Digital transformation has been a trending topic for several years and even more so after the quarantine period brought on by COVID-19. Many companies have realised the importance of digital tools, especially those that facilitate collaboration. However, digitalisation can be costly, and many decision-makers and managers are wondering about its monetary ROI. But the truth is that the return on investment for digitalisation is not only financial. We take a closer look at the subject in this article.
Cost Control: The Core of Digital Transformation
Investing in digital technologies reduces operating costs. For example, cloud services, automation, machine learning... cost less than more traditional technologies and human labour. CIOs today are actively looking to invest in business transformation to improve their growth and revenues. It also allows them to hunt down unnecessary processes and transform the business while keeping costs under control.
Digitalisation of Work Processes For Increased Agility
Digitalisation implies a change in management approaches, a transformation of processes and internal methodologies. Thanks to the different technologies available, testing, making mistakes and starting over has never been easier. This offers companies many opportunities as well as the flexibility needed to adapt to new consumption patterns.
Digitising your business processes will enable you to better adapt to emergency situations like the one we have just experienced. In the event of a shutdown, you now have remote access to your IS system and can continue work. But that's not the only advantage!
Digitisation also allows companies to be more agile in their ability to react to changes in the market and seize consumption opportunities.
Imagine you’re a company in the textile sector. The surge in demand for face masks grew exponentially during the pandemic, and it was easier for companies with digitised processes to quickly pivot their business model and seize the opportunity.
Company Performance
Above all, digital transformation enables companies to automate certain tasks, which helps optimise overall productivity. According to Digiteurs in Paris, a highly digitised company can achieve up to 1.25 times higher profitability, which largely offsets the cost of going digital. Shifting your business model, processes and organisation can often lead to greater efficiency by reducing time-consuming tasks and improving your understanding of customers. It also allows you to be more agile and to focus on higher-value activities.
Employer image and brand: attracting new customers and talent
By digitising your various business operations, you gain greater capabilities in using and processing information, which helps you better understand your customers and their expectations. It is also a chance to increase the touchpoints your company has with customers and improve the user experience, while reducing marketing spend. It is therefore a powerful boost to your brand image.
This digitalisation is also essential for developing a company’s work culture. Today’s employees are looking for innovative, agile and high-performing workplaces. Offering promising candidates attractive digital tools to build their skills in a modern work environment increases your appeal as an employer.
Corporate Culture: Moving Towards Innovation
Company digitalisation leads to the emergence of a new corporate culture. It changes the way an organisation operates, introducing new ways to promote collaboration, new activities and skills development. The goal of digitising the different departments of the company is to make collaboration easier, improve communication and foster innovation.
Digitisation also brings about a transformation in management. Today, organisations are largely very vertical in structure, resembling a pyramid with executives at the top, middle managers in the centre, and junior managers and employees at the bottom. But this is changing. With a more horizontal style of management, error and failure are seen as part of the transformation process, as staff members are no longer expected to seek executive approval for every idea. This model encourages innovation, with less fear of making mistakes. For this to work, however, processes must be able to adapt and be challenged. This becomes much more feasible with digital technology.
Weak Excuses for Not Digitising Your Business
- We will change when it becomes necessary
- According to our studies, our current ways are working fine
- We’re paid to manage, not to train - it’s not our job to do that.
- We’ve invested too much in our current model; we can’t change it anymore.
- Compared to our competitors, we’re not doing that badly.
Captivea Odoo Gold Partner
These benefits are the most important to us, but this list is not exhaustive. Put simply, we believe it is impossible to remain competitive without digital transformation. Do you have a project in mind? Let’s talk about it!