To understand how vastly technology can impact the status quo of an industry, one must only look at how ridesharing apps (Uber, Lyft, etc.) changed the taxi industry and how the travel agency business transformed from physical offices to self-serve websites and reservation systems seemingly overnight.
Indeed, when a transformative technological inflection point hits an industry, it hits hard.
Now, recent advances in automation and artificial intelligence—combined with the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic—has sparked a mainstream wave of digital transformation that’s only gaining momentum.
For example, large swaths of the restaurant service industry are becoming, or are about to become, the domain of robots like Softbank’s Servi. Meanwhile, self-driving electric Tesla tractor-trailers may someday soon be allowed to run driverless or allow the driver to sleep onboard, in-transit.
Now Is the Time to Take Digital Transformation Seriously—Here’s Why
Deloitte says digital transformation can help organizations become more resilient in the years ahead.
Some businesses will take digital transformation seriously. Others won’t.
A recent Deloitte executive survey suggests “digitally mature companies”—organizations where digital strategy and infrastructure are embedded in all parts of their business—are more resilient and agile in a crisis and perform better financially. They also have more opportunities for experimentation and rapid iteration, which provide greater capacity for innovating and adapting to changing market conditions than their less digitally mature peers. In addition, digitally mature organizations tend to look at their old problems with new eyes and seek out ways to apply technology to reinvent products and processes.
But if you’ve always found a way to work around process and workflow inefficiencies in your business, why should you spend the money to fix them now?
Well, for starters, back when everybody was in the office five days a week, it was a lot easier to shuffle paper or inefficient digital assets around. You could throw bodies at closing those efficiency gaps. Maybe you’ve always gotten by like that.
But that’s not an option anymore. In our new remote-friendly work culture, walking down the hall to hand deliver a document and collaborate on it with someone has become an email, a collaborative editing session of a cloud-based document, and a video call. That’s why it’s important to have technology solutions that enable your organization to work effectively together in a virtual model.
Should Your Organization Take Action on Digital Transformation? Signs to Look for…
- Having an overflow of storage boxes full of records and documents, which may be subject to retention laws and regulations. It’s not a good idea to keep records longer than necessary because of inherent liability and data security risks. Digital transformation can automate your disposal of them, so you can effectively manage organizational risk. Imaging Office Systems can also help your organization achieve a “paperless” or “near-paperless” state through a variety of commercial scanning and cloud archival services.
- If you now find yourself with a remote or hybrid workforce, we can help you sort out hitches in your workflows and information management systems that require manual intervention to work around or cause other problems.
- If you’re having to deal with manual AP approval processes in multiple locations, digital transformation will allow you to share and route that data in an efficient, automated, rules-based way.
- Actually, if you’re doing any kind of manual data entry from obsolete digital, paper or other analog sources, we can implement a way for you to fully digitize, automate, and maximize the efficiency of those processes.
What Are the Consequences of Ignoring the Momentum of Digital Transformation?
Procrastinating on digital transformation now will come back to haunt you later.
Business owners and leaders need to understand that, right now, they may not be fully aware of the consequences for inaction on digital transformation. For example, you may be losing the interest of prospective customers because they encounter inefficiencies in their digital “courtship” (or lead nurturing) experience with you. Prospects can be easily dissuaded…especially if they find a more satisfying digital “courtship” experience with a competitor.
And while many business owners and leaders are keenly aware of the importance of having a strong brand, what they may not realize yet is that in our current digital age, and even moreso going forward, the digital experience that you curate for customers and prospective customers, for all intents and purposes, IS your brand experience. And failure to “get with the program” of digital transformation will eventually translate into you delivering sub-standard digital experiences for your customers and prospects, and that’s a non-starter for any business, moving forward.
Cloud Services: Should You Go Free or Paid?
Cloud computing technologies are a primary engine for digital transformation, but free cloud services probably aren’t a good long-term option for your business.
Privacy and data security are primary concerns of free cloud services. You also never know when they might change their terms of service in a way that may adversely affect your business…or make other changes to its service, without your knowledge or consent.
Free cloud services might also constrain you in problematic ways or require sacrifices you don’t want to make. As a customer of paid cloud services, your concerns and needs become a priority for your cloud provider. In return, you’ll get cloud services more precisely tuned to your needs—or at least that’s what you’d get with Imaging Office Systems.
Not Sure Where to Start with Your Digital Transformation? Imaging Office Systems Can Help…
At Imaging Office Systems, we make it a point to get a clear understanding of how you work—or how you want to work—and then build digital transformation solutions that will help you achieve outcomes that are important to you. No problem is too complex, and we’re not tied to any particular software or way of doing things.
Instead, we have nearly 50 years of experience customizing information and business process management solutions for our customers’ unique needs—and we’re ready to help you.
To get in touch, feel free to fill out the form below, drop us a note here, or give us a call at 800-875-9545.