Though digital transformation has become more than an industry buzzword, most people assume it’s only about disruption or technology. It’s not. One may describe digitalization as an “intelligent revolution” that seeks to change your company’s operations. Digitalization and automation can make your workforce more productive and the entire organization more profitable. However, less than 30% of companies are able to make this dream of digitalization a reality. Hence, this article explains how you can prepare your business for digital transformation. Moreover, you shall also learn why organizational design is important for it to work.
Preparing your business for digital transformation
Why do companies’ endeavors to digitize their structure and workflow often fail? One may argue that companies fail to revamp their workforce to meet digital standards. It means that organization design deals with creating the processes and structures needed to meet goals related to digitalization. Without restricting the organization, you cannot achieve these objectives properly. Periodically renewing your organization keeps the people trained enough for this digital transformation to work.
For this reason, the first part of this article talks about how business owners can prepare themselves for digitalization transformation via organizational design. Here’s what you must do for the transformation:
1. Improve your education
Learning about organizational design and successful digitalization can help you make this transition successful. Many digital courses are available today that help business managers influence the mind of their organizations to replace deeply-rooted practices with digital ones. You may pursue a course in digital business design to optimize your business models. Enhance your know-how about digital transformation via organizational restructuring and prepare your business for this change!
2. Educate your workforce
One of the reasons why digitalization fails is employees failing or refusing to embrace the change process. Thus, as a business owner or manager, you must focus on changing employees’ minds about how to view a transformational process. This change of mind comes from education and awareness since education prevents employees from resisting change. Make them understand how technology will not replace them but enhance their productivity. Upskill folks who lack tech skills. This is how you can restructure the organization for digital transformation today.
3. Restructure your business
Revamping your company’s organizational hierarchy means bringing a new business model to meet modern-day standards. The pandemic compelled several companies to bring this change. If your business still depends upon old-fashioned technologies, digitalization may be difficult to produce in the company. Embrace technology altogether; don’t just leverage technology, but make it a part of your everyday process. Adjust your business model so you may prepare workers for the future.
4. Follow tech trends
Closely monitor current tech trends to gain detailed insights into a present-day customer’s demands. For instance, trends like big data, machine learning, and intelligent automation – a mishmash of AI and automation – have become common in the business industry. These technologies allow people to conduct faster and better decision-making by removing the frequency of errors and bolstering the workforce’s productivity. Watch out for the trends predicted for the year 2023 by industry gurus.
5. Identify your priorities
Discovering your priorities can make your digitalization strategy cost-effective and more successful. You should determine which areas need improvement within the company and redesign your organization by making these requisite adjustments. Digitalization produces superior outcomes when entrepreneurs get their priorities right.
6. Leverage cloud storage
Digitalization involves getting rid of papers and uploading your files online for better safekeeping. Companies can’t completely transform digitally without going paperless. Cloud storage solutions can help you make information accessible to everyone who needs it. Also, an online-stored document is easier to manage. Since many companies will allow employees to work from their homes in 2022, leveraging cloud storage seems like an obvious step toward digital transformation.
7. Recruit via technology
Digital transformation can also alter your hiring practices. Your company’s recruiting process should undergo an evolution thanks to digitalization. For example, you may replace manual signatures with digital ones, conduct interviews via Zoom, and leverage automation to find ideal candidates for the interview process.
Successful case studies on digital transformation
70% of organizations either have a digital transformation strategy or are creating one right now. But all these companies should learn from the case studies mentioned in this section. The following case studies shall help business owners learn by example and attempt to imitate their successful competitors. Here are some case studies you can consider:
Walmart
Walmart wasn’t always an online bazaar; it used to be a brick-and-mortar marketplace. Most people assume that creating a website for one’s business amounts to digitalization in today’s business environment. However, a company should recreate its functions around modern technology; this is exactly what Walmart did. Besides creating a website, they made mobile apps, introduced same-day pickup services, and allowed customers to buy now and pay later. They broke down silos to make info available to all employees.
Netflix
Netflix started as a simple rent-by-mail service. Yet the company anticipated the growing demand for consuming content in digital format and then switched its business model. It’s now the most popular digital video content provider in the United States. Some two-thirds of American subscribers have Netflix subscriptions. Another relevant example is Amazon, which restructured itself entirely to survive in the 21st century, the age of digitalization.
Ford
The people at Ford realized that inventory management could be automated more efficiently. An employee can track the quantities of available materials via automation. That’s how Ford employees never ran out of spare parts for these cars. Moreover, Ford made an app that permits people to remotely access and control their vehicles. Remember that data-based decisions make the quest for digitalization successful. Trust the data if you wish digital transformation to benefit you properly.
How Important Is Organizational Design For Digital Transformation
Source: Chetu – Construction ERP Software
Conclusion
This article dealt with the necessary stages of digital transformation in your organization with some case studies. It is important to realize that restructuring your organization increases the chances of successful digitalization. Use technological solutions such as cloud storage and recruit people productively via tech-inspired practices. Most importantly, educate yourself and your workforce to realize the correct approach to organizational design for digital transformation. Hone your know-how about this process.
