Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into your business, changing the very way you operate and deliver value to customers. Starting right from how the organization collects, processes and shares data, to ready reckoner reports that helps identifying the trends and hence streamlining the decision making process. Digital transformation offers businesses to upgrade to a newer avatar that is efficient, transparent, ubiquitous and sustainable as per the times ahead.
For example, the very dynamics of the retail consumer industry have been changed since the advent of digital transformation agencies. What used to be a monopoly brick and mortar show in FMCG, on-demand supplies/food ordering, events/travel tickets booking etc. has now become unimaginably convenient with the mobile apps we carry on our smartphones. You need it, you buy it, right then and there, without having to go out, compare rates etc. It’s all available on the mobile phone, round the clock, round the year.
How is it Digital value delivered? Going digital needs a platform. A frontend platform where you would interact with the customers and a strong backend to host all those business processes that collectively result in value delivery to the customer. The frontend platform is most commonly today a mobile app, that engages, onboards, transacts and maintains the customer base. All the upcoming updates, events and offers can be effectively communicated to the user in real time. Imagine this as a platform that facilitates sales, invoices and accounts the transactions and after sales support to start with.
The backend is a processor that encapsulates inputs from various sub processes and responds to frontend queries, resulting in successful transactions. Data fields, logic flow, decision making, transaction approval and reconciliation, marketing communications, customer queries etc are all integrated into a singular dashboard for the in-house team to manage. One of the significant developments in recent history regarding the safety, integrity and ubiquity of these super powerful platforms is the advent of cloud technology. A cloud app development company like Techahead, offers freedom from centralized servers wherein your business apps are hosted through a number of decentralized servers, mitigating the risk concentrated in the centralized model.
The checklist to digitally transform your business:
Preparing the blueprints of the processes: The first step towards aiming for improvement is to analyze well where you stand and where you want to reach. Create detailed blueprints that depict the information flow and decision pointers for each process/sub-process. Having this handy would give an added edge in understanding the additional capabilities required to reach the target benchmark.
Identifying workable areas and finding fitting solutions: Understanding the ground flow of operational value would help you identify the processes that need rework/upgrade. For example, a business might have the mettle to churn more leads but the sales (and pre-sales) are unable to fetch and feed that data into the funnel. In this case, rather than focussing much on operating ability, the business should center around generating more and quality leads, that too in an efficient and sustainable fashion.
On the contrary, if it’s the inability of the operational funnel to process the queries, a small patch with upgraded capacity should be tested in a controlled environment, to check the feasibility of the solution.
Defining the scope of work and finding the right partner: The above steps would give you a clear understanding of the list of processes that need to be revamped and a set of tested probable solutions that fit. This combined together would create the scope of work needed to digitally revitalize your business.
Based on this document, the next would be to find a proven expert digital transformation agency that has the caliber to deliver the desired results. Detail and document the deliverables from both parties throughout the engagement plan.
Performance check and improvisations: This phase helps client and developer team work in the right direction by periodically revisiting the performance with the expected outcome sheet and time plan. Any deviations from the desired results can be found out early and nipped in the bud.