Tag: digital business transformation
Today, technology seamlessly weaves its way into every aspect of our daily lives. That’s precisely what digital transformation is all about – a process that enables businesses to harness the power of cutting-edge technologies and revolutionize the way they operate, engage with customers, and flourish in today’s fast-paced world.
Digital transformation goes beyond a mere trend; it’s a profound shift that can reshape the very core of a business. It allows organizations to metamorphose and emerge stronger and more adaptable than ever before.
In this blog, we’ll embark on an exciting journey to understand the significance of digital transformation, explore its key components, and learn from real-world examples of successful transformations. We will understand why it holds the key to shaping the future of businesses worldwide.
Understanding Digital Transformation
Imagine taking your cherished family recipe and giving it a modern twist with new ingredients, cooking techniques, and flavors. That’s the magic of digital transformation – a process that revitalizes businesses by infusing cutting-edge technologies into their core operations, just like the innovative twist to your traditional recipe!
Which digital technologies enable transformation?
Digital technologies, like cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT), play a vital role in the business landscape.
The cloud is like a virtual pantry that stores all your ingredients and tools, making them accessible from anywhere at any time. AI acts as your sous-chef, analyzing data, providing insights, and making your decisions more intelligent. Meanwhile, the IoT is the magic ingredient that connects everything, enabling devices to communicate and create a harmonious cooking experience.
The Digital Metamorphosis: Embracing the Ever-Evolving Adventure of Growth
Digital transformation is a thrilling quest to become the best version of what your business is capable of becoming. It’s not a one-time makeover or a sudden transformation, but a continuous journey of growth and improvement. Just like you set new goals and work towards them over time, businesses must shift their perspective from considering digital transformation as a one-time project to embracing it as an ongoing process.
This journey requires a mindset shift – instead of seeking instant results; businesses must focus on long-term gains and stay committed to the process. Digital transformation demands consistent effort and dedication, as every step contributes to overall success.
Benefits and Outcomes of Digital Transformation
The benefits of digital transformation are many, and you will discover more of them as you implement it in your business, but here are a few of its main benefits.
- Enhanced Productivity: Digital transformation ensures mundane tasks vanish from your to-do list, leaving businesses with more time and energy to focus on what truly matters.
- Delightful Customer Experiences: Businesses become experts in customer satisfaction through personalized interactions, seamless online shopping, and responsive customer service.
- Unleashing Agility: Digital transformation enables businesses to respond swiftly to changes and opportunities. They can adapt their strategies, offerings, and operations in the blink of an eye, staying ahead of the competition.
- Unraveling Insights: Digital transformation empowers businesses to harness the power of data, uncovering valuable patterns and trends. These insights guide businesses toward smarter decisions and growth like a treasure map.
- Flourishing in the Digital Kingdom: In this captivating realm, businesses hold a golden scepter of competitive advantage. Digital transformation sets them apart from their rivals, like a crown that marks them as the industry’s leaders. They become the beacon of innovation, drawing customers to their kingdom of products and services.
- Securing the Castle: Digital transformation fortifies its defenses against cyber threats and data breaches. It’s like having a strong shield that safeguards their reputation, customer trust, and sensitive information.
- Sustaining Everlasting Success: Digital transformation is not a one-time invocation but a perpetual journey of growth and adaptation. With every step, businesses evolve and renew their charm, ensuring a legacy of prosperity.
Read more: Is Open Source the Crucial Catalyst For Digital Transformation?
Overcoming Challenges and Embracing Opportunities
A digital transformation journey can empower businesses with the tools they need to thrive in a technology-driven landscape. However, this metamorphosis comes with its own set of challenges and considerations. Let’s dive into these hurdles and discover how to overcome them while achieving your organization’s goals.
1. Organizational Culture and Mindset Shift
- Challenge: The resistance to change can be deeply embedded within an organization’s culture.
- Consideration: Cultivate a growth-oriented mindset that embraces innovation and adapts to new technologies.
- Approach: Foster a culture that rewards risk-taking and encourages open communication to build trust.
2. Change Management and Employee Buy-In
- Challenge: Employees may fear the unknown and be reluctant to embrace new processes or technologies.
- Consideration: Engage employees early on in the transformation process and communicate the vision clearly.
- Approach: Encourage two-way communication, provide training and support, and celebrate small wins to build momentum.
3. Legacy Systems and Technology Integration
- Challenge: Integrating new technologies with existing legacy systems can be complex and time-consuming.
- Consideration: Evaluate the compatibility of existing systems with the new solutions you plan to implement.
- Approach: Develop a well-thought-out integration strategy, and consider phased implementations to minimize disruption.
4. Data Privacy and Security Concerns
- Challenge: The digital era brings increased risks of data breaches and privacy violations.
- Consideration: Safeguard customer and company data to build trust and maintain regulatory compliance.
- Approach: Implement robust security measures, regularly audit systems, and ensure employee awareness of data protection practices.
5. Skills Gap and Talent Acquisition
- Challenge: Finding skilled talent with expertise in emerging technologies can be challenging.
- Consideration: Upskill current employees and promote a learning culture to bridge the skills gap.
- Approach: Collaborate with educational institutions, offer training programs, and consider hiring freelancers or partnering with external experts.
Watch now: 7 Deadly Mistakes Non-Tech Businesses Make on Tech Projects
Success Stories: Real-World Examples
As businesses brace themselves for their journey, they seek inspiration from the tales of industry leaders like Amazon and Netflix. These titans have undergone remarkable digital transformations, leveraging technology to disrupt markets and revolutionize customer experiences.
Staying Relevant like Amazon and Netflix!
- Challenge: Amazon began as an online bookstore, and Netflix was a DVD rental service. Both companies recognized the need to adapt and evolve to stay relevant in the ever-changing digital landscape.
- Solution: Amazon expanded its product range, becoming an online marketplace for various goods and services, leveraging technology to optimize customer experience and supply chain efficiency. Netflix transitioned from a DVD rental service to a digital streaming platform, investing in content creation and personalization algorithms to offer a superior streaming experience.
- Takeaway: Embrace innovation and be willing to pivot when necessary to meet evolving market demands. Continuously focus on improving customer experience to build loyalty and attract new customers. Leverage technology to streamline operations and enhance efficiency.
Unifying and Protecting Data in Healthcare like John Muir Health!
- Challenge: Healthcare companies are often concerned about data security and interoperability while implementing electronic health records (EHRs).
- Solution: Healthcare providers invested in robust cybersecurity measures and interoperable EHR systems to protect patient data and facilitate efficient communication among healthcare professionals. An example is John Muir Health, which “leverages a cutting-edge data platform to unify data while also using the cloud to improve real-time patient communication. As a result, patients can ask questions and receive information through their preferred communication channel, such as email or SMS.”
- Takeaway: Understand the unique challenges of your sector and tailor the digital transformation strategy accordingly. Collaborate with industry experts and technology partners to implement suitable solutions.
Creating Seamless Experiences in Retail like Ikea!
- Challenge: Retailers struggled to bridge the gap between physical stores and online shopping, creating a seamless omnichannel experience.
- Solution: Retailers adopted advanced analytics and inventory management systems to optimize stock levels and offer personalized recommendations to customers across various channels. Ikea, for example, tripled their online sales by prioritizing the digital side of their business!
- Takeaway: Continuously monitor and adapt to the changing needs of customers and the market.
Thriving in the Digital Age: Fingent’s Unparalleled Support for Transformation
The key to sustained business success lies in continuous innovation and adaptation. As organizations strive to remain competitive and relevant, embracing digital transformation becomes imperative. Throughout this journey, Fingent emerges as a trusted partner, offering comprehensive solutions and unparalleled expertise to empower businesses and drive growth.
