However, you simply can’t ignore the benefits of using the right technologies in your business. It’ll help you improve efficiency, lower costs, increase productivity, improve customer experience, and ultimately, boost profits.

In fact, 42% of SMBs now consider digital transformation a core component of their organizational strategy. Digital leaders are doubling the performance of digital laggards.

Meanwhile, 82% of SMBs have already implemented some level of digital transformation in their organizations.

Whether you’re just getting started or want to fine-tune your digital transformation strategy, a well-designed implementation plan can help you get the most out of your investment.

6 Keys To Successfully Implementing Digital Transformation For Your Small Business 

Digital transformation doesn’t need to be complicated in order to be effective. You can simplify implementation by focusing on initiatives that can yield the highest ROI. It’s also important to ensure that employees are aligned with objectives.

Here are six key areas to focus on in your small business’s digital transformation strategy:

1. Encourage Collaboration and Break Down Silos

Many digital transformation initiatives aim at improving operational efficiency across the entire company and/or creating a customer-centric organization. As such, breaking down silos and ensuring that internal departments can collaborate seamlessly is the key to success.

It’s important to involve all stakeholders across the organization so they can contribute to the initiatives. After all, digital transformation can’t be treated as an isolated IT project. Instead, it often requires a fundamental transformation of the business structure and its culture.

There are different ways to ensure the involvement of all internal departments in the effort. For example, the funding for a digital transformation initiative should not just come out of the IT budget. Business units that can benefit from the project should contribute as well.

Let’s say an eCommerce website is delivering a poor user experience that’s impacting sales. Marketing and sales departments benefit directly from a better eCommerce experience. They should also be responsible for part of the budget and be involved with the development of the website.

2. Empower Employees With Data

Data is the key to driving accurate business decisions. You need to focus on using technologies that allow your team to extract value and insights from various datasets. Employees can use the insights productively to drive growth.

Accurate insights can help you better understand what customers, partners, and employees want and need so that you can design the most relevant products and processes to improve efficiency and increase sales.

However, as datasets are getting larger and more complex, it’s also more challenging for small businesses to use them effectively. Thankfully, you can leverage a variety of affordable data collection and processing tools. They extract insights from data and share analytics across the company to aid real-time decision-making.

In addition, AI-driven technologies, such as machine learning, will be used widely for processing and analyzing a large amount of data. Investing in these tools strategically can help you make effective data-driven business decisions.

3. Ensure Seamless Integration of Business Systems

Most digital transformation initiatives aim to streamline operations, automate workflows, increasing efficiency, and improve the customer experience. It’s important that all your business systems are communicating with each other seamlessly.

When you connect business applications (e.g., finance, eCommerce, customer service,) you turn them into interoperable platforms. It allows you to break down internal silos, enhance collaboration across departments, and build a customer-centric organization.

Cloud computing is making it much easier for small businesses to integrate various software applications. That means it’s easier to streamline workflow and manage different business functions seamlessly. 

For example, the ability to sync data between two platforms eliminates manual information transfer. In turn, that lets you increase efficiency and minimize errors. 

4. Involve Every Level Of the Organization

A successful digital transformation requires a strong foundation by creating the right culture in the company. A strong vision translated into a clear set of digital initiatives helps rally employees around them.

Getting employee buy-in requires a coordinated effort at all levels, including alignment at the top, agility in the middle, and mobilization at the front line.

It’s also important to address your employees’ concerns since many people feel threatened by the introduction of technology and automation. In fact, 27% of SMB owners cited their team’s resistance to change as a top challenge when implementing digital transformation.

To get internal buy-in, educate your employees on the benefits of digital transformation. For example, demonstrate how an online tool can help them increase their productivity. In addition, provide the necessary training to your team. They’ll feel empowered to use the technologies effectively to achieve their career goals.

5. Seek Out Technology Partners With SMB Experience

As a small business, you probably don’t have the budget to hire a large IT team. Instead, you can outsource most of your IT tasks to maximize your resources. It lets you focus budget on areas that have the greatest impact.

In addition, SMBs have unique challenges and need a different IT strategy than larger organizations. Look for technology partners, vendors, and consultants that have extensive experience working with small businesses. 

A service provider should recommend in-budget solutions that are compatible with your existing IT infrastructure. They should help you identify areas that can generate the highest ROI. It should also provide the necessary on-boarding and training so your employees can use the technologies most productively.

The most game-changing technology doesn’t have to be complex or expensive. Be wary of vendors that push for costly solutions without demonstrating how they can help meet your specific business objectives.

