Digital transformation has the power to streamline your business and give you a leg up on your competition. A fifth of surveyed SMBs reported that the pandemic bolstered their belief in the importance of a holistic, cross-organization digital transformation. They recognize that technology that you incorporate into your business can help you build processes and internal culture that allow you to adapt to modern technology, business capabilities, and customer expectations. A major feature of this transformation is the cloud, which is also the key to remote work.
When you have the right technology in place, your organization will be able to provide customers with better, faster, and higher quality services, allowing you to stand out from the crowd.
Here are the key ways that technology will give your business the competitive edge it needs to thrive.
The Cloud Will Improve Your Collaboration Skills
Collaboration is essential in modern business – no department can work in a siloed space if they want to engage modern customers. The cloud allows you to adapt to these modern working norms. You can use the cloud to provide your employees with what they need to work effectively from home, create hybrid workspaces, and even boost collaboration in the office.
Successful digitalization should focus on transforming how your organization works. It should be a process that brings the organization and those who work in it together. Rather than each department making its own decisions regarding the cloud and digital capabilities, the decisions should be made collectively.
Therefore, the process should start internally. Think about how your departments should link together, the processes that are needed to run seamlessly together, and what hinders optimal functioning now. Digital transformation can help to adapt these processes and bring your organization forward.
Cloud and Data Can Maximize Your Business Performance
When you incorporate data collection and analysis into your business model, you can make better business decisions and maximize your resources. With data-guided decisions, you will better understand what customers respond to and what employees need to succeed in their positions.
You want to track data for movements across the cloud. Know how your customers and employees interact and engage with your business at each step of the buyer’s journey and use this information to make tweaks for optimal performance.
Use the Cloud to Build Resiliency
With cloud technology, businesses are in a better position to adapt to changing conditions. Consider what businesses have just undergone during the pandemic over the past few years. They had to suddenly transition to remote work and then navigate the recovery period. According to a study by Cisco, small businesses with higher digital maturity were better able to adapt and respond to the changing conditions of the pandemic.
It’s necessary for businesses to regularly innovate to meet new challenges and customer expectations. They also need to make these transitions quickly. Taking your business to the cloud and beginning your digital transformation journey can give you the resiliency you need to make these transitions and adapt to whatever comes next.
Your Digital Transformation Can Drive Your Scalability
One of the greatest advantages of cloud-based technology is the scalability it can offer when done well. With the cloud, you can pay for the services you need, creating more customized packages and help your budget.
This scalability is not just about increasing volume. It should also include the ability to adjust workflows to accommodate growth. As you begin to dive into your digital transformation, you want to know if the technology will have the capacity to adjust for spikes in usage and that the technology you choose can handle growth from the start.
How To Start Your Digital Transformation
The opportunities abound for businesses that optimally transform to take advantage of digital capabilities. However, you want to make sure you go about this process correctly to reap the benefits.
Here are a few key areas to pay attention to as you begin to design your digital transformation strategy.
Roles and responsibilities
Make sure you know what people will manage during the transformation and how various people in the organization will use the technology. You have to have a clear outline that shows how technology can bring people together instead of further creating silos.
Budget and time
Before you begin this process, assess what resources you have at your disposal in terms of time and money. Build your strategy around your constraints. Make sure you also work with qualified partners who can help you get set up without going down unnecessary paths that eat away at your resources.
Areas that need digitization
You want to examine which areas of your company need to be improved and how that improvement will look. In other words, pinpoint the areas where you want to focus and the cloud-based programs that can help you overcome these hurdles.
Plan to roll out the changes
You want to carefully plan how you will roll out the changes. Know what this transformation will look like in the short and long term and how you will prepare your organization to adapt.
Partner with the right services provider
Finally, you want to make sure you partner with the right services provider. You want someone who understands your industry and your needs as you begin your digital transformation and can help you navigate your choices and the changes that will come.
At Deerwood Technologies, we provide these services to clients every day. We understand not only the benefits of digital transformation but also what it takes to help businesses reach that goal efficiently.
Get started on your digital transformation
If you have not begun to implement cloud resources and seize the opportunities that digital transformation can hold for your business, you do not want to wait any longer.
Do you need help planning your digital strategy for 2022? It’s not too late; we can help. Contact us today for a free consultation.