Fingent’s commitment to excellence and wealth of experience in guiding organizations through successful digital transformations make us a beacon of reliability. By understanding the unique challenges of each industry and sector, we tailor our solutions to meet the specific needs of our clients. From industry giants to startups, Fingent collaborates closely with organizations of all sizes, ensuring that no one is left behind in this technological revolution.
By fostering a culture of innovation and providing the necessary support and training, Fingent top custom software development company helps employees embrace the digital shift with enthusiasm and confidence. Our meticulous planning and phased implementation approach ensure a seamless transition, minimizing disruption and maximizing efficiency.
Reach out to us, and let’s lead you to success on your digital transformation journey.
How the insurance industry delivers service has evolved significantly in the last decade.
Regardless of what form of insurance sales or policy management your organization is engaged in, you can attest that face-to-face interactions are no longer routine and are, in fact, an oddity.
As the insurance industry’s new normal, more and more interactions between customers, industry experts, other organizations, and adjustments claims occur digitally. Though phone-based communications will continue to be a part of the customer service process for the foreseeable future, customers, care providers, other insurers, and virtually anyone else with whom an insurance company interacts have come to expect a largely digitized experience.
For any organization to thrive in the insurance industry of tomorrow, it must take steps to evolve its processes today. That means creating a cohesive modernization strategy and investing in leading-edge technology solutions.
Read more: Answering the Burning Questions of Business Leaders on Digital Transformation!
Top Challenges Facing the Insurance Industry
To understand what a modernized strategy looks like in the insurance industry, it’s vital to examine some of the top challenges businesses will face in the coming years.
1. Staffing Shortages
Historically, the insurance sector has contended with turnover rates somewhere in the range of 8-9%, according to Insurance Business America, but that span climbed to 12-15% by September 2022.
That additional turnover significantly impacts business continuity and diminishes the customer experience. It can also negatively influence insurers’ ability to replace members of leadership that are retiring or stepping away from the industry.
2. Skyrocketing Costs
Inflation and numerous other factors have contributed to rising costs of everything from healthcare to vehicles higher than ever before. Naturally, some of these cost increases are passed onto insurers and their customers, so insurance companies must find ways to absorb some of these expenses while mitigating rate increases for their clients.
Insurers should also explore ways to reduce their operating costs to keep coverage prices lower. Otherwise, businesses may find it challenging to retain customer accounts, particularly in sectors like automotive insurance, where consumers can freely shop around and change policies in six-month intervals.
3. Antiquated Legacy Systems
Some legacy systems hinder the ability of many businesses to embrace digital transformation. These aging platforms can make it challenging to comply with relevant regulatory requirements and increase an organization’s overall operating costs.
The longer that insurance companies cling to antiquated systems, the harder it will be for them to streamline traditionally tedious practices, such as claim management. Therefore, insurance companies must replace these inefficient, disjointed platforms with modern, unified alternatives.
The Role of Digital Transformation in Solving These Challenges
Digital transformation can bring modern technologies to any business process to improve its operation. Fast-growing digital transformation technologies include machine learning, artificial intelligence (like ChatGPT), customer relationship management platforms, and intelligent document processing software.
Digital transformation holds the key to solving the insurance industry’s most significant problems, and it appears that many in the industry realize this, as recent projections estimate that insurance technology spending will increase by 25% between 2022 and 2026 in the US and UK.
A cohesive digital transformation strategy will lay out a roadmap for replacing aging technologies with modern alternatives, and once these technologies have been replaced, the cost savings are almost immediate.
In one example of how a digital transformation strategy led to practical innovation, Fingent joined forces with the California law firm of Sapra & Navarra, LLP to develop Ambit, an AI and ML program that simplifies and enhances the management of workers’ compensation claims. Claims may include hundreds of pages consisting of a variety of letters, affidavits, forms, and other documents from claimants, doctors, lawyers, investigators, employers, and witnesses, among others. Utilizing both artificial intelligence and machine learning, the Ambit system streamlines the claims management process, reducing claim costs, and helps break the old practices of:
- Taking too long to assess claims
- Treating similar claims inconsistently
- Not equipping claim adjusters with modern tools
Instead, Ambit improves the efficiency of all parties — insurance carriers, self-insured companies, lawyers, and claim adjusters — while reducing costs for insurers by 57%.
The Ambit solution was designed to:
- Easily ingest the many documents in the claims process
- Quickly identify missing, processed & corrupted pages
- Review structured and unstructured documents automatically
- Identify areas of concern
- Suggest potential legal defenses
- Automate calculations and reminders for important legal deadlines
- Generate case summaries, with action plans
These automation capabilities not only make life easier for claims managers but enable organizational leaders to offset productivity issues created by ongoing labor shortages by reducing onboarding time for new hires. These capabilities result in more uniform handling of the claims while speeding their resolution and lowering their overall costs.
In general, automation technologies, such as those implemented during a digital transformation initiative, will also decrease operating costs, enabling insurance companies to increase their profitability and offer their customers more competitive premiums.
Read more: How AI Drives Digital Transformation In The Insurance Industry
The Essential Components of Digital Transformation
The technology trend in insurance is clearly moving from the strictly paper-based methods of the past to the digital. Beyond static websites to mobile apps. Beyond email to text and chat. Beyond processes driven by people to more and more intelligent automation that speeds up and uniformly handles all kinds of processes from marketing, and operations, to customer service.
Every organization’s digital transformation roadmap should be as unique as the business itself, but every digital transformation strategy must include a few core elements:
- Clear objectives
- An integrated plan
- A leadership-driven approach
- Investments in the right technology
When creating your organization’s digital transformation strategy, you should start by defining your “why.” In other words, you must identify the reasons you are undertaking this initiative in the first place.
From there, work with a digital transformation partner who can help you create an integrated plan that includes everyone from executive members to line-level employees.
Digital transformation efforts — even small ones — require the active support of top management. Change is the hardest thing to achieve in the organization and without the sponsorship of the corporate leaders, the effort is unlikely to succeed.
Finally, you will need to replace outdated, inefficient technology with modern, robust solutions. When appropriate,
partner with a custom software development firm that can provide you with a purpose-built solution you need for your business. They are equipped with the personnel and experience to generate a solution in the minimum timeframe and without the need to increase in-house headcounts.
If your organization has been exploring ways to improve the customer service experience, increase productivity, improve profitability, and streamline its operations, it is more than ready to embrace digital transformation.
Successfully facilitating digital transformation requires a cohesive strategy, some cutting-edge technologies, a commitment to doing things better, and the right development approach.
Read more: Digital Twin Improving Predictability and Risk Management in Insurance!
How Fingent Can Accelerate Your Process
Naturally, the cornerstone of any digital transformation initiative is technology choices. These may be an off-the-shelf system for standard processes, the integration of existing systems or, your transformation may demand a custom solution that can accommodate your business needs unlike systems available to anyone else.
At Fingent, we specialize in creating resilient custom software solutions that are able to change and adapt according to your requirements. We work with insurance industry clients to help them streamline mission-critical business processes, and – as in all our projects – we accomplish this by providing dynamic, unique software that incorporates the most appropriate technology, such as the latest in machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies.
Connect with Fingent today to accelerate your digital transformation with the help of an experienced software development partner.
Organizations are enhancing their competitiveness by prioritizing digital transformation as the global marketplace becomes increasingly crowded and interconnected.
Broadly speaking, the concept of digital transformation involves the systematic evolution of core and auxiliary business processes to take advantage of advances in computing and software systems to increase efficiencies.
However, no digital transformation initiative will be effective unless it involves an app modernization component.
