10 Advantages of driving Digital Transformation in your organization

 The advantages can be broadly classified into three major themes.

Organizational efficiency

1) Shifting from traditional to new-age technologies

              Usually, the biggest challenge any organization faces is CHANGE MANAGEMENT. They fear failure and uncertainty that would come by transitioning from a traditional approach to a digitized approach. There has always been reluctance due to the tendency to avoid change and skepticism regarding ROI for the implementation that the change would create. However, as we see it today, during these pandemic times the firms which had accelerated digital transformation were resilient and able to get value-driven opportunities even at their lowest times.

2) Make Better Decisions

              Big data, sophisticated analytics, and capabilities help in attracting leads and target audiences based on organizational goals. By the power of a result-driven approach, it will provide you insights to make effective decisions on attracting customers and offer better services.

3) Re-engineer your processes

           Strong process mining & analytics powered Digital Transformation helps in identifying friction points or bottlenecks in the processes and opportunities for automation to streamline your processes. This would mean leaner processes with redundant or low-value activities being automated.

Customer-Centric Approach

Reference: Salesforce.com 

4) Enable focus on Customer Centricity

             Digital transformation does not just improve the internal processes of the organization but also enables a customer-centric approach. In today’s world, customer expectations are rapidly evolving. They expect personalization, immediate responsiveness, and seamless interactions across different channels.

5) Reject the traditional trade-off between boosting efficiency and serving clients

              Well, in earlier times, there used to be an internal trade-off that firms used to face of choosing either excellent services or managing their efficiency in the most optimized ways. But, no more! Digital transformation helps to cater to both the goals of the firm. It ensures high-quality processes with better customer services. Using scalable models, a reduction in 50% cost per customer, and 305 profit per customer can be achieved. You can read the BCG case study here.

6) Achieve a better CSAT score

              Customer centricity does not mean offering discounts or low fares. It revolves around the holistic improvement of customers’ expectations and experience. Customers expect ease of use or switching between products/services. They also expect excellent onboarding experience with fast cycle development of products that fully function at launch. Post the purchase, they expect quick, error-free services and consistency in them. Digital Transformation is the answer to such high demands. 

Cost Reduction

7) Increase your credibility, trust, revenue and reduce the cost

              As we digitize our data, it becomes easier than said to manage and find the scopes of improvements. Even basic analytical approach like Trend analysis and descriptive analytics would help the firm to find the areas that would enable them to achieve more than they promised.

8) Ensure there are no Revenue Leakages

              The clear demarcations and insights from the analysis of digitized revenue data help in more than one way. It not only enables us to bring our focus on high revenue-generating channels but also highlights the probable revenue leakage.

9) Streamline your staff and management

              By streamlining and re-engineering the firms can drive the low-value transactions by alternate channels. This enables less staffing required during back end jobs. The majority of the sales can be gained by the front end client-facing employees. It thus focuses on having excellent client interactions, because people buy from people. Digital channels reduce operational costs and boost productivity by having fewer person staff.

10) Gain Competitive Advantage

              A key measure of profitability is the cost-to-income ratio. This can be driven at a very lower rate than the industry benchmark by leveraging the power of digital transformation. As the processes become more efficient, it would reduce the overhead costs involved.

Grab Your Cheese with Data Science!

Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life, shares amazing principles to live by and drive change in your businesses. The book published in Sept’1998 describes change in one's work and life, and four typical reactions to those changes by two mice and two "Little people", during their hunt for cheese.

Well, the four characters symbolically teach us the 6 principles to deal with change and transformation.

The “new normal” post COVID19 and the other socio-economic changes happening around, has certainly led many companies to deal with lot of mess! It has become pretty much “new normal” news in media these days of enterprises shutting down, people losing jobs and SMEs grappling with ideas for the new business models. To sum it up, CHANGE HAPPENS, pretty much inevitably! 
That brings us to the Principle #1: They Keep Moving the Cheese. (Change happens)

With the sudden halt in regular and even visionary planned activities, industries were left with nothing less than chaotic and turbulent times of lack of resources to tap new customers, envision future growth and even mobilize their own employees. Tough times don’t last, but tough businesses do! The companies who saw the evolving trends in direction of digital transformation, still saw a breather. However, the laggards in initiating digital transformation faced the brunt of the being in “Hem & Haw” mind-set. In the dynamic world we live in, the second principle is food for thought for leaders driving businesses in any industry at any scale. Principle #2: Get Ready for the Cheese to Move. (Anticipate change).