6. Don’t Fall Prey To the “Bright Shiny Object Syndrome”

It’s tempting to implement every new technology that promises the moon. The reality is that the wrong choice will use up your IT budget without much to show for.

Before deciding on which digital initiatives to implement, get clear on your vision and business objectives. Identify areas that will yield the most meaningful results. In an earlier article, we discussed the key areas on which small businesses should focus: customer experience, employee engagement, data analytics, business processes, and cloud computing.

Many small businesses can get the highest ROI by using simple technologies to streamline tedious and repetitive manual tasks. In fact, complex technologies designed for larger organizations could even create more confusion and negatively impact productivity.

As such, focus on how digital transformation can make existing processes cheaper and easier. Simple tools with high impact are ideal for small businesses. For example, predictive analytics software that optimizes online ad spend can stretch your ad dollars, generate high-quality leads, and increase your sales without the need to overhaul key processes in your organization. 

Final Thoughts

Starting a digital transformation initiative could be rather overwhelming. With careful planning, prioritization, partnership, and employee education, you too can leverage the power of technology. Workflow software for small business can increase efficiency, lower costs, improve the customer experience, and grow your business cost-effectively.

It’s important to align your digital transformation strategy with your company’s vision by establishing KPIs that reflect your business objectives. You can then track metrics that matter and fine-tune your strategies to maximize ROI.

The post 6 Keys to Digital Transformation Strategy for Small Businesses appeared first on frevvo Blog.

It sounds like a fancy gimmick for large corporations with big IT budgets.

However, no small business can afford to ignore digital transformation. Don’t sweep it under the rug. You’ll likely miss out on opportunities that will set your business up for success for years to come.

Research conducted by Bain & Company revealed that digital leaders more than double the performance of digital laggards in their industries. Profitability follows the same pattern – 83% of the leaders increased their margins over the same period while less than half of the laggards did so.

Many small businesses are now taking note: 42% of SMBs believe that DX impacts every aspect of their business. They think that it should be a core component of their organizational strategy.

The good news is that you don’t need to spend a large budget on complex technologies. In fact, some of the most effective DX strategies focus on maximizing values within existing infrastructure. The goal is to make the most cost-effective improvements with things like affordable workflow software for small business.

What exactly is Digital Transformation (DX)?

DX is much more than signing up for some cloud products or building an eCommerce website and then hoping for the best.

It starts with a holistic view of how an organization incorporates technologies into every aspect of its operation and delivers value to its customers. It requires a change in the company’s culture, structure, and workflow to get the most value out of its investment.

Effective DX happens at a fundamental level rather than on a tactical level. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach and different organizations will need to execute different strategies to meet their unique objectives. 

As such, digital transformation may often sound like a vague catchall term that includes many seemingly unrelated tactics. For some companies, it could mean adding cloud capabilities and for others, it could be leveraging AI-powered technologies.

A DX strategy is determined by a company’s goals and challenges. It could focus on improving the customer experience both online and offline or increasing efficiency in backend operations.

The objectives of your particular strategy should be about deploying the most appropriate technology to:

• Simplify business processes
• Improve operational efficiency
• Augment the customer experience, and
• Increase profitability.

Key Focus Areas For a Digital Transformation Strategy

Your DX strategy should focus on areas that’d move the needle the most – the initiatives that generate the highest ROI for your business.

Here are some key areas where small businesses can use technology to achieve results that were only feasible for larger organizations in the past:

Customer Experience

Customer experience is surpassing pricing and product selections as the major brand differentiator and 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better experience.

You can use a variety of technologies to understand customer preferences and improve the customer experience, for example:

• Use personalization technology to deliver highly targeted content, offers, and product recommendations. Customize these to each individual shopper’s preferences, behaviors, and customer lifecycle stages. 75% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that provides a relevant and personalized shopping experience.
• Leverage a CRM system to manage pipeline, foster customer relationships, automate follow-ups, analyze customer behavior, and optimize your sales team’s productivity. In fact, growing SMBs are twice as likely to utilize a CRM tool than their struggling counterparts. 
• Deliver a seamless omnichannel experience with a centralized customer data management platform. Your users can interact with your brand across multiple touch points. The 360-degree profile is updated in real-time to facilitate customer communications and effectively progress them down the sales funnel.
• Deliver “instant gratification” with AI-powered chatbots to streamline customer care and reduce response time. More than 50% of consumers expect a customer service response within one hour. On-demand support allows you to provide the pre- and post-sale support that increases customer acquisition and retention.

Employee Engagement

Irrespective of size, hiring the right talent is essential to staying competitive. A great employee experience can improve retention and lower costs associated with employee turnover. 