Also referred to as “application modernization,” app modernization enables organizations to transform effectively, increase their competitiveness, and differentiate themselves within their respective industries.
What Is App Modernization?
A “legacy” system uses outdated software or computing hardware to deliver important organizational capabilities but cannot interact with other systems or be updated effectively. App modernization is the process of addressing known issues in outdated legacy software. The issues may include:
- Software problems (“bugs”) that cannot be resolved fast enough,
- Missing features will take too long to add,
- Fragile code (changes tend to create new problems),
- Technology obsolescence (e.g., few programmers for the source code language used),
- A software vendor is out of business, etc.
Commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) may not provide source code access, preventing an organization from addressing software issues. When pursuing app modernization for software for which source code is available, your organization can choose between one of three approaches:
- Revitalizing an application old applications
- Replacing an application technology with custom-built solutions
- Rehosting or re-platforming
Organizations that choose to revitalize old applications will be updating existing software with new capabilities and features. This may also include refactoring (editing the software to do the same things better).
Read more: Why choose custom software over commercial off-the-shelf solutions?
Other companies may elect to get rid of aging technology to replace it with new, custom-built solutions or with a COTS solution.
In some instances, though, to achieve performance improvements, you may just need to move your existing application onto a more powerful computing engine, typically today on a modern, cloud-based infrastructure — a process known as rehosting or re-platforming.
How do you know which is the best app modernization option for your needs?
Particularly old or antiquated legacy technology will need to be replaced, whereas newer solutions might be suitable for repurposing or retrofitting. Rehosting is the most pragmatic approach if an application still meets your business’s needs but is negatively impacted by your current infrastructure.
When updating existing software, your app modernization team will need to rewrite code to add new features to your solutions. While this can be a tedious and time-consuming process, it may be more efficient than rebuilding a new solution from the ground up.
Opting for the more labor-intensive choice of modernizing by replacing legacy systems may provide more substantial long-term benefits altogether, especially if the landscape of your industry has changed significantly since you installed your current technology suite. Proper planning will control how the migration to a new system occurs and to what extent a legacy system needs to be operational during the transition.
In order to determine which approach is most appropriate for your business, you should first consider whether your current application effectively meets your company’s needs. If it doesn’t, you will need to either repurpose or replace your technology, but if it does, a simple rehosting might be the most practical option.
Why You Need It, Especially Today
Application modernization is a core component of digital transformation. If your company’s current applications do not effectively meet its needs or promote efficiency, you will never be able to meet your digital transformation goals. In a 2019 IBM-Forrester survey, 40% of developers reported being more productive when on the cloud in a digital transformation.
Instead, you will always be working from a disadvantage, which could allow your competitors to encroach on your market share within your respective industry.
App modernization will not only enable you to fulfill your digital transformation goals, but it will also empower your business to operate more efficiently, enhancing the customer experience, paving the way for future growth, and boosting revenue.
What to Consider Before App Modernization
You cannot approach app modernization haphazardly, or you could experience significant and potentially prolonged disruptions to your company’s operations.
Remember, app modernization efforts will impact the functionality and performance of your company’s core software solutions, such as your customer relationship management platform and accounting software, so with that in mind, you must gauge the costs of an app modernization initiative.
Identify what goals you want to achieve, plan how long it will take to achieve those objectives, and seek the support of a third-party technology firm that will be able to provide an objective perspective and help you determine which approach to pursue when you start your journey toward app modernization.
Read more: The secrets to a successful app modernization journey.
Knowing Your Options in App Modernization
To decide which of these approaches is most suitable for your business, you must take an objective look at the state of your technology stack. Is the version of all elements of the stack up-to-date? Are frameworks and languages still “main stream?” If your current solutions impede business growth, it is likely time to replace them or, at minimum, rewrite them.
Rehosting can be incorporated into your app modernization strategies in two ways. If you have an application that meets your needs, you can simply migrate the app from a native architecture to a cloud-based one. Additionally, you can incorporate rehosting into your rip-and-replace or rewrite app modernization process, as transitioning to the cloud will improve the performance of any application.
Steps to Kickstart Your App Modernization Journey
The entire process can feel daunting and overwhelming when you are at the precipice of your app modernization journey. Still, you can jump-start your digital transformation and app modernization efforts through the following techniques:
1. Finding Your Why
First off, outline why you want to modernize your applications. Defining your “why” will help you and your team stay focused once your modernization journey is underway.
2. Assess Your Talent
Take an objective look at your in-house team and its capabilities. Are they going to be able to oversee your app modernization effectively? If not, it might be time to bring in some outside resources.
3. Decide Whether You Want to Move to the Cloud
Suppose you have invested heavily in on-premises resources in the past; in that case, it might be tough to move on from these assets and transition to the cloud. But making the switch will benefit your business both now and in the long run, so you should at least consider the notion.
4. Assess Risk and Act
Finally, you need to assess the risks associated with each app modernization option. Outline the benefits of rewriting your current applications, replacing them altogether, and migrating to the cloud. Once you have calculated the costs of app modernization, choose the option that best aligns with your needs and take action.
How Fingent Can Help in Successful App Modernization
Leveraging app modernization to enhance the efficacy of your digital transformation effort is a huge undertaking. Fortunately, you don’t have to navigate this process alone, as you can partner with a talented software development team like that of Fingent.
Fingent’s team of experts can help you apply the latest technologies to your business, including cloud-native solutions, artificial intelligence tools, and machine learning software.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can assist with your app modernization efforts.
Answering the Critical Questions Asked by Business Leaders Today on Digital Transformation!
Digital transformation is pervasive. It is hard but absolutely crucial. Enterprises need to transform their traditional business or risk sure failure. As new players emerge and disrupt established businesses, you will need a fundamental transformation of your core processes to remain competitive.
This may come with its share of worries though. Some of these dilemmas are obvious and quite common. They can be categorized into five major sections: productivity dilemma, value dilemma, ethical dilemma, leadership dilemma, and the human dilemma.
The right approach to these dilemmas is not taking absolute positioning with one of the concepts. Instead, a combination of the two concepts will bring the most value to your business and your clients.
This compromise or combination is not a one size fits all solution. Each organization must figure out where the right compromise is for its business. Wherever you position yourself between the concepts, know that it will have a significant impact on your business.
Given the high stakes involved, digital transformation can be an anxiety-inducing term. Digital transformation can be especially challenging for enterprises with hundreds of employees, assets worth billions, and established business models. In our experience at Fingent, answering these questions greatly increases your organizations’ chances of getting your digital transformation right.
1. What does Digital Transformation really mean?
Digital transformation involves two parts:
- Transforming to digital: This is about using digital technology as a destination. Simply put, it is reorienting your organization to the strategic use of digital technologies. These technologies may include social networks, cloud platforms, products, and so on.
- Transforming digitally: This is about changing how you take the actual digital journey. In other words, this is about using digital technologies to change the nature of your business transformation.
We have found that the organizations that have implemented both aspects are reaping huge rewards than those that are using just one.
Read more: All You Need to Know About Digitization, Digitalization, and Digital Transformation
2. Where should I begin with Digital Transformation?
Because digital transformation affects so many aspects of organizational operations and customer behavior, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Hence, business leaders need to review the core elements of the business affected by the change.
Here is what you can do: Systematically work through the elements and rank each one by its possible impact and feasibility. Doing so will provide a clearer vision of how your business landscape is changing. It also helps you think through the implications of your business.
3. How to identify which customer journey matters the most?
Every business is aware of its own priorities. For most businesses, their first priority is to use digital technologies to connect internal resources to create a more compelling customer experience.
Focusing on individual interactions with your brand helps ground the transformation by optimizing the customer journey. This helps your organization to identify which technology, process, and capability are needed to deliver a great experience.
