As we enter the new year, it's time for business owners to look at different ways of leveraging technology and digital transformation. The world is moving more rapidly towards a digital space, and businesses must move with it to engage with customers and continue operations effectively. Digitizing processes can often bring numerous advantages: cost savings, greater access to data analytics, and better customer experiences - to name a few! However, before taking on any big projects, one should always consider resources and desired outcomes.
What business processes need to be considered?
To "digitize" a business process is to apply the same concepts of doing business online to the procedures already used in your company. It involves keeping a record of the processes you are now using on a visual platform hosted in the cloud. This will allow the processes to be improved while also using technology to automate and simplify them whenever feasible.
Converting your company procedures to be entirely digital might be laborious, but the benefits will be well worth the effort. And there is no way around it. If you don't, you'll put yourself at a significant disadvantage compared to your competitors, and that deficit may eventually push you out of business.
Challenges with digital transformation
Digital transformation is not just the adoption of new software, technologies, and procedures that are more effective and automated than old business practices and processes, but it is also a completely new and inventive approach to carrying out something fundamental to your company.
When an organization undertakes a digital transformation program, it must consider everything, including how employees will respond to the change, how it will affect customer relations, the cost, how it will match corporate objectives, and so on. Digital transformations equip businesses to face future challenges, such as increased rivalry and expansion into new sectors and provide organizations the ability to steer their businesses into the future.
But all of that is easier to say than it is to do – according to statistics regarding digital transformation, 70% of all digital transformation programs fail due to employee resistance and a lack of support from management (McKinsey), and only 16% of employees said that their company's efforts regarding digital transformation improve their performance or are sustainable.
Challenges That Affect Businesses
Although digital transformation provides enterprises with novel openings for innovation and expansion, it also mandates critical thinking and may require you to rethink areas of your company that are essential to its operation.
When embarking on initiatives involving a digital transformation in 2023, the following nine obstacles should be prioritized in terms of importance:
1. Unplanned change
Change-managed organizations are 6x more likely to reach or exceed digital transformation goals. Any organization's success depends on its change management culture. Any new project or implementation plan must have a change strategy to succeed.
Effective change management entails understanding problems' core causes and creating connections with stakeholders and workers.
2. Complex technology
Inherently difficult enterprise software. New tech is scary. This is a big barrier for enterprises undertaking digital transformation, both in terms of implementation and data integration, and end-user experience. Leaders should seek intuitive, integrated solutions early in a transformation initiative.
3. Promote new tools and processes
New procedures and technology typically face opposition from entrenched personnel who do not need change. Organizations must give extensive onboarding training and continual employee performance support for new software deployments to assist workers in becoming productive and adept with a tool quickly and grasp the benefits of new procedures.
4. Customer Needs to Evolve
COVID-19 accelerated organizations' evolution. Consider consumer needs. World and industry developments affect this.
Digital change is difficult and might take years. What if consumer requirements change? Customer issues evolve. Be agile while adopting new digital technology.
5. Unplanned digital transformation
Why are you replacing manual systems with computerized ones? Does your company intend to install complicated systems? Are you ready to move systems?
Before starting a digital transformation process, address these questions. A successful transformation project requires a plan. Don't buy buzzwords and misleading assumptions. Know where your firm can be improved, and start there.
6. IT incompetence
You'll need a knowledgeable, high-performing IT workforce to change. That's hard to do, given the IT labor shortage. 54% of firms say they can only achieve digital transformation objectives if they have more technically trained workers.
Lack of cybersecurity, application architecture, software integrations, data analytics, and data transfer skills issues for enterprises. Companies without IT personnel might outsource installation and migration to consultants and digital transformation specialists.
7. Safety
Privacy and cybersecurity worries hold back many data-sensitive enterprises. True. Most digital transformation projects entail moving on-premise technologies to the cloud and centralizing a company's data.
Cyberattacks stealing consumer data and corporate secrets are a result. Online assaults target system weaknesses, bad installations, and unwary users. Plan to prevent these hazards from happening. Hire a cybersecurity professional to assess your defenses.
8. Budgeting
Digitization might be a costly undertaking. Scope creep may push back deadlines and add extra work for firms with a poor transformation strategy, increasing project costs. Add consultancy work, client demand changes, or IT problems, and digital transformation costs rise.
Know your long-term objectives and transformation ROI. This can assist you in determining what's too much and where to cut costs.
9. Mindset
Legacy systems and manual procedures create an old-school attitude. Slow change, disdain for automation, and difficulty adopting new technology. Digital transformation's biggest cultural barrier. Everyone must be on the same page, from leadership to new hires. Everyone should be willing to make huge adjustments and learn new things.
Do you need to make the change?
It all boils down to one thing: your business needs a boost! Filipinos are naturally competitive, and we are riddled with more small to medium-sized businesses in this country. We love challenging the big ones too. Digitization is the way to go.
As we head into 2023, now is the time to digitize your business. UNAWA can help you digitize your business to prepare you for what's to come. Is your business future-proof? Let us help you make it happen.