Companies need to take advantage of all available avenues to be successful in today’s competitive business landscape. The failure to keep up with industry trends can make it extremely difficult to meet business objectives. Organizations may find themselves in a position in which it is impossible to compete effectively with market rivals that have taken the necessary steps to address evolving business conditions.
Adopting an approach that promotes digital transformation is an overriding trend in the current business environment. We are going to look at the benefits of digital transformation and how implementing the right information technology (IT) solutions contributes to its success. We’ll also discuss the importance of SMBs working with an experienced strategic partner to help achieve a successful digital transformation.
What is Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology to support all areas of a business. The transformation is designed to modify processes, company culture, and customer experiences to adapt to changing market requirements. The goal is to use technology strategically for improved competitiveness and sustainability in a digitally-focused environment.
A successful digital transformation is comprised of multiple key components.
- Technology adoption – Businesses should implement existing and emerging technologies such as the cloud and artificial intelligence(AI) to meet current business requirements and create a foundation for new growth opportunities.
- Process optimization – The adopted technologies are used to optimize existing business processes. Specific goals include improving efficiency and the agility to address constantly shifting trends.
- Enhancing customer experiences – The bottom line for many digital transformations is to enhance customer experiences to maintain and grow a business. Streamlined processes and new technological solutions can differentiate a company from competitors and attract new customers.
- Changing the corporate culture – A digital transformation should have long-term effects by changing an organization’s culture. Companies should leverage technology to promote increased collaboration and innovation throughout the workforce.
What are the Business Benefits of Digital Transformation?
Organizations stand to enjoy multiple benefits from a successful digital transformation. The potential to achieve the following benefits makes it essential for companies to take the necessary steps to digitally transform their business.
- Improved productivity and efficiency are two of the benefits companies can expect with a digital transformation. Process automation streamlines productivity and allows employees to concentrate on value-added activities.
- Enhancing and personalizing the customer experience is becoming increasingly important if companies want to remain competitive in today’s business world. Digital transformation can result in better customer service, faster response times, and personalized services to meet and exceed customer expectations.
- Better decision-making is possible by utilizing the data-driven insights provided by an effective digital transformation. Technologies such as AI and machine learning combined with the information available through big data analytics provide insights into trends and customer behavior that can be instrumental in business planning.
- Digital transformation leads to increased agility and flexibility to address shifting customer expectations and market trends. This flexibility enables companies to remain competitive and attract new business. They can develop new revenue streams through innovations fostered by technological solutions.
- The digital tools introduced during a transformation facilitate improved communication and collaboration with all stakeholders. This factor can be especially important when supporting a mobile workforce or simply making business information remotely available to authorized users.
- Long-term cost savings are often associated with an effective digital transformation. The initial investment in a transformation is typically offset by increased efficiency and reduced operation costs.
- Compliance is important for companies storing and processing regulated data. The processes put in place in a digital transformation make it easier to maintain and demonstrate regulatory compliance.
How IT Contributes to Digital Transformation
A company’s IT is essential to its ability to achieve a successful digital transformation. The crucial nature of these roles demonstrates the importance of IT in digital transformation.
- An organization’s IT department is responsible for implementing and supporting the new technologies necessary for a digital transformation. They may be tasked with evaluating competing solutions to identify those that best align with business objectives. Decisions regarding the technologies a company adopts will be crucial in determining the success of its digital transformation.
- The IT solutions implemented during a digital transformation will form the foundation for new systems and processes that promote efficiency and productivity. IT teams may need to upgrade hardware or migrate on-premises resources to a cloud platform while ensuring the security of the company’s valuable data assets.
- Efficient IT solutions are necessary to perform the data protection, management, and analysis required by a digital transformation. Actionable insights and data-driven decision-making are hallmarks of digitally transformed organizations. Teams must ensure robust data quality, security, and governance to achieve the potential benefits of a transformation
- Strategically planned IT environments promote interoperability and collaboration throughout the organization. Collaboration is essential for obtaining the maximum operational benefits of undergoing a digital transformation. The environment can also be constructed to enable flexibility and scalability, often using cloud resources.
How VAST Supports Your Company’s Digital Transformation
The experts at VAST IT Services can help your company successfully negotiate the challenges of a digital transformation. Our team has deep experience and innovative tools for migrating to the cloud and managing cloud resources.
- VAST View is a comprehensive cloud management platform that provides functionality from discovery and assessment through planning, migrations, and optimization. The tool provides the visibility into your cloud environment necessary for a successful digital transformation.
- Our experience and partnerships with Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure enable us to help you optimize your cloud resources and promote your company’s transformation.
We have numerous solutions that protect the security of the valuable data resources your company will be generating, processing, and storing during a digital transformation. These solutions and services include:
- Cloud backup-as-a-service (CBaaS) – We offer a fully managed cloud backup service tailored to your business requirements.
- Disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) – Our service, built on the foundation of AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery, lets you quickly recover business-critical systems after human or natural disasters.
- Multiple strategic partnerships with industry-leading data management vendors allow us to identify the solution that best fits with your business requirements.
Talk to the team at VAST today and let us help your company accomplish successful digital transformation.