Here is what you can do: Map out the customer journey from start to finish. Then, focus on how you can make each touchpoint better, faster, and more efficient. This may require adjusting key performance indicators to track and reward progress on customer journeys.
4. What is the biggest impediment to Digital Transformation?
Lack of collective thinking can be a huge barrier that can block your journey to digital transformation. This happens when there is no up-to-date strategic view of who is responsible for progress and how technology should add value to your business.
Here is what you can do: Provide visible CEO support to build momentum. This would require a clear mandate on things to do, sufficient resources to develop a program, and profit-loss accountability.
5. Is it necessary to ‘Test and Learn’?
Successful organizations iterate until they get it right! Constant testing will help them deliver what customers want and understand why they want it. This approach will prevent organizations from getting caught up in overly deterministic specifications, needless market research, and ineffective long planning cycles.
Here is what you can do to ensure that your ‘test and learn’ is effective: Constantly review the actions of your teams. Also, review the investments against data on all areas of customers’ journey. This will help in increasing incremental sales.
Read more: A Detailed Guide to Understanding Digital Business Transformation
6. How do I know what is the right Budgetary Cycle?
An insufficient budgetary cycle can hamper digital transformation efforts. A flexible budgetary cycle will always be the most effective one, so your investment should be linked to progress.
Here is what you can do: You need not hesitate to pull the plug if key performance indicators fail. On the other hand, you must also be ready to quickly pump in more funding if the performance justifies it.
7. What are the benefits of a Challenger Board?
Remember not all ideas are brilliant. A ‘challenger board’ can ensure that a bad idea does not squander all your resources.
Here is what you can do: Choose people who know your business inside out to form your ‘challenger board.’ Based on their experience and outsider perspective, these experts can quickly uncover problems and identify opportunities for business disruption.
As a second option, you could set up a dedicated advisory board. They can help a company guide its organization through digital transformation.
Read more: Future Proof Your Business With 5G, Edge Computing, And Cloud!
How Can Fingent Help In Your Approach To Digital Transformation?
If your primary concern is speed to market and ongoing work agility, rest assured, Fingent top custom software development company, is here to help you. We are experts in AEC, an acronym that stands for Agility, Engagement, and Connectivity.
- Agility: Fingent will enable you to build and implement applications quickly.
- Engagement: Our experts at Fingent can prove appropriate application user experiences for each worker.
- Connectivity: We will make it easy for you to integrate your business with external systems and data sources.
Together with new cloud-based deployment, we at Fingent extend strong support for model-driven organizations. We will help you break through the inevitable barriers and increase your chances of achieving a successful digital transformation. Call us!
Everyone in the manufacturing world faces the fear of going bust if they do not adopt digital transformation. That is a given and yet we can all agree that digital transformation doesn’t happen overnight.
Currently, enterprises encounter several challenges on their digital transformation journey. One among them is to learn to create and use data through a product life cycle that creates flexible manufacturing processes. Such processes can respond instantly to changes in demand at a low cost to the firm without damage to the environment.
Are you a manufacturer with global aspirations? Do you need to accelerate lead times and product customization? If so, then you may encounter these common business challenges:
- Need for critical infrastructure in remote locations.
- Need for tailored and full-custom design with high quality and ruggedness that fit your specific requirements.
- Need for a simplified supply chain that enables you to get to market quicker and realize faster time to revenue.
- Need to maximize efficiency in the supply chain and ultimately reduce lead time.
- Need to ensure product longevity by providing the same time-zone technical support. And to provide personal support services with the ability to decrease lead times.
Technologies such as 5G, edge computing, and cloud have been pushed further into the limelight especially over the past year, in the wake of the pandemic. As enterprises react to the changing world, these technologies are now emerging at the forefront as a necessary component of network infrastructure.
Read more: Take a Look at How 5G is Reinventing the Way We Work
How Do 5G, Cloud, And Edge Computing Unlock Enterprise Opportunities?
5G, cloud, and edge computing have become major areas of interest and investment at the enterprise level. They provide real-time insights, analytics, and business benefits that can be used once mission-critical latency issues are resolved.
5G, Edge Compute, and Cloud technologies are an emerging set of solutions. When orchestrated together these can enable a spectrum of benefits that are contingent on industry, maturity, and technology. These are complementary technologies that work together for most use cases.
What unlocks the enterprise opportunities is to marry new and existing technologies to create machinery that is as proactive and predictive as the best workers. Edge computing, cloud, and 5G connectivity can be combined to supercharge real-time decision-making and improve quality assurance throughout the supply line.
How would you like it if you can predict the future? Or if you could see the possible problems and correct them before they happen? 5G, edge computing, and cloud promise to give you that ability! These technologies are in a symbiotic relationship.
Cloud contains unlimited resources. Powered by 5G, AI models can continuously update and adapt to situations within the enterprise. This virtuous feedback loop delivers real-time results. Plus, it delivers ongoing improvements over time, as the entire system across the enterprise learns and improves from prior experiences.
This can greatly improve the productivity of your employees. Also, it can save costs tremendously as it can reduce downtime. Here are some specific ways in which 5G, edge computing, and the cloud can benefit the industry.
Read more: How 5G Will Boost Enterprise Investment In Cloud
Cloud For Responsive Resilience
In the past when enterprises needed to deploy applications using their equipment, they had to ensure that their server, memory, and processing power were equipped to run the application efficiently. Any misjudgment could have a cascading effect throughout the enterprise. However, the cloud provides infinite opportunities.
What enterprise opportunities does this provide? It provides what all enterprises need more than ever: increased speed, resilience, and flexibility.
Bringing cloud intelligence to their IT networks can be very beneficial in performing preventive maintenance, making decisions in real-time, and keeping data more secure. It allows for automated decision-making while saving bandwidth costs.
By leveraging cloud capabilities, enterprises can reduce overall costs. They can benefit from automated one-click deployment and realize higher value from data. This contributes to resilience. Resilience is more important to enterprises that are struggling during major disruptions like the pandemic.
Read more: Why It’s Time to Embrace Cloud and Mobility Trends To Recession-Proof Your Business?
5G Can Help Process Information Across The Enterprise
5G technology enables enterprise connectivity, remains powerful, and is constantly updated. 5G enables all the machines and modules to function at the same speed, reliability, and security as we expect from our phones. In other words, it prevents loss of time due to hanging or buffering associated with the mobile networks.
5G will deliver multiple benefits to those who adopt it:
- Provides ultra-reliability and security. It is far more efficient than any wireless mechanism.
- Since 5G eliminates the need for wired connectivity, it enables a high-speed environment with higher flexibility and lower latency.
- Provides the ability to handle mass customization and personalization.
- 5G augments IoT capacity to support device density and data volume
- Improves productivity as it reduces failure rates.
Read more: Top Business Drivers that Boost Legacy Cloud Migration
Edge Computing Can Help Deploy Technology With Unhindered Network Performance
Edge computing can reduce pressure on data centers and service provider networks. Plus, it preserves bandwidth and brings real-time processing close to users and their devices. Here are specific ways in which edge computing can prove advantageous:
- Maintain competitive edge: Edge computing can provide the ability to use data from various machines, processes, and systems to adapt the manufacturing processes in real-time. It can support precision monitoring of the production line. This enables swift operational responsiveness to unforeseen events. Additionally, it can gather data from connected systems and devices in real-time. Hence, manufactures can now analyze data at the point of creation leading to faster and more informed decision-making within the enterprise.
- Helps seize the opportunities that data and performance-intensive technologies present: Edge computing can empower employees and streamline workflows. It can enable smarter supply chains and improve employee safety and productivity.
