Today, in the pandemic-affected business atmosphere, the pace at which organizations are advancing has drastically changed. COVID-19 has forced firms to develop a digital plan to enhance the digital transformation shaping customer experience.
As businesses are thriving to survive in the cut-throat competition, 2021 will be seen accelerating them towards the digital side.
Estimating this with the help of numbers will give us clarity. Let’s help you with the accurate stats for the same.
- Before the COVID-19 pandemic itself, 70% of the companies stated that they are brainstorming to have a digital strategy in the workplace.
- 40% of the technology in 2020 was spent only on digital transformations, and enterprises, on the whole, spent $2 trillion + on transforming their company digitally, which was the need of the hour.
- 93% of companies agree today that innovative technologies are very much needed to achieve digital transformation goals.
- 87% of the companies had already had it in their mind that the digital world would disrupt the industry. However, 44% of them were well prepared for digital disruption.
The statistics stated above by Forbes do give credit to the fact that a business-post the COVID-19 era – will need to work on its digital transformation strategies to sustain itself in this era.
What is Digital Transformation?
Before understanding how digital transformation will change the outlook of the businesses in 2021, let us first understand what the term digital transformation means for business operations:
- Business Operations: In simple terms, digital transformation means the blending of digital technology in every area of the business. It is the process of how companies in the future will operate and deliver results to their customers.
Top 5 Ways of How Digital Transformation Will Help Businesses in 2021
1. 20% of the Worldwide Business will be seen creating Digital Divisions
In 2021, one of the most prominent things we will notice is that digital engagement will become the number #1 source for giving customers value at the ‘Delight’ level. This level of engagement is possible because of digital transformation shaping customer experience.
As per the expert predictions, many global organizations out there will be seen using high-end digital tools to enhance their processes. There will a more extensive use of digital technology such as:
A: Artificial Intelligence
B: Software e-driven divisions
By the end of 2021, there is an expectation that almost 30% of the firms which fall in the category of $1 plus will have their own dedicated digital portfolio and committed digital divisions to launch their disruptive products.
2. The strategies of cloud-first will dominate the digital growth
Every digital division will be seen embracing the digital innovations via ecosystems, and there are expectations that almost 50% of the enterprises will transform into cloud-centric as their priority by moving the business-critical apps and all the other experience apps into the cloud. The primary component of this strategy will include the aligning of internal and external sources. There are predictions that organizations will have their specific strategies, such as a business outcome or customer outcome.
3. The ‘Buy’ Buttons will be present everywhere
2021 will be a revolutionary year for businesses. The next year will be a year in which we will see enterprises tossing a plethora of sales channels to check which ones stick around. The decision will not be as simple, such as Shopify+ versus custom-coding or Facebook Shops versus Amazon Business. It will be much more than this.
A Buy Button is another shortcut for the website owners to help customers buy one of your products. One can implement the buy button on their website, blog, emails, anywhere a seller wants to make an impact and give the customers a little push.
Businesses will be seen experimenting with multiple channels to build newer types of relationships with customers. We can see the desire of the companies to stand out amongst the competition already.
For example, if somewhere on the storefront there is mention of stock level, or something related to it like “Buy now—only on sale until midnight” or, “Buy- Sale till midnight only”, then you’re building on the sense of urgency and this sense of urgency in making the buy button popular amongst the audience. Hence, this drive will not just continue, but it will escalate. This will drive them to adopt deeper personalization, virtual reality sales, augmented reality, and multiple content-first strategies.
4. ERP will be replaced by DOP, which will lead to further platform innovation
A DOP (Digital Operations Platform) unifies the workflows and automation in a centralized process. DOP combines the back-office tools of business into one single product. The next generation DOPs play a vital part in empowering modern business and delivering top-notch customer experience.
For example, a DOP lets you automate a purchasing workflow that gets activated by an inventory count threshold. The inventory data is further updated in real-time through barcode scanning operations on the warehouse floor.
In 2020, no doubt DOP was much in demand, and there are predictions that in 2021, the demand is just going to grow. This is nothing but a replacement of the ERP (enterprise resource planning) software. The adoption of DOP will be seen pushing the vendors to differentiate their products, and it will be the clients who will benefit from it.
5. Data Security and User privacy will make the user the owner of their data.
In the wake of security concerns among digital users, we will be seeing companies focusing on individual users and data privacy. In the coming years, data security and user privacy will turn into a unique selling point that will help the organization to take a leapfrog in the business. This could indicate that users, in general, will have the option to permit/deny admittance to their information dwelling on applications, web, and other digital platforms. The client will be the proprietor of their information.
Digital transformation is shaping customer experience in different fields like banking, financial institutions, the healthcare sector, business organizations. It is crucial that progressive companies should apply a protection method throughout all networks, applications, and data, to check which solutions or service providers are being used.
Businesses today will be looking forward to embracing digital strategies to keep their businesses surviving. The whole idea of digital transformation will surely benefit not just them but their end-users.
