It doesn’t matter if your company relies a lot or little on technology to manage routines and execute services, knowing digital transformation is imperative. This trend is radically changing all sectors of the economy. Therefore, if it is not directly part of your industry, the time has come to stay on top of it.

Carrying out the digital transformation of your company is essential to remain competitive or even surpass the competition. Processes and decisions will be based on data instead of opinions and guesswork. At the same time, the company will be able to reduce risks and guarantee a high level of innovation.

If you want to know how this will be done, continue reading the text below!

1. What is digital transformation?

Digital transformation is a trend in which technology is brought to the center of all corporate operations. With it, more routines will be automated and integrated. At the same time, a wider range of information will circulate in digital media.

We have been experiencing this transformation for decades. What changes now is the speed of this transformation, facilitated by cloud services, mobility and the internet.

2. What are the impacts of digital transformation?

The changes that digital transformation causes in the corporate environment will change the way businesses operate. Routines will be more flexible and agile. After all, professionals will not need to be in the same place to make a decision.

Decisions, in fact, will be driven by data. This will remove the intuitive factor in the company’s decision-making process. As a consequence, risks will decrease, at the same time that the degree of innovation will increase.

Routines will be more automated. This will make it easier to meet external demands. As teams will make fewer mistakes, the habit of focusing on what is relevant will be much greater.

It is noted that digital companies suffered less from the impacts of the pandemic.

3. How to carry out digital transformation in the company?

To carry out digital transformation in your business, some precautions must be taken. They avoid risks and improve the cost-benefit of each investment. Furthermore, they mitigate the chances of professionals not changing their culture and not engaging in the proposed changes.

Check out, below, some steps that should be taken whenever investing in the digital transformation of your business!

3.1 Rethink the business

For digital transformation to be successful, it is essential that there is a complete change in the way the brand positions itself. Therefore, the business must be rethought. From the sales model to goals, everything needs to be reevaluated.

The operational chain will need to be more flexible and agile. Professionals, on the other hand, must prepare themselves to deal with the new reality. This will involve greater ability to adopt new technologies, quickly change projects and always pay attention to industry trends.

3.2 Develop skills

Training needs to be constant in the era of digital transformation. They guarantee that the team will remain aligned with new market standards. At the same time, they will prevent the brand from having an uneven quality workflow.

Therefore, be sure to continually train your teams. Invest in training to validate new routines and prevent anyone from doing anything outside of internal standards. At the same time, use courses to quickly integrate new technologies and reduce learning curves.

We can see the great growth in the adoption of agile methodologies, in the most diverse sectors, with digital transformation.

3.3 Evaluate processes

Processes must always be evaluated to prevent them from being carried out ineffectively. The same goes for identifying whether routines follow market standards. Done regularly, such analyzes prevent the company from falling behind its competition.

Therefore, be sure to validate routines and the way they are executed. Work alongside your professionals to check that everything is within internal standards. Don’t hesitate to provide feedback if necessary.

Through the benchmark, also validate whether the company meets the standards in the area. This way, the company’s weaknesses can be corrected before they become something serious.

The cool thing about well-done digitalization is that monitoring points will be defined that will automatically generate information that will be used to evaluate the processes. In other words, it will be easier to evaluate and measure than a manual process.

3.4 Engage everyone in the company

As we pointed out, digital transformation demands a new culture for the company. Therefore, it is important to keep teams engaged. After all, they are the ones who will use the new tools in their daily lives.

Be sure to always keep communication channels open. Be proactive to resolve any type of doubt. At the same time, work to identify and fix problems with quality feedback conversations.

Communication helps engage teams through transparency. Everyone will know what must be done and how each objective will be achieved. This way, teams will be able to plan and ensure that the company is always able to make the necessary changes.

Invest in communities, internal social networks and horizontal communication channels. This will make it much faster to exchange information, resolve any problems and promote transparency.

3.5 Explore ideas

To increase the level of innovation in the corporate environment, be sure to make room for new ideas. Create a space where collaboration takes place actively. Likewise, encourage professionals to collaborate with each other.

Promoting an environment that enables innovation will be fundamental to the company’s success in the medium and long term. With more openness to side projects, new products and solutions may appear. They will meet existing demands, correct internal flaws and prepare the company for the future.

All of this can be done with the support of data analysis solutions. They guide teams to define priorities and projects. With this, teams can engage in changes without taking major risks.

4. What are the main digital transformation trends?

As we pointed out, there are several technologies that are part of digital transformation. Investment in each one must be thought of strategically. This will make the impact of the solution broader and more aligned with what the business needs to be more effective.

Check out the most important technologies below and see how they will impact the future of your company.

4.1. Automation

Technologies that provide gains in terms of automation are part of several new features of digital transformation and will be inserted into all processes in the corporate environment.

