Digitisation in businesses is often taken for granted. After all, emails, software and apps managed by an internal department, outsourced to a supplier, or a hybrid of both run our everyday business conversations and operations.

But how do we know that we’ve chosen the optimum service for today’s business landscape? Are we creating a contemporary and competitive environment?

The impact of the digital marketplace is felt globally. As such, IT strategies are playing a growing role in forming and achieving business development goals and innovations.

As part of these growth plans, today’s enterprises are moving towards digital thinking to boost their growth opportunities and maintain an aggressive edge.  

Digitisation: The Modern IT Department

Five years ago, the mark of a truly digitally disruptive workplace was the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend. This challenged traditional IT departments into adopting cloud-based computing systems and Virtual Private Networks (VPN). These offered both security and privacy, along with flexible remote working opportunities.

Now, the Bring-Your-Own-App (BYOA) phenomenon emerges. Teams are focusing on pushing productivity levels up and adopting a personal approach to the completion of work deliverables. As a result, IT departments are protecting data and maintaining regularity through ongoing innovation.

Employees’ will demand optimum digital experiences throughout 2017 and beyond. Increasingly, team members will show a preference towards Google Drive and accompanying apps, along with collaboration tools that enable them to share and edit data efficiently and conveniently.

This approach is taken for granted in our daily non-working lives. It is, therefore, unsurprising that digital services spill over into the way we conduct business in a big way, proving problematic for traditional IT departments.

However, some IT facilities have embraced modern trends and continue to innovate. Through utilising cloud computing and improving business automation, service delivery, engagement systems, coherent omnichannel operations and ultimately, the digital experience, this route will serve to strengthen organisations. They will continue to do so as the Internet of Things (IoT), digital business services, big data analytics and digital experience management evolves.

Talented Digitisation 

The importance of digital talent is often underestimated. Typically, business owners overlook the complexity and depth of industry-wide change that must occur to create successful and seamless digitisation.

As part of this change, the practical transformation requires a shift in IT culture that enables teams to openly discuss and explore new systems. A collaborative effort is crucial to embrace diversity in experience, perspectives and insight. Together, these deliver a strong digital initiative that incorporates each member of staff.

Finding a Niche

Organisations looking to enter into the digitisation hub and experience healthy ongoing market share are typically offering specialist or alternative services to stand out from the crowd through adopting the ‘big fish in a small pond’ mentality.

Multinational leaders such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) are innovating their business models to include managed services. This has a wider effect on price, strategies and channel utilisation, which proves too risky for smaller companies. 

Therefore, professional industries, such as digital marketing agencies, financiers and accounting firms, are narrowing their target markets to attract key influencers. Incentivisation schemes and partner programmes that provide advice on technology systems that build relationships and generate value are proving popular.

Digital Service Providers

The ongoing digital drive is opening up the industry. Forming a reputation as a trusted supplier and service provider is invaluable. Consultants, service providers and telecoms agents fall into the sphere of “Digital Services Providers”.

Ultimately, structured measures provide clarity and consistency. Yet, unstructured processes allow social enterprises to brainstorm and trial prototypes of new generation digital technologies including social platforms and collaboration tools.

Organisations need to run smoothly. Therefore, digital efforts should be intertwined with existing successful processes to increase business agility and customer engagement. These, in turn, help to protect data, people and procedures.

Digital Technology Platforms: Performance planning

Information systems make up a crucial element within digital technology platforms. These platforms play a pivotal role in transforming a business towards digital growth.

Customer experience, business ecosystems, the IoT and analytics and intelligence make up a significant part of the business model. These also help to build a strong digitisation model that firms can then replicate.   

These digital practices must be recorded and analysed in a comprehensive, industry-facing strategy that outlines performance plans.

These will affect multiple departments and people within the organisation. Therefore, participation early spurs engagement and helps create learning programmes.

In addition to top-down strategic goals, organisational goals at various levels of the business can be beneficial. Each team should be clear on their priorities and how they plan to measure outcomes and incentives.

Implement an assessment that specifically relates to the digital environment to identify core factors in transformation, particularly risks, impacts and challenges.

Achieving Digital Balance

Real business digitisation requires an ongoing business life-cycle. This should deliver speedy innovations and rising market share through constant reviews and modifications.

Digitisation must be communicated and processed throughout the entire organisation to achieve this growth. It should not only focus on technical expertise and intelligent processes.

IT integrates technology to allow innovation, operations, interactions, engagement and measurement to take place to create effective organisational competency. This improves digital acumen, leadership thinking and cultural changes that lead to contemporary digitisation.  

Digital Personality

Before embarking on a digital upgrade, ask questions about your business to help form priorities and decide on appropriate actions:

• Is your business an extrovert or an introvert – Does it shout about its success?
• Does it celebrate authenticity and allow ideas to be openly expressed?
• Is collaboration encouraged?
• What is the brand’s tone, style and voice?
• Is your organisation a ‘silo’ of many parts or does it operate as a ‘whole’?
• What needs to change to achieve digitisation i.e. communication, culture, processes, procedures?

The rapidly changing digital environment is causing a constant shift in the way we do business. IT products and services are a key driver of innovation and growth. As a result, businesses are developing their agility and know-how to achieve effective and appropriate digitisation.

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