Digital transformation is the process of using digital technologies to create new — or modify existing — business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements. This re-imagining of business in the digital age is digital transformation.

It transcends traditional roles like sales, marketing, and customer service. Instead, digital transformation begins and ends with how you think about, and engage with, customers. As we move from paper to spreadsheets to smart applications for managing our business, we have the chance to re-imagine how we do business — how we engage our customers — with digital technology on our side.

For small businesses just getting started, there’s no need to set up your business processes and transform them later. You can future-proof your organisation from the word go. Building a 21st-century business on stickies and handwritten ledgers just isn’t sustainable. Thinking, planning, and building digitally sets you up to be agile, flexible, and ready to grow.

The drivers in digitisation and digital transformation

Modern customer expectations are being driven by largely digital technology and digital innovations. The always-connected customer is always seeing new possibilities. When they see new things elsewhere, they want them from you, too. And if you can’t offer them, they’ll find someone else who can. The digitally connected world makes it easier than ever for customers to comparison shop and move from one brand to another, often with minimal effort required.

Digital innovation shapes business across all industries.

Digital transformation impacts every industry. Whether your business generates revenue through client services, digital media, or physical goods, technological innovations can transform your means of production, distribution, and customer service.

Depending on your business, your customer could be a consumer or a business-to-business (B2B) client. Let’s extend our perspective to also include your employees. As we’ll talk about in a moment, employee expectations are being driven by their own consumer experiences, particularly when it comes to digital innovation in the workplace.

Customers expect digital technology and innovation.

Today’s customers are connected and empowered by the digital era. They’re connected 24/7, and increasingly want and expect that same around-the-clock access to the companies they do business with. The key drivers behind this change in consumer behaviour? Mobile devices and social media.

Digital innovations are transforming industries

Employees aren’t the only ones benefiting from easy-to-use, always-on access to information in the workplace. Machines themselves are getting smarter, too. Artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud analytics, and sensors of all sizes and capabilities are transforming manufacturing, production, research — virtually all facets of business across all industries.