Unless you have been living under a rock, you will no doubt have heard the term ‘Digital Transformation’ slung around with wild abandon. It really is a term that has been overused and to some extent, its validity today is somewhat questionable. To explain what I mean, perhaps I need to digress a little. Firstly, what is ‘Digital Transformation’ anyway? Fundamentally, it is the implementation of technology, processes and controls to improve business outcomes.
More broadly this involves the integration of systems across the organisation to improve efficiency, visibility and enhance the customer experience. That sounds positively reasonable, definitely a noble goal. So why do I have problem with the term? My problem is that most organisations have already begun their digital journey and most of them don’t even realise it. Let alone attach a fancy title to it. Besides which, I have a real problem with the word ‘Digital’. We need to change our lexicon; digitisation was the process of moving from analogue (physical) systems to technological solutions and we are well past that stage now.
Over the last 20 years we have seen the rise of the internet, becoming a ubiquitous component of not just everyday life, but an integral part of every business. Businesses have evolved their online presence and embraced interactive methods of attracting, engaging and retaining customers. Additionally, core business applications have been moving steadily away from standalone on-premises solutions to streamlined integrated Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms. Contributing to this growth has been stampede towards cloud services, particularly the Microsoft M365 suite of products which has enabled small to medium businesses with what is essentially an enterprise way of working. So, my point is that businesses have been digitising for the past 20 years and they just did not realise it. Ok, great, so you are already there? Why are you reading this? Well, digitisation is more of journey than a destination. Hence my insistence that we need to change the terminology and start to embrace ‘E-volution’, the next stage in the digital journey.
E-volution is all about taking the good work you have done in transforming your business through technology and taking it further. This is where we look at enhanced integration across your various cloud applications and services. E-volution is about improving the customer experience by improving response, delivery and outcomes. It includes embracing AI and Machine Learning to assist with more predictive production and logistics. Don’t get me wrong, this is not the easy part of the journey, in fact this is probably the hardest part as we have done all the easy bits already—low hanging fruit and all that. This is the part of the journey where we fix the issues we did not even know we had twenty years ago. I will give you an example: printing. We have talked about a paperless office since the first word processors were used back in the 80’s and yet here we are well into the 21st Century and very few offices have actually been able to make the move away from paper. Besides the obvious environmental considerations, the cost savings and efficiency gains of going paperless are well known. So why haven’t we got there yet? Tradition, a paper crutch? Or is it just that we have not been able to effectively improve our processes to accommodate the demise of the ‘ream’. The fact is that we are probably only just at the point in our technological advancement where we have the true capability to make the shift once and for all.
Printing however is only one part to this and the journey will continue with multiple iterations to continually evolve the business technology landscape. If you would like to know how we can help you take the next steps on your business E-volution, contact us to have a no obligation discussion with us and see how we can help you to evolve your digital journey.
