When it comes to the sustainability of an organization, venture, business or any entity whatsoever, digital transformation is the top priority. As firms expand in the market, digital transformation is seen as a form of means rather than the end. With that said, the processes cannot be achieved overnight and is essentially a transitional stage from the previous state to new, better functioning, more efficient state. In today’s competitive age, a firm or rather any entity cannot function in solitude and therefore requires any form of digitization. The process of digitization can be seen as the outcome of undergoing a digital transformation. However, the transition state is easier said to achieve than to actually implement, integrate and achieve in all sectors of the organization. With the enormity of the subject being the primary challenge to most businesses.

Digital transformation is essentially an umbrella term, encompassing anything and everything between integrating technology to making day-old methodologies a thing of the past. With the blanket term encompassing many areas and aspect of digitization, organizations are baffled as they ask themselves where to begin? For most organizations, transitioning to the cloud is essentially seen as digital transformation, however, key aspects involving improved customer relations to efficient decision making are not directly impacted. This not only creates a conundrum but also hints towards a digital gap. A digital gap clearly marks the area of ambiguity between the firm’s current state in contrast to its well-functioning digital state. Therefore, addressing and bridging a gap between the firm’s two states is seen as a matter of necessity rather than a luxury.

Digital Transformation Framework

While bridging the gap is a challenge to say the very least, it is, however, made possible by turning the task of digital transformation into milestones. As the organization progresses and achieves these milestones, improved customer experience, enhanced decision making, competitive edge, and a better market position can be achieved.

Digital technology integration: by the convergence of existing technology with operational technology, digital technology integration is achieved. This not only streamlines the operations as a whole but improves efficiency by eliminating redundant and outdated records. Safe to say, with the back-end operation being efficient, i.e. digital rather than analog, operational efficiency can be accomplished in more domains than just one!

Enhanced Customer Experience: digital platforms are a key area to find, interact and engage potential customers. Therefore, it stands to reasons, any transformation regarding digitization will only add efficiency to the enhanced customer experience equation. Digitization of operations will accelerate the velocity of customer base interactions and improve the services offered by the firm as they effectively access their current standing.

Operational Agility: it comes as a shock to none that agility is nothing less than an asset for a business, whether it being a small business to even an enterprise. Operational agility is a key element of Digital Transformation. With streamlined operations due to digitization, an organization can reduce downtime and counter threats more effectively.

To summarize, digital transformation is the means which help an organization achieve success in three key elements, i.e. technology integration, customer experience, and response time with operational agility. What’s more, is digital transformation can offer much more, with these key elements being only the tip of the iceberg.

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