Marketing automation, for example, ensures that the company will always run the right campaigns at the ideal time. Based on the analysis of consumer behavior, sales systems will automatically issue discounts. This makes sales campaigns more effective and aligned with the demands of the business’s target audience.

The automation of repetitive processes, using robots (Robotic Process Automation – RPA) can greatly increase team productivity and process quality, freeing up people’s time for more noble tasks.

Sales systems, customer relationship management and internal management will also feature more automation. Each application will be able to issue alerts and execute routines, depending on pre-defined triggers. This way, teams will be able to focus on critical activities without compromising work in other areas.

4.2. Data Analytics

Data analysis is one of the most important aspects of digital transformation. With more data circulating in digital media, data analytics solutions, such as Power BI, can be integrated into the company’s day-to-day operations. Together, they make the use of Big Data more practical and comprehensive.

By integrating Big Data into the day-to-day business, the data now has a high added value. All routines will have more focus and the ability to prevent problems. At the same time, workflows will always be prepared according to the demands of customers and business partners.

One of the scenarios in which Big Data can be very useful is in the relationship with the consumer. By analyzing data, the company can check trends and what best reaches its customer. This will result in a better positioned brand in the medium and long term and with much more efficient relationship strategies.

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4.3. Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence will change the way IT systems are used. In the area of ​​digital security, for example, it will make combating threats more robust and precise. All this based on continuous analysis of user behavior.

Once systems learn how users behave, they can combat risky behavior effectively. Assessing whether a new threat has compromised someone’s account, for example, will be simple. This makes the number of disruptions to routines caused by false positives lower.

In industry, AI will be able to make all machinery smarter. There will be more robotization in production chains. As a direct impact of this, costs will fall and take the business to a new level of productivity.

All IT systems that have AI resources will be able to optimize their usability. The software will be able to shape the presentation of resources according to the profile of each user. This will reduce the time needed to access key functionalities and, at the same time, increase overall productivity.

In customer service, service robots are being deployed to perform the first service, answering simple customer queries, 24×7. Cognitive services help interpret what the customer wants and their feelings, allowing automatic intervention based on these signals. Even images can be analyzed automatically. For example, you can automatically capture data in documents and identify problems from photos sent by customers.

4.4. Custom applications

Using personalized applications is a great way to improve company results. They will be shaped according to the company’s profile and its needs. Furthermore, they will always have the necessary security features.

But for the use of custom tools to be effective, the company must have a good development engine. Robust and easy to use, it must have the necessary functionalities for the company to make new versions of the software available quickly. This avoids loss of competitiveness and deadlines.

Power apps is a new way to create personalized applications, without the need for programming knowledge. Based on Microsoft technologies and the company’s cloud infrastructure, this solution is more intuitive and modern. Thus, the business can quickly develop, test, validate and distribute internal software without taking risks.

4.5. Business Intelligence

Every company must continually optimize internal routines. In the digital transformation scenario, this is always done with the support of data, lots of data. They need to use tools capable of identifying what can be done to optimize results based on the entire set of information that the business has at hand.

This is done with Business Intelligence. Also called BI, this technology can take data analysis to the internal environment. Using interactive dashboards, managers can check internal trends and reduce problems.

In other words, investing in BI puts the company ahead of the competition by facilitating the improvement of internal activities. Everything will be done based on broader records and a comprehensive view of the company. This way, the company will be able to establish a continuous quality standard for all its flows.

4.6. Internet of Things

Investment in the Internet of Things (Internet of Things or IoT, in English) is one that can have the greatest impact on the company. Adopting IoT improves the quality of services and brings more automation to the company. At the same time, it minimizes risks and allows more data to circulate in the corporate environment.

In logistics, IoT makes it easier to monitor workflows. The goods will pass through the internal chain with real-time monitoring. This reduces the chances of bottlenecks going unnoticed, in addition to providing more security for the business.

In industry, having the support of IoT prevents failures from occurring. Whenever equipment presents problems, teams will have the means to detect the failure prematurely. This way, corrective measures can be taken quickly.

5. What are the challenges of applying Digital Transformation in the company

Applying digital transformation in your corporate environment brings some challenges. The main risks, in general, are the following:

  • teams’ resistance to changing the workflow;
  • difficulties in using new technologies;
  • risks of the investment leading to some type of loss.

The biggest risk a company can face when we talk about a major change in internal culture is resistance from professionals. People often try to avoid changes, something that can harm all investments in the area.

Therefore, the company must maintain open and direct communication. Leaders need to explain to teams how changes will affect their workflow. Furthermore, it is crucial to reinforce the potential impacts and how each technology will make everyone’s daily lives easier.

Training reduces the learning curve and improves the use of the IT solution. Each employee will be able to make more use of resources and resolve simple problems quickly. This will attract a higher return on investment as well as fewer operational failures.

The company must carry out complete analyzes of the risks of each investment. Knowing the internal demands and objectives is an important step in this direction. This facilitates the search for technology that attacks internal problems and, at the same time, manages to generate more added value for the company’s services.

