Why Communication Matters for Digital Transformation

To say that today's market is competitive would be an understatement. Businesses must use various strategies to gain a competitive advantage, including digital transformation. While shifting into the digital space can help keep your business competitive, companies must approach this transformation with communication top of mind, or they risk encountering obstacles along the way.

Notable Advantages of Digital Transformation

Digital transformation can significantly transform a company and enhance how it operates.

1. Enhanced Data Usage

Digital transformation focuses on collecting data and accessing the right information, which can be a valuable tool to transform your business. When your enterprise has the right data, you can use it to achieve better business intelligence.

Generating data-driven insights is one of the ways you can highlight areas where your business can make adjustments and implement better decisions.

2. Better Customer Experience

Raw data can be valuable when working toward offering customers the best service. Analyzing data enables organizations to identify their customers' needs. From these insights, businesses can create effective customer-centric strategies that provide a memorable experience. An example of how companies can do this is using data to create more personalized, relevant, and agile content that customers can engage with while learning more about the company.

Inefficiency is a major contributor to unsatisfactory customer experiences. Using data to locate and understand inefficiencies will enable your team to offer consumers a more intuitive experience. This also can help to address customer expectations by offering more options, lower prices and quicker deliveries.

3. Increased Productivity

Manual processes can be prone to human errors. Integrating automation in workloads allows you to speed up specific processes, reduce errors and allocate employees to more complex, thought-provoking tasks. As a result, you can generate more revenue.

4. Improved Agility

More businesses have started to move away from static and physical IT infrastructure and embrace cloud computing. Relying on systems that focus on digital transformation is effective for creating agile environments for meeting enterprise demands. Digital transformation is also an effective way to achieve faster adaptation and innovation, creating an organization that constantly focuses on identifying areas of improvement.

Key Elements of Digital Transformation

Digital transformation involves more than just implementation — the way you think and talk about it is just as important. The common language around the change influences how everyone in the organization perceives the digital transformation journey. Understanding the key elements of digital transformation can help you effectively inform and excite your team. 

• People: When implementing digital technology, the focus should be on users, such as employees, customers and stakeholders.
• Insights: Using digital technology allows you to analyze data and generate actionable insights, helping you build and achieve better organizational strategies and decision-making. 
• Platforms: The right digital platforms create better information flow across an organization and its network.
• Connectivity: Communication technologies play an essential role in the flow of information. Use them to expand information flow across platforms, people and networks.
• Integrity: Focus on developing stronger ethics and integrity around technology across internal and external business systems. Prioritize creating operational resilience, especially when dealing with cybersecurity and threats.

Crafting and Executing Your Digital Transformation Communication Strategy

A common language around your company's digital transformation helps everyone understand their role in the change, which provides a more seamless collaboration process. Digital transformation language should focus on the business world, operations, and technology. Consider these three aspects as you form your communication plan:

• The strategic business goals you want to achieve.
• The technologies to support your objectives.
• How the process will affect operations.

First, look at the overall objectives of your business. For example, you may want to upgrade your product or service offering. Try to be specific when assessing your goals. Additionally, consider the experience you want your clients or customers to have, and what insights and technology you will need to deliver that experience. Lastly, assess how every element of this process will impact your workforce and operations.

Key Performance Indicators for Digital Transformation

You may attempt to measure the value of digital transformation with traditional value benchmarks, but when it comes to calculating this, there are several variables you need to consider. These key performance indicators go beyond tangible factors like scalability, reliability, and extensibility. You must also consider intangible factors such as increased employee engagement and enhanced customer perceptions.

Heightening visibility into your digital investments makes leaders more confident in making decisions that bring greater rewards. Crafting and executing compelling digital transformation stories also allows you to take a holistic approach when making digital investments. Consider how digital technology will affect every sphere of the business.

Jump-Start Your Digital Transformation Strategy

Digital transformation should be the cornerstone of businesses that want to succeed in an increasingly technology-focused world. Creating a digital story is crucial to involve and support everyone on your team throughout the process. BDO Digital can help you explore and enact digital transformation across your organization, all while creating impactful communications that make your employees an integral part of the process.

We are leaders in strategic technology and business advisory services, committed to redefining industry models. Contact us today to find out how you can build a profitable digital transformation strategy that will succeed.