Companies across every industry are seeing the line between traditional business and digital business blurring. The merging of the virtual and physical marketplace will only continue as we head toward the new business frontier.
What does this mean for your business as you make moves toward digital transformation? It means to truly compete you’ll have to have a change in perspective. Instead of looking for ways to simply “digitize” your current processes, your company should seek to optimize business through technology. What’s the difference? Let’s take a look at the two main terms associated with digital change in the workplace:
Digitization Versus Digitalization
While the terms digitization and digitalization are similar, they mean two very different things. According to Gartner, digitization refers to the conversion from analog to digital. While new technology is used, the process remains much the same. Think of converting records to CDs—a new method of listening to the same music, the same way.
Then there is digitalization. Gartner defines this as “the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities.” Rather than simply swapping old technologies for new ones, digitalization refers to adapting new processes through the use of technology.
Think of many of the companies that have disrupted their industries—Spotify, Uber, Netflix and the like. These companies thrive not because they simply converted manual processes to digital, but because they molded their businesses’ processes and culture around an entirely new digital model. These companies have succeeded wildly by meeting customer needs in a new way, and by delivering their products and services more quickly, effectively and cheaply than anyone had before them.
This is the impact of true digitalization. Your company is not simply adopting digital processes out of desperation to keep up with others in the industry. Instead, it is taking a hard look at inner workings of the business. Your key players must then determine areas where outdated processes and functions are causing inefficiencies and waste. Then you are able to build new and improved processes from the ground up, with the help of new technologies.
This is no easy task. It can be difficult to convince executives that digital strategy must be a top priority in transforming business for the better. However, waiting until late in the process to make these vital changes could be detrimental to a company. Many executives are now realizing this and are actually the ones driving digitalization in their businesses.
So you’re ready to digitalize, great! Remember this, though: this new digital marketplace is fluid. Digitalization must not be seen as a “one and done” initiative, but rather as a process that requires re-assessment and new adaptations as necessary.
Let PSIGEN Help You Transform
Is your business ready for digital transformation? We’d love to help! PSIGEN offers flexible, versatile capture and automation technologies that can help you streamline processes and build workflows that improve efficiency and cut costs. Get in touch with us today!
