Digital Transformation to Digital Reformation in 2017
Over a month into the new year and digitalization is again trending, requiring a fresh take because of the advances that have been made in the past years. Let’s look at some key digitalization trends in 2017.
Each year, a new technology seeps in and the key to success relies on how well a company is able to understand the importance of that technology and adapt it to make things easy. Companies are often faced with the challenge of reinventing internal and external policies and procedures because of digital transformation and this is a vicious cycle. In this cycle, only the efficient organizations survive. There are some classic examples where big companies failed because of their improper strategies that did not acknowledge the digitalization aspect.
With almost a month into the New Year, digitalization is again trending and requires a fresh take because of the advances that have been made in the past years. Let’s look at some key digitalization trends in 2017.
Adapting Consumer-Focused Solutions
One of the most apt usage of digitalization in any company revolves around customers. With major players offering customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, or enterprises embracing social media as a tool to attract customers, customer service has reached a new height. In 2017, companies will continue to use technologies that will enhance user experience. This is not limited to customer service but also to field where customers experience products. For example, web or mobile-based applications. The customer universe is great and organization will be willing to make use of all possible tricks and techniques to retain and attract customers.
Being Up-to-Date on Technological Advances
This is a very important aspect for organizations because new technology or digitalization trend means new opportunity to enhance the current systems. This often helps in easing work and increasing efficiency. For example, cloud-based systems were initially not a very attractive proposition for businesses but gradually there is a shift in this thought process and companies are becoming aware of the benefits. Though the cons remain, companies that are embracing cloud think that that the benefits are greater than the associated negatives.
Reinventing the Business Wheel
Traditional practices in business have also undergone digital transformation in the past years. And the coming years signal toward a rise in internal flexibility and a focus on employee engagement and management. While the companies are now global, they are expected to create more telecommute opportunities and employ techniques to track time and performance where employees are not physically present in the offices. This digitalization within office premises is sure to create some happy internal engagements and good work life balance.
Distributing and Accruing Business
The boom in IT industry created the biggest need for a rise in digitalization. While companies are continuously growing, they are bound to outsource work thus distributing business. For example, Software outsourcing India has been benefitting from. When the majority of the work is outsourced to increase profit, companies will also work hard to accrue more business from source clients or as third parties to keep the business cycle going. In this context, the coming year will see businesses relying more on digitalization for exchange and storage of information.
Eliminating and Creating Jobs
The year 2017 will also see a rise in jobs for skilled versatile workers who are good at learning what new technology offers. At the same time, there might be jobs that will be eliminated because the machine learning and artificial intelligence will provide alternatives. Some jobs might also be eliminated because of outsourcing. For example, a company offering software outsourcing India might employ fewer people in the country of operation to increase profitability. This does not mean that unemployment would rise, it only means that professionals would have to continuously up-skill themselves and work toward learning new technologies.
Embracing Everything Big and Small
Technological geeks need no introduction to big data and Internet of Things (IoT). The expansion and nature of work would require companies to embrace solutions that cater to the bulk requirements and also pay attention to minute details. Processing big amount of data might raise security concerns and these would need to be taken care of with as much efficiency as the core requirement which is transferring or processing data. Digitalization would provide ample of options and companies would need to embrace these timely and make use of these to the fullest.
With the setting of a New Year, many companies might have set a New Year resolution which would involve digital transformation. In working to achieve this resolution, companies would have to work in multiple directions. On one hand, they will have to focus on internal facilitation and on the other hand, they will have to speed up external acquisitions which can facilitate internal processes. The digital transformation is sure to continue for a few more years to come and then it would be all about digital reformation.