These days there is an app for everything – reading the news, shopping, ordering a prescription, booking travel tickets. No-one expects to have to actually go to a restaurant to book a table, and increasingly people don’t go to a travel agent’s office to book a holiday. With more than half of the world’s population now on the internet, we have all got used to doing everything online.
So there is no excuse for not digitising your company. Customers, suppliers and partners will all expect you to have a digital presence. A website is taken as given, many companies now also have apps to make life easier for customers.
Why digitise your company?
The increase in digital investment is driven by customers expecting more from companies. They want products and services to be delivered quickly and efficiently. This means businesses need to automate every process – from basic paperless processing through to investigating VR/AR technology and NFTs. Digitising your company is about streamlining processes and making things easier for your customers. Companies must embrace new technology or risk being left behind and viewed as irrelevant.
Benefits of digitisation
- Increased efficiency
If all your company data is stored online it will be easier for everyone to access from anywhere. Printing, sorting and filing all takes up hours of office time, as does then retrieving documents required. If everything is online, documents can be filed and accessed with a click of the mouse, making office life much more efficient by saving time.
- Reduced costs
Filing cabinets take up a lot of office space which can be expensive. Storing everything online means less office space is needed, and also less people in administration. Employees can do all their own admin with the ease and speed of automated processes.
- Increased productivity
If all admin is simple to do online, this will free up employees to perform more important tasks which will benefit the business. With everything they need at their fingertips employees will be able to work more productively and performance should improve.
- Better customer satisfaction
If customers can also access all they need from you through your website or an app this makes life easier for them which will improve their satisfaction. Digital innovators such as Airbnb, Uber and Deliveroo have demonstrated that if you automate everything, you will attract more customers by providing a better level of service. Customers want simplicity, making life easier for them will help your business to grow.
- Increased security
With improved firewalls and data encryption, your documents are safer online than they are floating around in paper form for all to see. Employees cannot accidentally leave files on trains if everything is stored digitally.
- Work from anywhere
The pandemic has brought about a huge increase in home working. This is facilitated by all company documents and processes happening online. If you are fully digital, employees can work from anywhere, they don’t need to physically be in the office every day. This improves employee satisfaction and gives you a wider talent pool from which to hire. Retaining employees is increasingly difficult, according to Cio, with generation Z willing to jump from job to job. By taking measures to retain staff, a business will have lower costs and better performance.
- Attract a global audience
By running everything online there are no limits to the location of your customers. The internet allows you to reach a global audience, increasing your sales opportunities.
- Make better decisions faster
Putting data and analysis at the forefront of a digital transformation strategy will allow businesses to take advantage of big data. Companies today have access to larger volumes of data than ever before, mainly due to the Internet of Things (more info). With the right set of analysis tools, this data can be used for valuable business insights that can allow you to make more informed, better decisions. The more analytical tools are entrenched in business operations, the better results they can give.
On-demand is now expected by everyone
Customers, partners and suppliers will all expect processes to be digitised, and if they are not, you will come across as backward and inefficient. This may put people off purchasing from you, supplying you or partnering with you. People expect the same level of automation in business processes that they have in their personal lives. Generation C (connected) expect to interact via mobile devices. They want consistency and round-the-clock customer service. An overwhelming majority of people now use their smartphones for everything, and you need to enable that in your offering.
European Digital Mindset Awards
The European Digital Mindset Awards recognise companies that are leading the way in digital innovation and transformation. Technology is changing all the time and these awards are given to those who really put in the effort to keep up. Awards include:
- Best digital leader
- Best digital transformation
- Best journalistic work on digital transformation
- Best marketing campaign
- Best digital start-up
- Best digital accelerator, public sector
- Best digital skills facilitator
Attending the awards gives you the opportunity to discover the latest solutions on digitalisation, innovation and technologies to transform your business, as well as make useful contacts. Exhibition stand contractor Quadrant2Design have worked at the event, MD Alan Jenkins said ‘It’s a fantastic opportunity to see companies at the leading edge of digital technology. We learnt a lot about current trends from attending the event’.
There is no excuse for not embracing new technology and digitising your business. It will reap rewards in terms of increased efficiency, happier customers and employees and reduced costs.