The adoption of preventive measures comprehensively mitigates risks. The company will have a set of activities that reduce the chances of something going wrong. At the same time, if failures occur, evaluating the best path to take will be much more practical.

It is necessary to combine planning with agility and excellent project management and change management.

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6. What are the benefits of applying digital transformation in the company?

Applying digital transformation in the corporate environment can bring different positive impacts. Together, they contribute to putting the business ahead of the competition with higher value-added services. In other words, they make the brand much more competitive.

Check out some of the impacts that digital transformation technologies bring below!

6.1. Cost reduction

Cost reduction is associated with several investments in technology. Having the support of the right tools reduces the number of errors in the workflow. At the same time, it improves the use of available resources.

Adopting new digital transformation technologies takes a company’s ability to eliminate expenses to a new level. Teams will be able to identify, correct and mitigate problems much more broadly. After all, analyzes will consider more factors before action is taken.

With Big Data and BI linked to decision-making processes, errors will also be less frequent in the company’s medium and long-term planning. Investments, projects and new services will consider more points when being executed. This will make problem prevention more dynamic and effective.

6.2. Increased level of automation

Automation is another factor that contributes to cutting costs. But it causes impacts that go much further: in an automated environment, resources are better utilized and teams are able to direct more attention to the core business.

If routines are executed with IT support, there is less chance of them going wrong. The human factor will not be present, which improves the agility and performance of the activity.

Workflows that rely on automation also have shorter deadlines and greater integration. Alerts can be sent between systems to the right teams whenever a step is completed. This reduces the time to execute new activities, in addition to providing more integrity and quality to internal activities.

6.3. Greater innovation

When technology becomes part of the company’s daily life, the chances of it being more innovative multiply. In the case of digital transformation, this will occur through different fronts. Both the new internal culture and the way teams prepare to deal with the needs of other professionals will change the business’s ability to be bolder.

Data analysis tools and artificial intelligence will optimize decision-making routines. Knowing market trends will be simple: whenever an assessment is made, it will be based on a large number of details that are often not available to competitors.

This allows the company to prepare ahead of the competition for new waves in the sector. Each team will have time to model, test and implement new products and services. This way, the brand will always remain within the demands of its target audience.

The new culture of digital transformation optimizes the way teams can innovate. There will be more integration and sharing of experiences between areas of the company. In this way, the number of points that will be considered whenever someone defines how to solve a problem will be greater than what would occur in non-collaborative environments.

The very fact of having a digital platform facilitates innovation. It is much easier to introduce and distribute an improvement via software than to change some feature in a physical product.

Using an example from a traditional industry, Tesla distributes updates for its cars “on the air”, every month some improvement or additional feature is made available. Recently, it offered a power upgrade for certain cars, via update, which was unimaginable for an older car or engine from a traditional automaker.

6.4. Gaining space for collaboration between teams

Collaboration also has impacts that go beyond improving innovation. It is an important way to create synergy between teams. Along with this, environments with high collaboration can reduce the chances of conflicts occurring.

When there is continuous collaboration, teams work side by side more easily to solve their problems. All work groups are able to set shared goals and avoid redundancy in their workflows. This way, the corporate environment can achieve better performance, without compromising expenses.

Conflicts become less frequent. If data exchanges are better structured, communication failures will no longer be a reality. This facilitates the search for a more successful path for the company in the medium and long term, after all, the teams will have less room for errors.

Collaboration can be carried out without temporal or geographical barriers using the most modern collaboration tools.

6.5. Decisions made with greater data support

One of the biggest impacts that digital transformation brings is the data-driven business culture. Placing information at the center of your decision-making routines minimizes a large number of risks.

Among the impacts that this new scenario brings, one of the most striking is the increase in the reliability of decisions made by corporate leadership. All professionals will know that different points were taken as a basis to execute the changes. This way, the chances of them executing what was requested with engagement will increase.

At the same time, it is possible to take more risk for certain scenarios. As monitoring can be digital and online, it is much simpler to create experiments with smaller groups, test hypotheses and, if the result is positive, apply them on a large scale.

If the risks are lower, losses become less frequent. In this way, the space for new investments will be expanded. Since the business loses less revenue, profits grow, along with the budget to acquire new strategic solutions.

Conclusion – Digital Transformation

Technology is always undergoing rapid changes. New services, products and systems are always created to meet market demands. But in some cases, they are capable of revolutionizing the way activities are carried out and, in doing so, taking areas to a new level.

The most recent change taking place in the IT area is digital transformation. In the industrial sector it even has its own name: Industry 4.0.

Preparing your company for digital transformation means putting yourself ahead of the competition and ensuring a prosperous future. With more integration and innovation, the company will be able to reduce costs and be more efficient. So be sure to prepare for this scenario as soon as possible!

But remember that technology must be used to create a more prosperous world for everyone. Don’t forget people throughout this process!

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