Digital Transformation is a journey to become excellent in what you deliver to consumers, at the minimal costs. The transformative process includes change management and thought leadership to define the boundaries and metrics of the process. These can only be defined by taking a top-down approach on exactly what value you want to deliver. It, hence, becomes phenomenally essential to know where you stand and where you want to reach. Companies starting anew with their digital transformation strategies, need a support arm to pivot their commandments to maximize their efforts for key offerings.

Principle #3: Smell the Cheese Often so You Know When It’s Getting Old. (Monitor Change). The support arm required to aid the leadership is deep dive look in data and make data-driven decisions with help of Data Science. Data Science provides the patronage to take calculated risks and informed decisions. Being a subset of bigger picture of digital strategies deployed by the businesses, data science improvises the processes, automates wherever required and gives constant support to monitor the key metrics using analytics. It helps in devising the action plans to be adopted with lesser cost and higher benefits.  

Based on the recent report shared by Gartner - It should also be noted that if nearly 50% of enterprises are looking to invest in analytics, another 50% are not. In fact, the CDO survey found that less than 50% of documented corporate strategies don’t mention data and analytics as key components for delivering enterprise value. The reason for this? According to Mike Rollings, Research VP at Gartner, the real reason is the limitations of traditional analytics offerings.

This calls for need of Principle #4: The Quicker You Let Go of Old Cheese, the Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese. (Adapt to change quickly). That is because traditional data and analytics strategies overlook the demands of digital business. Modern data and analytics serve a broader enterprise purpose and are more integrated into the ways people work than ever before, causing a new approach to data and analytics strategy to emerge. “IT leaders need to look at data first to succeed in their digital initiatives, rather than treating them as an afterthought to help with ad-hoc projects,” Rolling said during the Gartner IT Symposium in Orlando.

With the new changes in the market scenario, it becomes vital to walk with the times and think beyond traditional ways. Principle #5: Move With the Cheese. (Change) – asserts the same to change and upgrade with the times. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence have unfolded the new reigns of customer satisfaction, employee productivity improvement and governance to improve as and when new trends emerge. To deploy Data Science in your organization, following things pointers aid for better execution –

1. Build Organizational Structure and processes to be able to quickly and automatically collect, analyse, and act on available data.

2. Develop Analytics Leaders who bridge both data science with company strategy. Analytics leaders need to know enough about the business to ask the right questions of data.

3. Focus on Better Data, Not Big Data. Too often we see companies that are collecting data for data's sake, rather than taking a lean approach where they only collect data when it helps optimize the experience for their target customers, or better prediction of future behaviors.

4. Separate the Signal from the Noise as too many organizations ingest huge volumes of data without cleaning it, and then get garbage out from the garbage they put in (i.e., GIGO). The proliferation of new types of unstructured data adds fuel to the fire. This quandary can be avoided by developing a data quality plan and methodology.

Mindful approach towards implantation of Digital Transformation with Data Science and continuous learning with the emerging times is the only way to Principle #6: Savor the Adventure and Enjoy the Taste of New Cheese. The transformation from "HEM" mindset to "HAW" mindset, by acquiring the skills of "SNIFF & SCURRY" surely won’t qualify to be the sweet path to success, but certainly a worthy one and help you to grab your cheese.