- Documents at fingertips: Edge computing can provide workers easy access to documents, new workflow instructions, real-time videos and images, and new product updates. This can increase greater efficiency despite social distancing protocols in the current scenario.
Gain a Competitive Edge with Next-Gen Technologies
With IoT deployment on the rise, enterprises are increasingly adopting 5G, cloud, and edge computing. These technologies provide a competitive advantage by reducing unexpected downtime issues. Hence, the enterprises enjoy improved overall efficiency.
The convergence of these technologies can increase agility and resilience. These technologies can be leveraged to establish enhanced productivity, customer satisfaction, and increased ROI. Hence, 5G, cloud, and edge computing technologies must form an important part of any post-pandemic strategies. You must be eager to get started on gaining that competitive edge. Let’s get talking and make that happen!
5 Ways Application Modernization Enables Your Business to Grow and Reap ROI During a Pandemic
Reduce your operational costs and unnecessary investments with legacy modernization
Since the pandemic started tightening its grip on the world, businesses have seen an unmistakable acceleration in digital transformation. Legacy application modernization enables enterprises to have the agility and ability to respond to dynamic changes. Software technologies are being enhanced and deployed at an unprecedented scale, and most businesses have noted a high appetite for digital transformation.
Read more: A Detailed Guide to Understanding Digital Business Transformation
Your business should also have an application modernization strategy to ensure business continuity and growth in a highly volatile market. Modernizing your existing applications or systems is the best way to monetize the current capital and avoid unwanted technology investments.
Legacy application modernization helps you get rid of accumulating technical debts and business paralysis. This blog discusses how application modernization enables businesses to transform digitally and scale up during the pandemic.
What is application modernization?
Application modernization involves updating older software for new computing approaches. These updates include new languages, frameworks, and infrastructure platforms. We can compare this update to renovating an older home, enabling it with better safety, structural integrity, ease of use, design, and so forth. This practice is also called legacy modernization. Legacy modernization extends the lifespan of your applications instead of replacing them wholly. Such an approach will allow your business to take advantage of technology innovations.
Most businesses have thoughtfully invested in their existing application portfolio. Some companies are ready to retire these applications and adopt the latest. However, this can be costly from both a financial and operational standpoint. Hence, “application modernization is the most sensible way to leverage newer platforms, tools, and frameworks.”
Read more: Why modernize your legacy systems? What’s the best approach to legacy systems modernization?
5 ways application modernization enables businesses to scale up during the pandemic
Owning and operating outdated software can present a variety of challenges during the pandemic. Outdated software can accumulate problems over time, resulting in employee and customer frustration. Here’s how application modernization helps businesses scale up during the pandemic.
Read more: Six Common Enterprise Software Development Myths Debunked
1. Application Modernization reduces costs
Because of diminishing resources during the pandemic, “cost“ has been the most important driving factor for application modernization. For example, the more data you accumulate, the more you have to pay for the on-premise data center forcing companies to buy new storage systems more frequently.
It is expensive to own and maintain the infrastructure as they incur extra costs for cooling, space, and electricity. Apart from these expenses, you would need a dedicated IT team to maintain a vast storage system. Therefore, it is reasonable and beneficial to invest in timely application modernization that helps avoid all the costs mentioned above.
Read more: Four Ways to Future-Proof Legacy Applications
2. Enhances customer experience
With stiff competition, the market has turned into a battleground for businesses that sell similar products and services. In this scenario, customer experience is what will set a company apart. Continued use of an outdated system can hurt your customer experience because they have limited functionality. Legacy software affects efficiency and waiting time. Additionally, the security problems of legacy software can easily compromise your business and customer data, impacting your brand severely.
On the other hand, a customer expects your business to keep up with the latest trends and technology. Application modernization can enhance your customers’ experience by transforming the end-user interface, automating manual processes, and creating new features. Essentially, your business operations will be more efficient with more stable systems, quicker fixes, and better security. All of it together sets your business apart, ensuring your business thrives during the pandemic.
3. Enables you to create new features and services
You may have invested in software that is perfect for your current needs. However, the pandemic has taught us that change is inevitable. An application that is working well today may not perform so tomorrow. Every new patch, release, or update that is not purpose-built will be a problem for you. It is challenging to meet the changing customer needs during an economic downturn.
Thankfully, application modernization allows your business to create new features and services that align with your current and future goals. These new features and services can be purpose-built for your business to ensure the legacy application continues to provide value today and into the future.
4. Improves employee productivity
You cannot expect your employee to work with applications and systems that seem to take forever to respond or perform simple operations. Just as businesses expect efficiency from their employees, employees expect their companies to provide high-performance technologies in their offices.
Working on outdated applications can frustrate your employees, lowering their performance and hindering their success. Legacy and low-performing software can increase work stress resulting in missed deadlines. It can also affect overall productivity as it irritates and demotivates your workforce.
Application modernization can automate several repetitive tasks and processes, freeing up your employees to concentrate on more intelligent tasks. It will save time and increase the efficiency of your employees. Since modernization minimizes application problems, it allows you to develop more features designed to streamline your operations.
Watch video: New Technologies for Workforce Management and Optimization
5. Erases technical debts
Technical debt creates friction between developers and their work. It may increase their job tomorrow, as the situation demands them to take the fastest and shortest approach to deliver the project today. Technical debt includes the implied cost of additional rework that developers have to bear for taking a shortcut today. It is translated into incremental cost and loss of agility because of prior decisions intended to save time or cost. Moreover, technical debt can build up to a point where developers will not be able to do anything to rectify it. Technical debt can result in increased maintenance costs and the inability to add new features. Since each part depends on the other, any attempt to fix one part might cause some damage to another.
Application modernization can erase technical debt because it eliminates the need to replace your existing systems completely. Thus, your company need not spend resources to maintain an outdated code. It will also reduce overall problems from technical debt. Legacy software modernization fixes your application’s glitches and makes it more robust and healthy.
Modernize your apps without burning a hole in your pocket
Your business can get up to speed with application modernization without investing heavily in all new systems. With application modernization, your business will see increased revenue in the long run. It boosts productivity and enhances the security of your applications.
Get started on your mission to legacy modernization. We at Fingent software development experts can help you make smart decisions and find the most effective way to modernize your systems without leaving a gaping hole in your company’s resources. Give us a call, and let’s get talking.
Why modernize your legacy systems? What’s the best approach to legacy systems modernization?
Identify the best approach to legacy system modernization
With changing customer behavior, enterprises have changed their norms and business applications. Now, retailers have to fulfill orders in a multichannel, multitouch eCommerce environment; consumer banks have to provide secure and user-friendly apps, and travel brands have reconfigured their approach to stay relevant in the face of disruptors.
All these changes require legacy system modernization.
What are legacy systems?
A legacy system may be different for each company, depending on their business. While many organizations prefer to leverage new software tools and run them on old systems, others update their applications one at a time. That said, few companies are still using both old software and old systems.
Read more: Four Ways to Future-Proof Legacy Applications
Legacy systems are considered old when the software fits the early 2000s, not 2020-21. However, not all legacy software or systems are defined solely according to their age.
What is legacy systems modernization?
Simply put, modernization means updating all or some of the IT stack to enhance your business processes and goals.
However, here are three definitions that will help you understand that legacy system modernization is more than just updating the system.
- Legacy software: The application(s) that your business depends on from the last year to the past decade or more.
- Legacy software modernization: Replacing and updating all inefficient systems, processes, and applications either partly or entirely.
- Re-platforming: Modernization begins with the platform on which your business applications are built. Moving your e-commerce platform from Shopify to Magento is an example of re-platforming.
