The Benefits and Possible Risks of Corporate Digital Transformation

There is no doubt that the novel coronavirus pandemic changed the way businesses operate and brought forth a digital transformation into the corporate world. As companies were forced to send their employees to work from home, new business models focused on online shops and payments, automation processes, cloud services, and implementation of new technologies started to appear.

What is digital transformation?

As digital transformation can mean different things for each company, there are numerous definitions of what digital transformation is. What these definitions have in common is that they describe the term as a process of incorporating new technologies into business operations.

In this way, companies aim at improving their products and services and creating new customer-centric business models, while at the same time enriching the company’s culture and leadership.

What are the benefits of digital transformation for businesses?

There are numerous gains for companies that decide to go digital. Some of the most important are:

• Increased efficiency – Automation of tedious processes significantly increases the company’s efficiency as it saves time and terminates bottlenecks, which allows the employees to focus on tasks that are more important to the business.
• Data-driven reports and better decision-making – Going digital allows companies to collect and store big valuable sets of data on which they can base their decisions later on. Of course, the collection of data is not the last step of the process. After being obtained the data needs to be analyzed usually by other technologies such as cloud computing and business intelligence.
• Higher profitability – It is only logical that, when you increase the company’s efficiency and improve the decision-making process, an increase in the profits will follow, as well. Therefore, investing in new technologies is becoming of utmost importance to businesses.

What are the possible risks connected to digitalization?

A lot has been said about the benefits of the companies’ digital transformation. However, digitalization has its downfalls, as well.

Some of the biggest obstacles that come with digitalizing business services and collecting data are security and data privacy. With the progress of technologies comes the evolution of malicious threats such as phishing, cyberattacks and data leakages. Therefore, investments in high cybersecurity and establishment of trustworthy partnerships should come first in the companies’ strategic development plans.

Other possible uncertainties connected to the digital transformation of companies are third party risks as well as people and customer management risks. Since companies use external service providers such as online meetings platforms, different web applications, software, and hardware, they should be aware of the security protocols with which these services come.

The best way to avoid future complications is for companies to always stay up to date with the latest technologies, constantly revise their privacy policies and provide employees with proper cybersecurity training.

Tips for a successful digital transformation journey

Most companies step into the process of digitalization without considering some key factors for its successful completion, which leads to some crucial mistakes. To avoid failure, companies should take into consideration these useful tips for a seamless digital transformation journey.

Outline the company’s business objectives

Probably one of the most important steps is defining the company’s goals. Without a clear objective and strategy, companies are shooting in the dark, not knowing whether they will achieve their goals or not.

That’s why companies should map out their digital transformation journey, set goals for each stage and prioritize their investments beforehand.

Put the customer experience first

After all, everything a company does is to attract and retain customers. Evaluating customers’ feedback and needs is what pushes digitalization in the right direction. As a first step, companies should make a blueprint of their customers’ journey and touchpoints and find out what can be improved by implementing new technologies.

Partnerships are key

Picking strategic partners helps companies find the right technological solutions that can ease the process of digital transformation and meet all requirements for secure data management.  Security is one of the biggest issues that companies entering the digitalization era are experiencing, and having reliable partners is the main solution.

Inform and educate the company’s employees

Organizational changes should be backed up by a well thought through change management. It is of an utmost importance for a company undergoing digital transformation to have the right Change Managers that can provide the employees with the needed information and trainings. But most importantly to reassure them that there is no space for fears and the overcoming changes do not threaten their jobs.

How can SEPA Cyber Technologies help you?

It is not surprising that search terms like “contactless” and “remote” skyrocketed in the spring of 2020. Due to the pandemic, a lot of businesses are now offering their services online, and there is a high demand for secure online payments and financial services.

In these uncertain times, safety leads the way. That’s why SEPA Cyber is here to ease your digital transformation with services ranging from secure hosting, and regulatory technologies to customer relationship management solutions. Fill out our contact form if you want to learn more.