycle, including storage, management, development, conversion, distribution and reuse of all images, graphics, documents, video content and brand elements on multiple channels. This enables employees to be more effective and successfully perform creative processes while saving time through automated and optimized digital workflows. Digizuite serves successful global companies who have implemented digitals transformations by integrating key platforms (DAM, CMS, eCommerce, PIM, Content Marketing) in the core of their digital ecosystem. This means that all relevant departments can search, share and repurpose digital files across channels. Digizuite functions as a strategic partner and a key building block to help drive digital transformation in customer-facing web platforms, driving top-line growth, and creating great customer experiences.
Where to start (or restart) your digital transformation?
The success of a digital transformation strategy depends on a well-defined set of objectives. Organizations who have yet to mature tend to focus on separate technologies for different purposes, while digitally mature organizations develop digital strategies to transform the entire business. As with any new strategy and purpose-driven approach, it fundamentally starts by looking within.
Consider looking deeper into the following areas:
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What is our biggest challenge today that digital can help us solve?
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How can we improve and optimize the way we share digital assets, data, knowledge and collaborate internally and externally?
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What can we do to protect our brand and ensure brand compliance and consistency?
After reflecting on these questions, you will embark on a new, transforming adventure that will forever change the way you do business.
For companies that have already begun their digital transformation, you should consider the three key lessons companies have learned as the digital roadmap rolls out. The IDG The State of Digital Business survey findings echo these themes as necessary for a successful digital transformation.
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The need for information to be readily available
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The need to deliver a strong customer experience
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Tools you have selected that are easy to use and have a high adoption rate in your company
Only 19% companies have fully implemented a workforce strategy to accommodate digital transformation. (IDG)
If only 19% of companies have fully implemented a workforce strategy to accommodate digital transformation, it is clear that there is a quite a way to go for companies to strengthen their digital transformation roadmaps. There is no one roadmap for a successful digital transformation. Every company faces different challenged, different customer needs, and companies will find different combinations to support their success. Careful planning and an understanding that digital transformation is about picking the right digital tools, but first comes development of people and cultural mindsets to make the change realistic to happen.
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