There’s no denying that business leaders drive innovation at their companies. But they need the latest technologies to enable and support this innovation. They need fast applications, systems that support connectivity, and platforms that bring all these together. Most older IT companies fail to meet these modern needs. So, legacy system modernization is a must in such cases.
That said, digital transformation has pushed application leaders to find effective ways to modernize legacy systems.
Why do you need legacy system modernization?
Legacy system modernization is more than just updating the system. It is about bringing the entire organization to meet the digital environment.
Some of the reasons to consider legacy modernization are:
- It helps create and maintain a competitive advantage by building a solution that will help you stay ahead of competitors.
- Provides reliable processes with reduced risks, improves the system’s functioning, and improves performance.
- Ensures satisfied customers and happier employees by meeting UX and performance standards.
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- It helps you scale in the future by transforming your IT stack into an agile platform for future change.
- Secures your IT infrastructure from internal security breaches and external threats
- From accounting software to CRMs, legacy systems introduce simpler integration with several new enterprise software used by various businesses.
- Addresses the financial inefficiencies of legacy system
- It helps realize growth opportunities, exceed customer expectations, and gain new customers by staying ahead of the enterprise software curve.
Have a look at some of the points in more detail.
Company finances
Integrated, up-to-date, and user-friendly software and systems will save your company on downtime, transactions, and more. For instance, Javelin Strategy & Research observed that mobile and online banking transactions cost only $0.10 while offline processing cost around $4.25 for financial institutions.
Older software and systems can help you spend less on technology, but they end up incurring other overhead expenses.
Software integration
Most organizations rely on third-party APIs to realize maximum enterprise value. For example, Zillow, a real-estate listing site, relies on the Google Maps API for full functionality.
Making sure your new software system is ready for integration will help meet the expectations of your customers, employees, and stakeholders.
Gartner recommends how to approach legacy modernization
Here is a three-step evaluation process provided by Gartner on how to approach the legacy system’s modernization.
Step 1: Use six drivers to evaluate your legacy systems
There are six main drivers for the modernization of your legacy system. These are the issues or concerns that the legacy application has created due to its architecture, functionality, or technology.
Three of these drivers are from a business perspective, such as business value, business fit, and agility. So, if your legacy system does not meet the new requirements, it will have to be modernized to fit properly and should be updated to provide more business value. Systems that are not agile enough to meet digital business demand are more likely to risk liability.
Step 2: Evaluate modernization
Once you identify the problem and select the opportunity, look at the modernization options. Here are seven options provided by Gartner. These options are ranked based on the ease of implementation- the easier it is, the less risk and impact it will have on the system and the business processes, the difficult, the more risk and impact it will have.
- Enhance and extend the application features by encapsulating its data and functions by making them available via an API.
- Be it cloud, virtual or physical, rehost the application component to other infrastructure without changing its code, functions, or features.
- Make minimal changes to the code but not the code structure, features, or functions to migrate to a new runtime platform.
- Restructure and optimize the existing code but not its external behavior to improve non-functional attributes and remove technical debt.
- Modify the code materially to shift it to new application architecture and exploit newer capabilities.
- Rebuild the application component from scratch while retaining its scope and specifications.
- Eliminate the former application and replace it while taking into account the new requirements and needs.
Step 3: Select a modernization approach that has the highest effect and value
The last step is to choose the modernization approach by mapping the seven modernization options concerning their effect on architecture, technology, functionality, costs, and risks.
It is important to weigh all the options to identify the extent to which they will all have the desired effect with less effort and maximum positive impact.
Read more: Business Process Re-engineering: Facing Crisis with Confidence
How can Fingent help update your legacy system?
Whether you are looking to re-architect your enterprise software or re-platform your entire system, or simply looking for new solutions that integrate with what you have going, we have you covered. We offer business process re-engineering and platform modernization services.
With expertise in various industries and a full-cycle in-house software development team specializing in legacy modernization, we can make your entire process efficient and personalized. Talk to our expert to know more about this.
How to plan a successful COVID-exit strategy and get your business on track?
If the 2008-09 global recession was due to financial meltdown and economic vulnerabilities, the 2020 economic crisis stemmed from the global pandemic and subsequent health emergency. Both incidents hold lessons that business owners and leaders should follow to fast-track their organizations’ recovery in 2021.
Read more: 11 Practices Followed by Leaders to Build Resilience and Ensure Rapid Business Recovery
Economic growth in 2021 is likely to improve compared to the growth rate in the second half of 2020. However, it will still be uneven. Additionally, the timing and growth will vary for different products and services and geographic markets.
Given the uncertain recovery of the economy, leaders and business owners need to plan a successful strategy to lead their teams and organizations over the year. The focus should be a forecast of their companies’ revenue potentially earned in every quarter of the year.
That said, the COVID-exit strategy is not straightforward. Leaders and business owners will have to make a few difficult choices.
- How much should my organization change, and how fast?
- How far should I go to change my current strategy and adopt faster and more agile approaches?
These are some of the questions that you’ll probably need to figure out. However, remember that if your organization does not move quickly, it will lose itself in the crowd.
One of the best ways to transform is to apply the “all-in” approach to transformation. It means to go ahead with full speed. Whether your organization’s transformation should be about portfolio moves or performance improvements misses the point. If you want to succeed, you must consider both and make your transformation go big. This approach will help your organization emerge stronger and sustain the competitive edge for a long time.
This article discusses how leaders can build a successful COVID-exit strategy and begin a holistic transformation.
Three fundamental steps that organizations can consider
If your organization is successfully managing portfolio and performance moves simultaneously in a transformation, you can invest in three foundational steps:
- Getting an honest view of the business’s full potential across both portfolio and performance moves.
- Understanding the impact of those moves.
- Creating a program with a proper structure and sequence to maximize value creation.
While understanding the full business potential, leaders must know the importance of setting a high aspiration. According to McKinsey & Company, companies that put their gross transformation targets at 75% of trailing earnings are more likely to create value sustainably.
Incrementalism may be risky for organizations trying to break out from the COVID-19 crisis. Management teams seek safety to confront the current situation and avoid the discomfort of going in for the big moves. In reality, leaders must use this time and opportunity to challenge assumptions and overcome social barriers that block bold moves.
Read more: Top 5 Organizational Imperatives for Business Leaders to Become Winners in the New Normal
Successful digital transformation requires leaders to answer these questions
- Which line(s) of business does my company no longer own naturally?
- Which trends accelerated by COVID-19 could transform my business?
- What are the new efficiencies and business models developed by my company to meet the COVID-19 necessities?
- How can my organization benefit from the advantages of those new efficiencies and business models in the next normal?
- How has my organization’s health changed, and what elements and capability building will be required to maximize the impact of the COVID-exit?
While you are trying to balance portfolio and performance moves, you will also need to consider the sequencing. Portfolio and performance initiatives must go hand-in-hand. You must consider each move by defining the magnitude, timing, and risk of impact.
Read more: Fingent Speaks: What it Takes to Build a Successful Digital Transformation Strategy
According to McKinsey & Co., stand-alone portfolio moves capture less than half of value creation, especially in areas such as deal premiums, performance upside, or growing new business. However, if your strategy is ill-conceived, even stand-alone performance moves can take time and maybe outweighed by acquiring the wrong business lines.
Two cases of “all-in transformation”
While you must consider both portfolio moves and performance improvements, which of these should you execute first? The answer depends on the organization and context.
How and when you implement your transformation elements must be guided by your organization’s various circumstances and potential at any given time.
We’re listing two cases of “all-in transformation” here. Both the examples highlight the significance of sequenced transformation in unlocking business value. In both cases, the organizations identified the required potentials, set high aspirations, and deliberately sequenced the portfolio and performance moves to achieve the results. However, the companies differed in how they advanced from there.
