Industry Insights | Read the latest blogs, news and views from Infomentum. (4)

Digital transformation; it’s been the business buzzword of choice for the last 2 years or so. It’s proven to be one buzzword which has some meat behind it. Digital transformation is still a hot topic and has manifested in tangible success for many businesses and even charities like The Prince’s Trust.

“Beyond Digital” report highlights how new technology will impact the workplace over the next five years

91% of UK employees believe that their businesses will no longer be competitive by 2020 as a result of new technology. That’s according to a new “Beyond Digital” report, launched today by digital transformation consultancy Infomentum.

The report, which collated feedback from over 1000 UK office workers, examines how new technology trends are set to disrupt UK businesses and employment over the next five years.

No industry has seen the effects of digital disruption hit hard quite as publicly as the retail sector.

Shock headlines detail the decline of footfall, with indignant images of boarded up stores and empty high streets. Pre-Christmas forecasts preached that the most successful holiday retailers would be those offering the optimum online shopping experience.

But aside from the scare-mongering surrounding physical stores, the key focus for retailers has remained steadfastly the same; how to offer the best customer experience? There are key challenges the industry can address today to keep up with changing consumer demand.

I have a Google habit. It’s the curse (or blessing!) of growing up in the ‘digital age’ (but please, don’t call me a millennial). That’s to say that I rely on my smartphone to Google anything and everything. Admit it, you’re guilty too.

Scientists believe that this habit of ‘googling’ everything is actually making our attention spans shorter. It’s a common practise in this ‘digital’ era; throw technology at a problem and it will solve it. That works, right? When it comes to your business, the ‘Google’ effect is not the answer.

How many blogs have you read that start with ‘the world is changing’? Guess what, the world has changed. Scientists in the States believe that we are currently going through a technology revolution that will have the same impact on our planet as the industrial revolution. And they think robots will become commonplace sooner than you think!

The marketer does. No, the IT department owns it. Wait, it belongs to everyone.

Who owns digital in your business? Before you answer that, maybe we should understand what we mean by ‘digital’?

Digital marketing is now a common marketing discipline. It combines social media, email, websites and portals. Originally used to listen and broadcast, digital channels are now used to support customer service, with social media and web chat being the fastest growing customer contact channel in the UK.

Gone are the days of focusing on saving money. Business leaders are now looking at either how to simply keep up with their customers, or how they can profit from digital.

The result requires business transformation. Or is it digital transformation? What is the difference?

To be honest, there should be no difference. Or there certainly won't be as time goes by. Becoming a digital business could be compared to the days of computerising your business back in the 1980s. The installation of a computer to enable you to do your job quicker is no different to implementing a digital strategy in order to operate more efficiently and deliver a more acceptable customer experience.

Until now, your business will have invested in technology solutions to streamline processes and save money. Some of this investment may also have been in improving the customer experience.  From ERP to document management, marketing automation to clients and internal portals, so many aspects of a business are now automated.

How joined up are these technologies? Are they meeting the modern users' expectations? Are they in line with your digital strategy?

Technology has already become a permanent fixture in everyday life, so the need for businesses to have a digital strategy in place is becoming increasingly obligatory. This poses a challenge for businesses, which not only need to update their legacy technologies to keep up but also their business methodologies.

With digital at the forefront of businesses minds, ‘digital disruption’ are the buzzwords on senior business leader’s lips. But what is it, and what does it mean for your business?