Further reference: Summary of “Who Moved My Cheese” is best explained in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QmeWe2KoDs

Digital Awakening during the times of #Atmanirbhar Bharat

Digital Awakening during the times of #Atmanirbhar Bharat 
Featuring Education Sector

Amidst the foreseen economic crisis and its obvious impacts, PM Modi announced economic packages for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan' or 'Self-Reliant India Mission' on 12th May, 2020. The hashtags #AtmanirbharBharat and #VocalForLocal became an overnight trend on twitter. Well, they did receive a bag full of mixed reactions from Indian Janta; some criticizing, some wondering, some celebrating and some just ignoring! Many new reforms and policies were announced by the government to make things easier, but the inquisitive me just wanted to get into depth of how much are we already ready for this “Atmanirbharta” stuff.

Hogging on numerous debates and opinions flooding the internet, I went on a quest to understand how much “Digitally Atmanirbhar” are we really are? And, to my surprise, there is a lot to share on my findings!

Well, to start with, going by the history of Indian Government digital initiatives, the first step was taken as part of e-governance during ‘90s. However, the impact and sustainability of those reforms were short lived citing to various reasons. Of late, there has been a deep plunge taken by government of India in transforming economy digitally. Going by the latest trends, mobile apps like Arogya Setu, Umang, DigiLocker, PAYGOV, etc. have seen a big thumps up by many in MSME and Rural- agricultural sectors. Initiatives like “Digital India” have made to news bulletin across the globe. Also, interday and intraday updates on COVID-19 Cases on Telegram channel, flyers and posters on preventive measures and YouTube Channels to teach yoga or entertain with creative arts have added different colors to advancement made in analytics and digital marketing by the government.

Amongst all the different sectors, education sector lies close to my heart. Probably because being a teachers’ daughter has made me see its virtues and vices pretty closely. It became my first obvious choice to analyse the Digital #Atmanirbharta in Education Sector.

The Digital #Atmanirbharta in Education Sector

Of late, I have been intrigued by the idea of ‘School from Home’. Seeing my mom learning new tools and technologies to cope up with the new digital era, has made me wonder on various questions like What is in it for the under-privileged students, students who have face lack of infrastructure issues and there exist a huge digital divide? Why is government not doing much on providing the required infra? What could be possible solutions to cater those ‘Bottom of Pyramid’ students’ educational needs?

To my surprise, there are few answers draped in webpages of government sites! Although they do not answer all my questions, yet it is a pleasant surprise to discover them. There are plethora of web/mobile apps, tools and resources to help the stakeholders of education sector. Listing a few of them –

a)     SWAYAM PRABHA – An initiative of the Ministry of Human Resources Development started since 1989 to provide 32 High Quality Educational Channels through DTH (Direct to Home) across the length and breadth of the country on 24X7 basis. It has curriculum-based course content covering diverse disciplines. Pretty much, reminds me of our SSC past-paper questions being published in Indian Express, just that this is on TV.

b)     SWAYAM – Extension of above program with a dash of sophistication, SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) App is an Indian Massive open online course (MOOC) platform in collaboration with 7 esteemed institutes inclusive of IITs and IIMs. The content is free for everyone, certification comes with proctored test at nominal costs. Feels much like Desi version of Coursera/EdX, certifying professional courses by Indian Institutes. Do visit this app at this link for learning more about it!

c)     DIKSHA: NATIONAL TEACHER PLATFORM – MHRD’s DIKSHA is one stop solution for teacher’s experience delivering aid as 7 verticals – Content Creation, School leadership skill development, teacher’s professional development, Assessment, Innovation in Pedagogy, Teacher profile registry and learning content. Download and experience it here

d)    E-Pathshala: Learning on the Go – With several NCERT textbooks uploaded, this platforms adds value to students, teachers, educators and Parents. Experience it here.

e)     Miscellaneous - Artificial Intelligence (IndiaAI) Website and many more government websites from different ministries of Indian Government to accelerate learning and adoption of digital technologies by everyone.

A single step in right direction is much more important than taking leaps in wrong direction. These initiatives might be rookie in EdTech sector, but seems to be promising. However, a fear creeps in going by the past experiences, usually government reforms start with great rigor and enthusiasm but soon fizzle out.