First case:
In the first case, the value creation and its sequencing were as follows:
- The company streamlined its cost structure, focused on resource allocation, and carved out a few of its competing lines after consolidating business units and simplifying the executive team. This reorganization enabled about 10% of total transformation value creation.
- Next, the company improved the effectiveness of its sales force which generated high revenue growth. It also implemented automation and simplifications to reduce overheads and adopted a strategic procurement approach to reduce external expenditure. These operational improvements enabled about 75% of transformation value creation.
- Lastly, the company invested in optimizing firms it had acquired and integrated a similar set of core capabilities.
Second case:
The second case, though an all-in transformation program, took a separate route.
- After a significant merger, the company re-evaluated its core business portfolio and divested non-core business. This approach enabled the organization to focus on financial flexibility by using the proceeds to buy back stock. Overall, this performance move allowed the company about 75% of value creation.
- By streamlining its operations, focusing on revenue growth and margin improvements, the company’s performance transformation enabled about 25% of value creation.
Read more: 7 Ways for Your Business to Overcome the COVID-19 Aftermath
From these examples, leaders need to understand that they cannot choose between a portfolio-first or performance-first approach while planning their exit strategy. The order is not important, but leaders will have to accept that they are going all in, set high aspirations right from the start, and let the realization of full potential determine what happens. Avoiding an ad hoc approach to value creation may have significant implications over the long-term. Research reveals that organizations that go for the “all-in” transformation approach are more likely to show lasting improvements and are nearly three times more likely to be ahead of their competitors.
The takeaway
After a year of uncertainties, CEOs and business leaders are aware that the COVID-exit path will not be easy. However, if companies adopt an all-in transformation approach, they can expect more dynamism and flexibility during the journey.
Read more: 10 Services Offered by Fingent to Prepare Your Business for the Future of Digital Innovation
At top software development company Fingent, we use cutting-edge digital solutions and rapid innovation to help businesses reinvent the future. We’re closely monitoring the situation and helping businesses return to work with our technology consulting and innovation capabilities. Feel free to get in touch with us to know how we can transform your business digitally.
What comes under the scope of digital transformation? How does it differ from digitization and digitalization?
Digital Transformation vs. Digitization vs. Digitalization: Decoding the Concepts
The term digital transformation captivates every enterprise leader. Given the hype from software vendors and analysts, it’s hard to find an enterprise technology today that doesn’t self-endorse as a critical component of digital transformation.
While everyone seems to agree that digital transformation involves employing technology to accomplish business goals, there are differences of opinion among companies on what digital transformation is and isn’t. For a few, it means getting into e-commerce or moving into a cloud database. Some consider digital transformation as the adoption of advanced technologies like the Internet of Things or Artificial Intelligence to become more competitive.
Read more: Why Business Leaders Must Embrace Digital Adoption
With a lot of uncertainty prevailing on digital transformation’s scope and purpose, let’s take a closer look at what digital transformation means and not.
Digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation: Don’t confuse them
An excellent example of digitization is the conversion of paper-based forms and documents into electronic spreadsheets. Digitization enables businesses to cut costs to become more efficient. However, that’s the only competitive advantage it offers, either getting better or cheaper. Exactly what Microsoft Office did during its initial days by helping us compose and save documents easily.
With Big Data, Cloud Computing, and DevOps becoming ubiquitous, digitalization advanced businesses’ need to expand their online presence. A field service provider who never relied on software to run her company is now using an FSM suite to manage accounts, send invoices, create and schedule work orders, and generate reports. A digital strategy- such as a website or a mobile app- is inevitable for a business to stay connected with its customers in this digital world.
In addition to cost reduction and differentiation, digitization and digitalization are intended to simplify what a business does without drastic augmentation.
Digital transformation shifts the focus from the engineering mindset to the experience mindset. Peloton bike that offers an immersive cardio experience is a recent example of digital transformation. Peloton’s latest $2300 exercise bike streams customized workout content to its users through the large 22″ touch screen attached to it. Peloton applies user data tracking, engagement, and experience to replicate the studio-grade experience. This appeals to a vast customer base.
When most of the outdoor gyms were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Peloton transformed the indoor exercise experience for their customers with personalized content streamed live as well as on-demand.
“Digital transformation can simply be defined as the application of new and emerging technologies to make fundamental changes to your business model.”
Read more: 4 Key Questions to Ask When Your Business Embarks on Digital Transformation
Digital transformation: Three areas of focus
“It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change,” wrote Charles Darwin in 1809. For businesses, keeping up with the change is no longer an option but a condition. How can business leaders seize the opportunity and lead the change?
Read more: Fingent Speaks: What it Takes to Build a Successful Digital Transformation Strategy
1. Build and deliver customer-centric experiences
Digital transformation reimagines and redefines the customer experience. It isn’t easy to find a sector that is not disrupted by technology today.
Dairy farming, one of the most traditional industries that still follows farming practices passed down from generation to generation, is now embracing emerging technology to get smarter.
“Connected cows” – cows wearing pedometers and Fitbit-style necklaces to monitor feeding habits, acid monitors to detect digestive problems, and other cow-monitoring mechanisms to oversee milk production, smooth calving process, and ensure cattle health is an example of digital transformation in a traditional industry. The “connected cows” farming has led to greater crop yields and simplified the management of larger livestock herds.
Doesn’t emerging technology improve the farmer’s experience who first checks out her mobile or PC before heading to the stable in the morning?
2. Make the best of advanced technology
The early IT activities were focused on cutting costs and reducing human efforts by building relatively simple applications. With the growth and complexity of computing platforms and software applications, businesses have been showing the hunger to find the next big thing in technology that can enhance not just what they deliver but how they deliver. The ubiquitous digital assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Google Now, and Amazon’s Alexa can understand and recognize the context and enable businesses to improve customer interactions by not just being responsive but proactive.
Oncologists and pathologists use machine learning to discern patterns in symptoms to detect cancerous tissues or analyze bodily fluids. Mixed reality (MR) technology that breaks the barrier between physical and digital worlds is now getting mature enough to take digital data and place it in our actual environment. Ohio-based Case Western Reserve University uses Microsoft HoloLens devices to study human anatomy where an entire class can view the same life-sized 3D image at once. IoT applications that gather data continuously are programmed to improve the quality and productivity of life, society, and industries.
Robotic Process Automation, Blockchain, Augmented and Virtual realities, Artificial Intelligence– are all emerging technologies that enable digital transformation by enhancing customer experience. With numerous open-source libraries made available by tech providers like AWS, IBM Watson, Google Cloud, and various other vendors, it’s now possible for anyone to experiment and create POCs free of cost. The democratization of technology accelerates digital transformation.
Read more: Digital Transformation in Financial Services: All You Need to Know
3. Culture, organizational structure, and processes
“Transformation isn’t a plan or program; it’s a chain reaction of experiments,” says Joris Merks-Benjaminsen, Head of Digital Transformation at Google.
Fostering an environment of openness, business leaders can create a culture that allows ideas to flourish. Fluid structures, tools, and workplaces encourage employees to think outside the box and embrace change. Predictive models solely based on past experiences will only have a short-term impact. If you can offer more flexibility in the design and logic of a business case, people are more likely to invest their time, effort, and skills in things that matter for transformation.
Enterprise leaders can make way for transformation by:
- Supporting people focus on the future by establishing a stable long-term vision that includes well-defined challenges for them to work on.
- Implementing tools that facilitate cross-team collaboration and encouraging everyone to connect irrespective of hierarchy or position in the org chart.
