What is digital transformation?

Digital transformation is a business strategy of continuously implementing new technology to create value. It's like rewiring the DNA of a business, making it potent to handle various challenges in the growing business world. 

A sound digital transformation strategy focuses on specific domains and set of capabilities that enable businesses to perform better.

The part that makes digital transformation an interesting domain is technology itself. I'm sure you have witnessed the rise of gen AI models over the past five years. That's the pace at which technology evolves. That is exactly why digital transformation is seen more as a strategy and less as a one-time solution.

Why should a business look into digital transformation?

Digital transformation is not reserved for enterprise organizations. Any business looking to grow smart can put technology to good use. Many businesses look at "digital transformation" as a pre-requisite to scaling. They realize that, by leveraging technology, they can eliminate a lot of manual errors, duplication, and time-wasting processes.

Digital transformation also significantly improves customer experience. When every digital checkpoint is personalized, the customer feels valued and starts trusting the business a lot more.

What does digital transformation look like?

Let's try to actually understand what digital transformation looks like for a business. Take the example of a manufacturing firm that produces fabrics. They source raw material from many vendors to manufacture various types of fabrics like cotton, nylon, linen, to name some. They then ship them to distributors and garment companies that go on to make the shirts that we love to wear.

Let's now transform this business, but digitally. Firstly, they'll need to have a complete view of every activity that is going on—right from procuring raw materials to sending out invoices. This can be solved by having a centralized ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system in place.

They can look to automate a lot of their manufacturing processes using a potent RPA (Robotics Process Automation) system. Their relationships with vendors, distributors, and garment companies can be handled using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. Finally, their finance team can leverage a book keeping software to generate invoices, reconcile payments, and file taxes all from one place.

By implementing these systems in place, they have better visibility into every operation. They save a lot of time, since a lot of their workflows are now automated. There's improved collaboration among their departments. Their relationships with their stakeholders are also strengthened and will last long.

This is a realistic image of what is possible with a well-executed digital transformation strategy. Now, let's also look at some potential pitfalls.

Potential challenges with digital transformation

Implementation and customization

Business software, that drives digital transformation, often comes with challenges while implementing them as it is usually time and capital intensive. It takes enterprises approximately a year, on average, to implement a CRM system successfully.

Need for talent

It helps to have an in-house digital team that can oversee the implementation process and fix bugs as they arise. Identifying and acquiring such skilled talent can be difficult. This usually comes at a price, leading us to the next challenge.

Price to pay

Digital transformation often comes with a hefty price tag. Acquiring the technologies, hiring skilled engineers for implementation and customization, and continuously upgrading the infrastructure can burn a hole in most organizations' wallets.

Adoption woes

Imagine you went through the trouble of "digitally transforming" your business and nobody in your organization is actually using the implemented technologies. This leads to a monumental waste of time, effort, and money. To prevent this from happening, proper training sessions should be conducted to ensure each employee understands the importance of the systems they're asked to work on.

AI in digital transformation

Artificial Intelligence has found its way into every business conversation today. When it comes to digital transformation, generative AI models can help in multiple avenues from writing code during implementation, curating material for training, to name some.

For example, using AI powered chatbots to answer customer queries and tickets is one way businesses are transforming customer support.

Zoho's role in digital transformation

Zoho can play a pivotal role in digitally transforming your business. With over 55 business applications, Zoho aims to solve business problems across all domains.

By offering a platform that helps businesses automate and "digitize" a lot of their workflows, Zoho aims to transform their operations in a meaningful way. To address the challenges in digital transformation, the product offerings come with extensive documentation that helps employees understand them, lowering the risk of abandonment. 

With a fair and transparent pricing model, Zoho simply is the go-to for businesses of all sizes digitally transform and grow.