From the “big bang” to the “e-commerce boom”, we have surely come a long way.
The e-commerce industry has fared against many challenges, including product pricing, delivery time, packaging concerns, and not to forget stiff competition from offline stores. But figures convey a different story. According to a report by Statista, in 2019, U.S. online retail sales of physical goods amounted to 365.2 billion U.S. dollars, and this number is only going to double in the coming years.
“It is no longer the big beating the small. But the fast beating the slow.” – Eric Pearson
The above statement stands true in today’s retail industry, which is sharply divided into offline and online stores. We have witnessed a large number of online companies that were mere start-ups a few years back and today are dominating this multi-billion dollar sector. This evident shift in power can be contributed to the digital transformation of how people buy and sell products.
Today more and more people are connected over the internet than ever before. No wonder that online businesses are striving hard to set foot into the smartphones of users by opening the doors of their store through a mobile application.
The future of eCommerce does look promising. Let us see what lies ahead for this ever-evolving industry.
Ecommerce Digital Transformation- the Way Forward
There was a time when minimal options and endless scrolling characterized online shopping. However, digital transformation has changed the face of the e-commerce industry altogether. Almost everyone is using digital mediums to buy, sell, and interact with each other. However, digital transformation can mean different things for different businesses.
In case you are looking for the perfect digital transformation definition, we have one for you- “Digital transformation can be defined as the adoption of the latest digital technology to solve existing business problems.”
The adoption of digital wallets by online firms for facilitating easier payments is a great example of a digital transformation strategy in eCommerce. In addition to this, we have also witnessed the extensive adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning to drive eCommerce digital transformation further.
Also, rapid innovation in digital platforms and technology has enabled contemporary online businesses to effectively reach out to customers and market their website where the millennials spend the majority of their time. Therefore, digital transformation is surely the way forward, and it is going to disrupt existing business processes like never before.
Let us look at a few trends that will dominate the e-commerce sector in the year 2020.
Trend 1: Mobile Shopping to Take the Front Seat
Around 1.2 billion people use the internet on their smartphones across the globe. To put things into perspective, that is 4 times the population of the U.S. According to a report by Pew Research Center, around 51% of online shoppers use their smartphones to buy products online. As a result, the fastest growing eCommerce companies in eCommerce industry have been quick to realize the importance of offering a seamless mobile shopping experience.
It is crystal clear that eCommerce opportunities are not limited to people shopping online over their laptops or computers. According to e-commerce experts, mobile apps will prove to be a game-changer and give grave reasons to worry for offline stores. A majority of online companies can constantly be seen optimizing their apps and ensuring that their website is mobile-friendly. After all, compromising with the mobile shopping experience would eventually mean compromising with your online business.
Trend 2: Voice Commerce- The Next Big Thing?
Voice shopping has arrived, and it has arrived in style. As we see more and more people interacting with their voice assistants, voice commerce is expected to grow to a whopping $40 billion by 2020. Moreover, nearly 225 million smart speaker units are expected to be sold worldwide in 2020. E-commerce giants are already getting geared up as voice commerce seems to be the next big eCommerce digital transformation.
The popularity of voice assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa has taken the entire online industry by storm. It is important to note that currently, a tiny fraction of online shoppers use their voice assistants to buy products. However, the potential of voice shopping just cannot be denied.
Now that every small item is available online, people feel more comfortable using their voice to command voice assistants for ordering groceries and other day-to-day household items. After all, who would not love the idea of ordering their favorite book online while they are busy cooking.
Trend 3: Greater Focus on Personalized Support
While offering the right support helps an online business win customers, delivering a highly personalized support experience helps in retaining them. In this fierce competition to retain customers, you need to know the likes and interests of your customers inside out. Customers often differ when it comes to their preference for using a support channel to seek the desired assistance. During such an instance, a helpdesk software for business can prove to be of immense value as it allows the integration of multiple support channels under a single roof.
A significant proportion of customers prefer self-service. No wonder that enabling a robust FAQ or Knowledge Base section is considered as one of the best help desk principles. Online shoppers can often bombard your support team with product or service related queries. As a result, it becomes important that customers get the option to navigate through the tool and resolve basic queries themselves effortlessly. This is a sure-shot way to improve ecommerce customer experience.
So What Is in Store for Online Stores?
“If your business is not online, does your business even exist?”
The traditional brick and mortar stores are experiencing a decline in consumer footfalls, and this is likely to continue. However, the best solution would be to create an online presence to cater to a large audience of online shoppers. And the businesses that are already selling online, you need to realize that the market is going to get even more competitive.
For eCommerce start-ups, they need to understand that overnight success is a myth, and what worked for a similar online company in the past might not work for you. Embracing digital transformation and technology would be the best thing to do for any business looking to make a name in this vast industry.
Author Bio:
Jared Cornell is a customer support head, a marketing evangelist and a book lover, associated with ProProfs Help Desk. Jared is passionate about customer support and loves to solve customers’ queries. He is always paper writing keen to develop new strategies to help customers seeking Help Desk assistance for a delightful experience.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jared-cornell0/