Here is how you can use technology to improve candidate and employee experience:

• New Hire Onboarding Software: Streamline and automate the hiring process to deliver a great candidate experience to attract top talent. Empower employees during the onboarding process, keep them engaged, and set them up for success in your organization. These tools also help you improve time-to-productivity and increase employee satisfaction.
• Collaborative software: Facilitate seamless communication and close collaboration among employees no matter where they are. These cloud-based tools enable the use of a remote workforce. They help you attract the right talent without being constrained by location.
• Gamification learning platform: Motivate employees to invest the time and effort in ongoing training. Help them improve performance and job satisfaction with a gamified learning portal. Such portals can increase employee usage by as much as 417%.
• BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy: Increase engagement by giving employees the autonomy to use the devices of their choice. To enhance the effectiveness of BYOD, implement the proper policies. They should provide the appropriate IT support and ensure that employees are adhering to your company’s cybersecurity protocol.

Data Analytics

According to Gartner, 90% of corporate strategies explicitly mention information as a critical enterprise asset. They also consider analytics as an essential competency by 2022.

Data is the key to business success in the future. The best machine learning is useless without clean, digital data. Small businesses can leverage numerous technologies to enhance how they utilize data:

• Data preparation tools: Extract data from structured and unstructured sources. Ensure that it’s “clean” (e.g., by removing duplicates) so you can extract accurate insights from analytics.
• Data analysis and visualization: Turn big data into actionable insights. Use analysis, modeling, and visualization to discover hidden opportunities, uncover new insights, or predict future trends.
• Predictive analytics software: Use data mining, predictive modeling, and machine learning technologies to analyze current and historical data and predict outcomes. For example, it’s used in many online advertising platforms to help businesses get the highest ROI from their ad budgets. 
• Continuous intelligence: Integrate real-time analytics from various sources within a business operation. It allows you to process current and historical data. You can prescribe actions in response to specific events and optimize real-time decision-making. 

Business Process Improvement

Improving business processes will help you increase operational efficiency, reduce process cycle times, minimize errors, and eliminate bottlenecks. In fact, 83% of IT decision makers consider workflow automation “essential” to digital transformation.

Here are some technologies you can use to improve your operations:

• Business process management (BPM) software for small business: Design, execute, automate, and monitor processes based on workflow rules. Human tasks, data, or files are routed based on predefined rules to increase efficiency and lower operating costs.
• Mobility: Modern platforms offer built-in mobility. Mobility ensures that employees have access to the information and apps they need from anywhere.
• Document management system: Eliminate errors and inefficiencies associated with version control issues. Enable employees to quickly find and collaborate on documents even if they’re in different locations.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing [infographic] has been a godsend for many small businesses. It provides many essential features needed for success in today’s digital environment without a hefty upfront IT investment.

Different cloud platforms offer different functions. However, they all have some key functions that businesses of any size or nature will need:

• Cybersecurity: Adhere to industry regulations and protect your sensitive information with frequent security updates and security features. Cloud providers have the resources to employ cybersecurity specialists and ensure that their platforms are secure at all times.
• Uptime: Minimize downtime, which can cost organizations as much as $1.55 million per year. Cloud vendors typically have built-in redundancy and a comprehensive backup and recovery plan.
• Anytime, Anywhere Access: Increase productivity by allowing employees to access the most up-to-date information stored in a centralized location from anywhere with an Internet connection. They can stay responsive and productive even when out of the office.
• Data storage: Reduce the cost of data storage and improve real-time accessibility. Your team can leverage a large amount of data for better analytics and data-driven decision-making.
• Software integration: Streamline workflow, improve efficiency, and minimize errors by enabling integration with other cloud-based platforms. Data can be synced in real-time and errors can be minimized by reducing manual data-entry.

Final Thoughts

There are many technologies you can use to improve efficiency, lower cost, and increase profits. Understandably, choosing the right software and tools can be quite intimidating at times, especially for a small business.

However, don’t let it hold you back from starting your digital transformation initiative. Keep in mind that DX isn’t an all-or-nothing undertaking. Even for large organizations, it’s often a multi-year effort that requires careful planning and prioritization. 

To reap the benefits of DX, first create a written roadmap. Prioritize initiatives that are most critical for your current business objectives and can generate the highest ROI. 

Last but not least, remember to set KPIs that tie back to your business goals. They help you track results, measure ROI, and fine-tune your subsequent efforts.

The post Digital Transformation For Small Business: Key Areas To Leverage Technology For Growth appeared first on frevvo Blog.