Boosting Digital Transformation: How Data Can Help Your Business Succeed
The importance of digital transformation has never been more evident. The rapid evolution of technology has sparked significant business and behavioral changes worldwide. With the Covid-19 pandemic forcing much of the workforce to transition to remote work, many businesses have encountered an accelerated need for change.
Despite this, many businesses fail to utilize their most valuable data resources to support their digital transformation efforts. Research from Gartner has revealed that more than half of companies fail to include data and analytics as key factors in their digital transformation strategy, and 62% of companies experience stalls during the process.
It is critical to build your strategy’s foundation upon accurate data to succeed in digital transformation. This article will discuss how business leaders need to approach and integrate data throughout the digital transformation journey.
Identify Opportunities from Data to Boost Digital Transformation
The process of digital transformation may seem overwhelming for most companies, but the reality is that it doesn’t need to occur all at once. Additionally, taking a formulaic or one-size-fits-all approach is not necessary. For instance, digital transformation can provide small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) a much-needed leg-up against the competition. While they cannot match large corporations’ million-dollar budgets, SMBs can focus their efforts on specific areas that make the greatest impact.
Companies of any size can succeed in their efforts to boost digital transformation by addressing significant issues first. Data can provide the roadmap and starting points essential to initiate and achieve transformation goals. For example, your website’s traffic may be high, but the conversion rate is significantly lower, which could signal issues with users’ experience (UX). In this instance, data analysis could pinpoint the buyer’s journey’s specific steps where the numbers begin to decline. By utilizing tools such as Google Analytics and Hotjar, businesses can determine the pages where users spend the most time and understand how visitors interact with those pages.
Make Customer Journey Easier at All Times with Data
Although cost-cutting, efficiency improvement, and revenue maximization are essential, customer satisfaction drives business. Therefore, the digital transformation process must start with the customer experience (CX).
Transforming CX goes beyond marketing campaigns and web or app technology. Instead, companies must focus their efforts on creating a better internal structure that allows for personalized interactions with their customers. In a PTC study, C-suite executives agreed that the greatest benefit to digital transformation was improving the customer journey. The report found that providing employees with the right information and tools was the best way to achieve this.
Using data tools to create complex, data-driven customer journey maps is an excellent starting point. By monitoring audiences’ behaviors, businesses can empower their team with the tools needed for better decision-making. AI-powered algorithms can take data points and transform them into actionable journey maps that show what must be done to keep customers engaged, retarget them, and close the deal.
Track Qualitative and Quantitative Data for Digital Transformation
To truly unlock the power of data, it is vital to understand the difference between qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data is usually defined in a numbering system, such as the number of leads generated per channel or revenue per quarter. Qualitative data is more challenging to organize and categorize since it is based on characteristics.
Utilizing both data types together is necessary to boost digital transformation successfully. AI technologies like natural language processing and predictive analytics can categorize data and transform it into actionable insights. By collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data from consumers, businesses can deliver products that sustainably meet market fit.
Separate Transformation Strategy from Data
The quickest way to make positive organizational changes is by making data accessible for decision-making and strategizing. According to McKinsey, companies that successfully implemented digitalization provided employees with better tools and made information accessible across all departments. They also developed digital programs to assist customers and employees.
The greatest barrier to transformation resides in the lack of leadership and direction during the process. Robust data sources and top-of-the-line analysis programs are useless unless the entire team knows how and when to use them. To make the transformation more seamless, businesses need to separate specific types of transformation into four key approaches – business processes, model transformation, analytics, and organizational transformation. Data should support every new strategy or system, and the results of changes should be monitored to discern what works and what should be abandoned.
In conclusion, digital transformation has become a necessity today, with remote work and new emerging trends and technologies. Utilizing data throughout the transformation process is essential to ensure its success. By identifying opportunities from data, making the customer journey easy at all times, tracking qualitative and quantitative data, and separating the transformation strategy from the data, businesses can boost their digital transformation efforts and remain ahead of the competition.
