A Digital Transformation Is Underway: Is Your Business Ready?

Is your business ready to thrive in a digital world? Sure, you probably have a website where you accept orders online, but that’s just the beginning. There’s a digital transformation underway that goes beyond ecommerce. This fast-approaching digital transformation is changing every aspect of society and will greatly impact all businesses.

A global digital transformation is underway

Are you ready for a worldwide digital transformation? Ready or not, the entire world is being digitized right now. Bitcoin was just the beginning. Major banks are creating official digital currency that, unlike cryptocurrency, is considered legal tender. 

Retailers are also undergoing a digital transformation by introducing contactless merchant services that will soon become standard. Some retailers have been accepting payments through smartphone apps for years. However, contactless payment options can be used with a bank card.

With this digital transformation comes great responsibility. As more aspects of our lives are stored online, security risks increase. For example, businesses that store customer data online are constantly at risk of a data breach. Data breaches can result in harm to customers and businesses, including hefty fines.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation

The coronavirus pandemic is fast-tracking the worldwide move to digital. This applies to nearly every industry, including entertainment, healthcare, education, and business. Unless an industry is impossible to digitize, the pandemic is forcing businesses to start operating digitally in some capacity.

In some countries now dealing with a second wave of the pandemic, many brick-and-mortar businesses like retail shops have been shut down entirely. With social distancing requirements and capacity restrictions, some businesses can only survive the shutdown by operating digitally. This means moving all business online, including ordering, sales, and customer service. 

In the food service industry, a digital transformation involves online ordering. However, for retail shops, many are having to close brick-and-mortar locations and operate solely as ecommerce businesses. Recycled Financial Equipment are being bought by these retailer for ecommerce. These transitions are easier for businesses with at least one foot in the digital world.

Businesses that have not yet begun shifting to digital operations are more likely to struggle to catch up in their industries, especially businesses suddenly tasked with generating, managing, and maintaining a remote workforce. 

While it’s easy enough to sell products and services online, it’s challenging to move an entire team to working remotely, although all businesses will soon need a remote team in some form, even part-time.

Is your business ready for a digital workforce?

At some point, all businesses will need to embrace a digital workforce. This can include remote employees stationed all over the world as well as contractors who perform work strictly over the internet. If you’re not supporting at least a partial digital workforce, you’re already behind. 

Managing a remote team isn’t hard, but it does require significant company changes if you’re not already set up for digital operations. However, embracing a digital workforce is a wise business move.

If you’re starting from scratch with managing a remote team, read Box’s guide to digital transformation to learn how the right technology can improve your security and compliance posture, boost productivity, and reduce your operating costs.

For example, technology helps you streamline business processes by making data and insights available to internal teams, vendors, and partners in any location. This means your people can do their jobs faster and with less effort. Technology also improves the ability to reach customers with targeted ads by gathering and analyzing data from a variety of sources. With cloud technology, that data and those insights will be available from anywhere on a moment’s notice, making marketing fast and efficient.

Remote interaction is the future

Although many traditional businesses are resisting this digital transformation, resistance is futile. There will come a time when all businesses will need to go digital to maintain or gain a competitive advantage in their markets.

While some industries will always require in-person interactions, the majority of interactions will be remote in the near future. Even once the coronavirus pandemic has subsided, it’s hard to imagine the world returning to a manual state. Although the pandemic has catalyzed digital transformation, once a business experiences the conveniences offered by technology, there’s no going back.

The infrastructure to support a digital world is already in place. For instance, we have reliable video conferencing applications like Zoom and Skype, and it’s easier than ever to sell products online through Shopify, eBay, and Amazon. 

The digital world transformation is already underway. The only question is, are you ready?

 

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