SiteSpect Synopsis: What Is Digital Transformation?

Digital Transformation: it’s on the top of many organizations’ minds as digital customer experience becomes the cornerstone of marketing. But what does digital transformation entail? How have successful organizations digitally transformed? How can you do it effectively? This week we’re tackling the topic with a dive into what digital transformation means, and how it will manifest in 2018.

“What is Digital Transformation?” CIO

Writer Bill Schmarzo backs up and breaks down what we mean when we say “digital transformation.” The definition he lands on is, “Digital Transformation is the application of digital capabilities to processes, products, and assets to improve efficiency, enhance customer value, manage risk, and uncover new monetization opportunities.” Schmarzo then offers an enlightening case study, comparing a traditional grocery store data collection and marketing scheme to a digitally transformed one. The difference is that the transformed store creates avenues for customer engagement that are not tied to the physical store. In other words, it integrates its online presence with its in-person experience, offering ease of use benefits to the customer and data acquisition and revenue benefits to the brand.

The Takeaway: The article’s takeaway is the concise and clear definition of digital transformation: “the application of digital capabilities to processes, products, and assets to improve efficiency, enhance customer value, manage risk, and uncover new monetization opportunities.”

“What Enterprises Will Focus on for Digital Transformation in 2018,” ZDNet

Writer Dion Hinchcliffe dives into the increasing pressure on IT and business departments to move forward with digital transformation. With the digital customer experience bar set by Apple, Amazon, and Google, he writes that all brands are feeling the pressure to rethink specialized department silos and implement cross-team collaboration focused on the unified goal of customer experience. Hinchcliffe further argues that customer experience is not the only experience that comes into play with digital transformation. He writes, “This is where two new industry discussions have come into play recently, focusing on two other primary digital experiences that make it possible to deliver on customer experience in a sustainable way in fast-changing times: The worker experience and the partner/supplier experience.” Ultimately, the move toward digital transformation must involve a new understanding of how we conceive of our roles in any given industry, and how our goals all fit together.

The Takeaway: In 2018, digital transformation will take the form of breaking down department silos and silos of experience, unifying customer experience, worker experience, and supplier/partner experience.

A Little Point of View

While Digital Transformation remains a hot topic across industries, it’s not new and certainly not surprising. However, with leaders in the field delivering seamless customer experiences through every interface it becomes more and more of a necessity. Hinchcliffe’s point that true digital transformation also must come with a reorganization and new understanding of how departments and media work together spells a more efficient and collaborative workplace surrounding digital media. Rather than separated silos of individual tasks, we must be more holistic in understanding our customer experience.

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