Digital Transformation - A need of NOW !!

Today every part of the business is subject to new expectations, competitors, channels, threats and opportunities. Every business has the potential to be a digital business.  

As the numbers of smart, connected devices from phones to cars to wearables are growing, companies that quickly deliver digitally instrumented products or services, those who reap data from market interactions, and use insights to rapidly optimize their value chain are gaining competitive advantage.

Businesses that digitally transform will be able to connect more closely with customers, speed up the pace of innovation and, as a result, claim a greater share of profit in their sectors. Today digitally transformed companies have an edge; tomorrow, only digital businesses will succeed.

Companies like Nike and Burberry have moved from being providers of traditional consumer goods to digital leaders , creating value across physical / digital products, services, and experience.

It's the digital lives of customers that are changing the rules of engagement, and Customer’s loyalty grow stronger for the brands that keep pace.

As per MIT Sloan Management Review article, there are 3 pillars & 9 building blocks for Digital Transformation:

Transform Customer Experience:

• Improve Customer Understanding with Analytics – customer behavior,  segmentation
• Enhance Top-Line Growth with digital products like smart Phone, iPads, real time predictive marketing
• Digitized Customer Touch Points – Social media analytics to answer complaints, self service via Apps, increased multi-channel usage

Transform Operational Processes:

• Process Digitization with automation, adding new features
• Staff Enablement with virtualization of work space working anytime, anywhere
• Performance Management decision making based on data with deeper insights into Customers, Products, Regions

Transform Business Models:

• Digitally Modified Businesses – augment physical with digital offerings, share contents across organization
• Introduce New Digital Businesses – Nike introduced fuel bands
• Digital Globalization – use of Global shared services to promote efficiency, from multi-national to global presence

As a recent BusinessWeek article, “Amazon.com rivals Wal-Mart as a store, Apple as a device maker, and IBM as a data services provider.”  The company evolved from an online bookseller to a leader in cloud computing and infrastructure-as-a-service in large part because of a mandate set forth by its CEO Jeff Bezos in 2002.

With recent launch of Surface Pro 3, Seattle Children's Hospital selected it to replace their existing laptop devices, which provides its clinicians with a modern, touch-enabled user interface for electronic medical record management while also allowing adherence to HIPAA and other strict security regulations in healthcare.

El Camino Hospital significantly expanded patient online "self-serve" payment, reduced operational costs, and raised patient satisfaction. There was a 16 times increase in patient self service via online payments, 40% staff time reduction on payments & collections.

Starbucks has kicked off a digitally-enabled cross-plan, cross-channel rewards program, a capability that will able to earn “My Starbucks Rewards” stars for purchases of Starbucks packaged coffee in grocery channels & they are processing roughly 4.5 million mobile transactions a week.

Nestle sales over 1.2 billion items daily across 8000+ brands which we all know from Nescafe, Kitkat, Maggie, Pure Life Bottled water. Bruno Villetelle – Global head of Digital services brought in Digital mantra on Listening, Engaging, Inspiring & Transforming. “Digital acceleration’ staff works not only on social media promotion, but also on damage control and reputation management.

Domino’s Pizza doesn’t use mobile as just another sales channel. It’s a branding tool.

Companies in all industries and regions are experimenting with — and benefiting from — Digital Transformation using Social Media, Mobility, Big Data Analytics & Cloud.

Adapting quickly to this change is becoming a make-or-break proposition for many companies worldwide.

Digital is the new normal now!!!