Technological advancement demands that companies adopt modern digital transformation strategies to succeed in the market. Indeed, these strategies and tools enable social, economic, and environmental sustainability for organizations (Gil-Gomez et al., 2020). According to Ebert and Duarte (2018), digital transformation is the process of acquiring disruptive technologies by a company to accelerate its growth, increase productivity, and elevate value. It includes a wide range of novel electronic devices, software, quantum computers, and various methods of cloud storage and data analytics (Ebert & Duarte, 2018). Furthermore, this field offers businesses the opportunity of integrating artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and simulation in their management, planning, and execution processes (Ebert & Duarte, 2018). For example, the Spanish company Vivo constructed a robot that helps clients formulate their requests, while many leading hospitals introduced electronic health records to make clinicians’ work more efficient (Ebert & Duarte, 2018). Nevertheless, despite such a wide variance of tools, there are several success factors and points that the company should consider. For disruptive technologies to benefit organizations, it is essential to consider digitation and customer-oriented strategy.
The first success factor in digital transformation is the company’s preparedness to make bold moves in the digital realm to explore and anticipate customers’ expectations. Organizations that make only slight innovations and alterations to their technological part will always lag behind those who adopt disruptive tools and strategies aggressively (Blackburn et al., 2020). It became particularly critical during the times of coronavirus crisis when firms no longer had an opportunity to test some software they had never utilized. Instead, they had to learn fast and implement them to maintain their businesses’ viability in the market. Moreover, organizations deploying digital solutions should be able to create flexibility for their employees and adaptability of their projects using modern technology and software. Digitalization helps companies remain competitive, simplifies the process of security checking, estimating threats, finding opportunities, and even building project plans and budgets (Li et al., 2021). For example, Schindler developed intelligent algorithms and introduced advanced sensors to increase customer satisfaction (Sebastian et al., 2020). It shows how important it is to use a digitized solutions strategy to predict what may improve the product and make it more attractive for clients.
The second success factor is the ability to engage customers in the implementation of digital solutions. The customer engagement strategy helps to understand various needs and demands that clients may have. For instance, Amazon created a user-friendly platform that allows consumers to search for necessary products, place orders, and make payments quickly and efficiently (Sebastian et al., 2020). Another example is Kaiser Permanente, a non-profit healthcare organization that created patient-centric online platforms that expanded individuals’ chances to receive help from different medical experts (Sebastian et al., 2020). These two cases demonstrate how embedding technological solutions improve customer satisfaction and organizational success.
Although the two abovementioned strategies were demonstrated to lead to successful business outcomes, firms should consider one essential point when utilizing digital tools. Specifically, they should understand the applicability of particular software or device for their company. It may be reasonable for car manufacturers to purchase advanced robotic systems and 3D printers, but they may be useless for a law firm (Ebert & Duarte, 2018). Instead, the latter may consider using cloud computing for data storage.
In summary, the two main digital transformation strategies are digitized solutions and customer engagement. The former is used in cases when the company wants to explore and predict customer needs using technology, while the latter helps to interact with clients and receive their feedback. However, when utilizing these methods and implementing disruptive technologies, businesses should always consider the usability of a particular device or program to their organizations to ensure that digital solutions bring maximum benefit.
References
Blackburn, S., LaBerge, L., O’Toole, C., & Schneider, J. (2020). Digital strategy in a time of crisis. McKinsey Digital, 1 – 10.
Ebert, C., & Duarte, C. H. C. (2018). Digital transformation. IEEE Software, 35(4), 16-21.
Gil-Gomez, H., Guerola-Navarro, V., Oltra-Badenes, R., & Lozano-Quilis, J. A. (2020). Customer relationship management: Digital transformation and sustainable business model innovation.Economic Research, 33(1), 2733 – 2750.
Li, H., Wu, Y., Cao, D., & Wang, Y. (2021). Organizational mindfulness towards digital transformation as a prerequisite of information processing capability to achieve market agility.Journal of Business Research, 122, 700 – 712.
Sebastian, I. M., Ross, J. W., Beath, C., Mocker, M., Moloney, K. G., & Fonstad, N. O. (2020). How big old companies navigate digital transformation. In R. D. Galliers, D. E. Leidner, & B. Simeonova, Strategic information management (pp. 133–150). Routledge.