Digital transformation: sorry, what?

What on earth is digital transformation? 

Before being more specific about this essential notion, we get to slow down and refer to the basics. Indeed, most people and businesses think digital transformation is a result; it appears at the end kindly, magically, like pressing a red button, that’s it: digital transformation is done. It is much more like a way of doing things.

In fact, digital transformation is the whole process, it is a journey in itself. As we just said, digital transformation is a holistic transformation process that embraces the whole organization. It will have a real impact on your business, on your business’ mindset, and on your employees. It will reshuffle the cards, it will put you on the road. Companies will have to ask themselves how they define themselves, how they define their needs, how much effort they can make to change their processes and make all the moving parts collaborate as best as possible before they rethink the digital strategy.

Strictly speaking, digitalization is a key aspect if companies are to remain sustainable. It is driven by the constant evolution of new technologies, which has a real impact on customer behaviour. Clearly, 25 years ago, consumer habits were very different from those of today. The pandemic was closely linked to sudden and rapid transformations in the habits of many consumers. It is imperative that organizations adapt to this digital revolution and provide a clear and transparent security policy for the data shared by their consumers while they continue to leverage new technologies.

Feeding your digital transformation’s journey

Ok, we understood that digital transformation is a transformation journey, it is clearly spelled out, we will go through a unique road in search of a brighter future. But before starting this trip, it is necessary to pack your travel bag with the appropriate tools for implementing a successful transformation strategy.

• Define your needs:
  Let’s start by determining the way digital transformation will impact your business. There are many different aspects to digital transformation, so you have to identify where your need for transformation comes from. It's all about priorities such as company leadership, cutting-edge tech, business goals and that top-notch customer experience.
  
  
• Assess your current skills thoughtfully:
  You will need to have a close look and evaluate each and every component of your business to achieve a complete understanding of its current state. It’s the beginning of the digital transformation journey, of this ongoing process, so keep in mind to be flexible and realistic regarding your goals.
  
  
• Define your processes:
  Yes, we will not talk about a process but processes. As we have said 100 times before, it is a transformation journey, so it is clearly necessary to break down your digital transformation into multiple and simple steps to try and create a value chain. Trying to be clear and understood by everyone in the organization, but above all, to give them a clear vision.
  
  
• Prepare your business:
  You have sailed through this periplus, keep in mind digital transformation is not a magical trick. You need to assess your workforce and identify the skills needed. It happens often that you will not have all these skills in your current workforce. Don’t be afraid, you can (or maybe must), find new ways and partner with a specialized provider which will help your staff by training and upgrading skills, or hiring new personnel dedicated to your transformation. This step will be crucial before starting up and implementing any new policies or processes.  
  
  
• Don’t forget your customers:
  All your strategies will converge to your customer’s needs, to market your product following your customer’s behaviour. To stay competitive, you need to adapt your business transformation to them. In fact, it wouldn’t be wise to think that a transformation without your customers’ enjoyment as a goal will lead you to a sustainable and successful revolution.

Let’s be tangible, seeing how we can achieve our goals together

Exercising the ability to compete means adopting technologies across all business processes. Integrating digital technologies and the study of data can improve operational efficiency and security, digitalize internal processes, and guarantee a unique customer experience. Ekkiden enables its customers to address all these issues by providing the transformation services, in the right place, at the right time depending on your strategic areas and your business model.

Mobile & Web Development

Following the pandemic, customers have changed their consumption habits. They want to be able to use the services offered on any digital medium, a multiplatform user experience. Start on their tablet, continue during the day on their mobile and finish on the website at the end of the day. To enable this, progressive web applications are essential. Basically, they look like a mobile application but are also accessible via a browser. They facilitate the customer experience, making it more agile, and enable developers to gain efficiency by developing regardless of medium.

Cloud & Infrastructure

The cloud is a key tool in the virtuous path of digital transformation. It reduces infrastructure costs while automating the business process. With Sales Force Commerce Cloud (SFCC), you'll be able to centralize data, track technological advances by deploying them in your corporate ecosystem, modify your customer paths as you see fit, and set up optimization tests by pushing a feature onto a targeted sample of customers. You will position yourself for innovation and growing competitiveness in the digital age.

Data & Analytics

Let's be clear: today, you need to exploit the digital data you have at your disposal. But let's be careful: exploit the data, yes, but exploit it correctly. And yes, this is where data management comes in. Managing customer, commercial and sales data is key to establishing a data-driven policy. For this, you can find high-performance tools such as Microsoft Power BI or SAS for qualitative and quantitative data analytics. Artificial intelligence has made incredible progress in a very short space of time and will eventually be able to help you manage your business.

Customers’ Services & Solutions

Automation in customer service will not only benefit you. It will enable you to be responsive to your customers' expectations, and even proactive. Operational efficiency will be improved, and so will customer satisfaction KPIs. SalesForce is a major player in digital transformation and offers tailored, effective tools such as Sales Force Service Cloud (SFSC).

Strengthen your workforce and improve your business skills

As we mentioned previously, digital transformation is a trip; you will be faced with some complexity which requires specific competencies to be handled. Based on these business challenges, it will be necessary to hire new staff members, those who own the right profile and expertise for those achievements and control the workflows between them. Let’s see how specific… 

Business Analyst IT

Business Analyst IT or BA is the person who will act as a link between your business and digital technology. They will be here to take your need to transform and make a precise analysis of how emerging technologies can help you achieve your goals. Based on their experience, they will be able to give you the mandatory improvement, works on each part to have a perfect understanding, and facilitate coordination and integration in your system.

Product Manager

Product managers assume a more strategic position, as they chart the course and plan the product management journey across the product's lifespan, while keeping broader organizational objectives in perspective. They are responsible for defining the product’s vision according to your needs. They stay attuned to market trends, customers’ feedback and competition to enhance your vision and give the right direction. Overall, their role involves a delicate balance between strategic thinking, project management, and a deep understanding of customer needs and market dynamics.

Technical Project Manager

A Technical Project Manager (TPM) is a professional responsible for overseeing and managing technology-related projects within an organization. Their primary role is to ensure that technical projects are executed efficiently, on time, and within budget while being able to adapt to the specified technical requirements and quality standards. They are closely related to the Product Manager and give them all the necessary information to help them understand the project. Under their scope, they are guardant of time to market, also of the coherence of the project’s aspects like technical documentation, quality assurance or resource management.

Data Engineer

The data Engineer is the designer, builder, and one who maintains the infrastructure and systems that enable the collection, storage, processing, and retrieval of data for various data-driven applications and analytics purposes within an organization. Data Engineers use data science to play a critical role in the data pipeline, creating a digital base to ensure that data is accessible, reliable, and optimized for analysis by data scientists or stakeholders. For that purpose, they will have to deal with aspects like data pipeline development, data storage and transformation, or monitoring and maintaining them to be sure the data will always be accessible without any troubleshoots.