Today's fast-paced digital technology is shaking up the way you do business. Making a digital transformation starts with automating your systems, but it does not stop there. More than just the way you operate your business, digital transformation is about the way you view business.
Take note, since it is essential to challenge the traditional ways commerce has been conducted. Shifting your business process management from a top-down hierarchical model to an e-commerce model replaces and streamlines a stagnated system.
Creating a New Approach
Digitizing your business benefits your bottom line and your customer/employee retention. You will witness how transitioning paper and manual processes to automated software-driven processes is often the first step in digital transformation. Subsequent steps involve moving operations to the Cloud to decrease physical storage space and create greater employee accessibility. Gathering customer analytics lets you be more responsive to demands, since these processes shake up the status quo, offering the opportunity to challenge old approaches and create new work flows and business perspectives.
Traditional Business Model
Traditional business was conducted with a linear approach, since manufacturers decided which products or services to offer consumers. In fact, point-of-sale was the only engagement between customers and the retailer or shipping supplier. The retailer often provided after-market support, while third parties gathered market research and feedback. The manufacturer and customer never interacted, and the system was business-driven, slow and impersonal.
Toward Customer-Enabled Business Model
E-commerce business models allow the customer to interact with any involved entity, from manufacturer to supplier. Consumers are more educated about their purchases and demand transparency in their interactions; they want processes that are flexible, timely and convenient. Transforming your value chain creates more scalability and enables you to better serve your customers with a system that is consumer-driven, fast and customizable.
Strategizing Transition
To capitalize on technological innovations and opportunities, remain focused on the consumer, and find the balance between operations and marketing. This balance is conducted through strategizing your digital footprint. A digital strategy lets you take advantage of tech-savvy employees expecting streamlined processes, since they operate best in a supportive work culture with solid infrastructure and operations in place. Implementing these strategies results in stronger consumer engagement across the enterprise ecosystem.
Transitioning to a digital business process model requires you to shift the traditional ways of operating and embrace new dynamics in the value chain. Developing and implementing solid digital strategies keeps your business effective and competitive in today's digital age.
Interesting articles around digital transformation:
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Understanding and accounting for digital disruptions in BPM initiatives