- Adopting a “test and learn” approach, including “learning from mistakes” and rewarding experimentation. Small gestures of appreciation like awards and incentives inspire employees to practice acts of innovation.
Passionate leadership that cares about the customer and stimulates forward motion by encouraging entrepreneurship will successfully ride the transformation wave.
What digital transformation means today
Before Netflix, we used to scour shop racks in search of tapes, discs, and DVDs. Today, Netflix has transformed our content consumption experience by leveraging AI-driven content recommendations, live streaming, and endless libraries of digital content served upon our personal devices, topped with personalized suggestions, reviews, and attractive subscription options.
Digital transformation is not about how your business can sell more products to more people. It’s about making your customers spend more than they would otherwise. Rather than repositioning your brand as a seller of your products, you should aim at transforming to be a solution provider that helps solve your buyers’ woes and enhance their experience. If the first wave of transformation brought businesses online, the current wave of transformation requires businesses to innovate their selling process and offer new services and products that can solidify customer loyalty.
Need help with your digital transformation goals?
Fingent is setting up practices to actively leverage third-party developer innovation to reduce the time-to-market for our customers and us. One of our products, InfinCE, is empowering small businesses to achieve digital agility without the need to own infrastructure or an IT practice. ReachOut, another product, has digitized several field service businesses through automation of manual operations, digital inspection forms and checklists, and intelligent scheduling.
Fingent custom software development experts are highly experienced in helping businesses solve their digital transformation challenges. We have partnered with businesses worldwide in their digital transformation projects. We can help you define your vision and create robust digital transformation plans that enable your business to transform and grow. To take advantage and get the ball rolling, please get in touch with Fingent.
Why Does the Retail Industry Need to Embrace Digital Transformation?
The term digital transformation in the retail industry means disruption, new services, and improved functioning of the existing system using technology.
As the customer journey is evolving, retailers have to adapt and evolve as well. Also, with the shift towards personalized shopping, retailers have to go beyond focusing on a single technology in order to create new and innovative business models.
Location-based services, mobile apps, and big data analytics have brought about a significant change in the retail industry. This post details the significance of Digital Transformation in Retail.
What does digital transformation mean for retail?
Retailers will have to look beyond marginal enhancements and redefine processes to create a connected engagement using technology. Digital transformation is not only about agility, innovation, data intelligence, customer centricity, and new value propositions but also about streamlining processes, reducing costs, and improving productivity across the transactional cycle.
Now, more than ever before, retailers have to rethink every aspect of their business. Right from sourcing, pricing, inventory planning, employee training to customer experience management, retailers have to find new ways to drive revenues and create innovative business models.
McKinsey states that COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies in the retail industry. According to their report, e-commerce penetration in the United States which was supposed to reach 24% by 2024 has rapidly grown from 17% to 33% in just two months since the lockdown.
“Contactless retail that leverages digital transformation technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Virtual Reality (VR) increases customers’ confidence to shop during the COVID-19 pandemic”, says GlobalData. With changes in consumer behavior and consumption patterns, retail digital transformation trends are only likely to continue in the future.
Read more: Contactless services: The New Normal in Retail
Simply put, digital transformation in retail can improve customer retention and satisfaction by offering products and services according to their needs.
What are the benefits of digital transformation in the retail industry?
While digital transformation is not an easy one, a well-thought strategy can bring in the desired results. Also, it comes with several advantages such as:
1. Improved operations
Using cloud technologies helps improve operations within the company and enable the retail staff to respond to customers quickly which eventually improves client support. Availability of real-time data helps predict demands ahead of time and stock goods in advance.
2. Convenience
AI tools are helping customers to shop without a cashier and enabling retailers to sell their products in physical stores as well as websites and mobile apps. Thus, AI-powered automation of retail processes such as locating items, tracking inventory and replenishing stocks, remembering customer preferences, etc. will enhance the customer experience.
Read more: AI To Solve Today’s Retail Profit Problems
3. Better communication
Retailers can form a better connection and improve their communication with their customers via social media, mobile apps, websites, chatbots, etc.
4. Enhanced customer experience
Digital transformation influences customer experiences and makes them better. Technical tools help increase the productivity of the employees and make services more efficient. This helps customers get not just high-quality services but also ensures a pleasant buying journey. While digital transformation is customer-centered, it also helps your business become better and stay ahead of the competition.
Read more: Re-Imagining Customer Experience in Retail Industry
5. Boost revenue
Digital transformation offers retailers a chance to reach a wider target audience and thus increase their channels of income.
Why is the retail digital transformation more relevant now?
While the shift towards e-commerce is not new, the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated it. In the United States alone, approximately $600 billion represented online sales that accounted for 56% of overall retail growth in 2019.
Here are some more reasons why businesses have to mandate digital transformation and tweak their customer journey to respond effectively.
1. Life post-COVID will see a surge in online shopping
With increased emphasis on social distancing and personal safety, there will be several changes in consumer demands, saving patterns, spending style, and buying channels. Business leaders must plan their digital transformation and make profits in the post-COVID era. Business recovery and sustenance will depend on digital channels during the social distancing phase. Businesses should consider establishing digital channels and improving presence, invest in data, and improve models for customer demands. Additionally, business leaders can integrate pandemic outbreak models with supply chain demands and empower employees to work from home efficiently.
2. Transparency in supply chain
The pandemic has affected the supply networks across the globe and has caused many retailers to be unable to meet consumer demand for their products. So, retailers will have to be more transparent about their inventory and plan their online and offline customer experience.
3. Retailers with a digital presence will be more successful
Given the current pandemic situation, most people are indoors and spending only on essential items. So, retailers having a digital presence are already ahead of the competition. Such retailers are taking advantage of the pandemic situation and capturing the market share through innovation and customer acquisition. Businesses need to continue with their digital transformation program instead of closing their business and filing for bankruptcy.
4. Customers are rooting for their favorite brand
Most people are affected by social distancing, maintaining personal hygiene, queuing up for entry in stores, and other restrictions. So, customers are rooting for their favorite brands and expecting them to provide better services while taking safety measures. This increases the demand for digital transformation of retail more than ever.
Top 3 retail digital transformation trends to embrace
Retail digital transformation has already started and many companies have benefited from it. However, digital transformation is not a short-term process as technologies keep evolving and retailers will have to keep track of the latest trends. We have shared some of the latest trends to watch out for.
1. Augmented Reality (AR)
AR technologies and tools are helping customers to try and view things from the comfort of their homes. For instance, Toyota’s Augmented Reality shopping experience allows you to try 10 different cars before selecting the right one.
Another great example is IKEA. They let their customers choose furniture using their app. Customers just have to point the camera to the right place at home and the app will suggest options that suit your decor.
2. Mobile applications
Mobile apps help you connect with customers in a better way. It allows customers to check on the products, read reviews, etc. Additionally, customers can contact the support team in case of any issues.
Mobile apps are also good for further development as they allow you to add new features and enhance the services you provide.
Read more: 3 Must-Have Retail Mobile App Features to Boost Your Business
3. Virtual Reality (VR)
Virtual Reality technology has immense potential to develop and grow in the retail industry. VR can enhance customer experience and take it to the next level as it will allow customers to check homes, cars, etc., without even stepping inside. The retail giant Walmart employs VR headsets in over 4,500 of its stores for managing grand shopping events like Black Friday. VR training has boosted the confidence and productivity of Walmart’s associates and has increased their rate of retention.
Summing up
It can be said that simply having a retail store will not help you anymore. You must integrate digital transformation from your physical store to your online store and social media accounts.
Instead of spending days researching your options, we can help you save your time and money. Let us know about your retail business needs and we’ll come up with the best digital transformation strategies suited for you. Contact us today.