Requesting the readers to feel free to share your views on these enhancements in comment section J

“BIG BANG” DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

The word “DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION” appears to be a colossal process that only MNCs and big corporations can afford. The clamor around it by CIOs has resulted in coining of a new term as “DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FATIGUE”- A state where leaders of world class companies have put brakes on digital initiatives to save themselves from the chaos of ever emerging technologies in this field.

However, no matter how ironic it may sound, the fact is Digital Transformation is here to stay. Not for being some trendy buzz words, but to revolutionize the way our businesses work.

In simple words, “Digital Transformation (DT or DX) is not just a simple change, it is a thought driven process”. Driven by people oriented processes, it involves untiring effort for change management and talent management. Communication and involvement of all stakeholders is the key to success. Digital Transformation leverages tools and various technological platforms to accelerate the scalability of business and elasticity of customers.

Digital tools play a vital role to make the information accessible to all employees and stakeholders. It doubles the odds of becoming a successful market leader in your sector. When done right, digital transformation has the potential to enable your business to reap significant, and well-documented, benefits.

Digitized SMEs are capable of diversifying consumer segments in a short period compared to offline businesses by

• Increasing revenue
• Providing access to higher customer base
• Increasing operational efficiency
• Enhancing customer experience

The success story of Chitale Dairy is a prime example of how a strategic digital implementation plan helps in getting the best of the market available. By “taking cows to cloud and farms to fridge”, Chitale devised its way to become India’s one of the top Dairy companies reaching across India. The business owners wanted to scale their family business to thousands of satellite farmers across India. With a vision to boost animal health, which results in higher milk production, higher quality, and the need for less land, RFID tags were attached to more than 50,000 cloud-connected cows. They used these tags to build analytics around health of cows, milk production, nutritional needs, and other parameters. The data is uploaded to the cloud, interpreted by the dairy’s veterinarians and then shared with about 10,000 satellite farmers via SMS messages sent to their mobile phones on a daily basis so they can better manage their livestock and operations. The ability to monitor, react and predict cow behavior and health in real time is providing Chitale Dairy with extraordinary results.

Indian Governments have taken a step forward for putting the cherry on the cake for Small Medium Enterprises. During the difficult times of COVID-19 Locked down government has started taking reforms to help local kirana stores to become e-tailers from retailers. The digital transformation in Kirana stores would soon foster, with Facebook acquiring 10% stake in Reliance Mart to make their orders online using a mix of collaborative tools like WhatsApp. With these emerging trends, local kiranas need to re-think their business models. Either invest and adapt a technology or help in building ecosystems by collaborating with tech-savvy startups like Swiggy Genie or Dunzo, resulting in increased employment in retail management sector.

With such advancements, we are a step closer to becoming a robust economy and probably more structured markets.

Becoming Digitally Awakened is no more a choice, it is a must.

The Digital Awakening

Just when the world thought they have advanced and reached moon, probably even bought land on moon... 

Universe smiled and said 
"Hello, COVID-19!"

We humans surely thought that 2020 is going to be our year. With elaborate plans made to grow our businesses and make country's economy even stronger, we missed to see what was coming. The tougher times were ahead.

But, on a second thought, as spirituality teaches us, 

“God First Gives Us Strength to Face a Difficult Times Silently, Then Places That Situation Where We Put That Strength to Use”

How else would you explain the blessing we got two decades ago, called the Dot Com Bubble? The disruptive times when many well established companies were taught to upgrade themselves and build their business with support of technology. Many criticized and cribbed of technology being responsible of taking away their jobs. The ones who survived this boom were they who adapted and learnt new ways. 

Coming to the recent times of India, just merely four years ago, our Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi introduced most disruptive policy on night of 8th November, 2016 - Demonetization. India as a nation was divided in two - Modi Bhakts and Modi Critics. Sooner than we thought, this policy ensured high market penetrations of businesses like Digital Payments. Today, 4 years later, even most modest vegetable vendor or roadside tea stall have their UPI IDs.

It was only for these disruptive times, that Businesses of modern contemporary world coined the term “Digital Transformation” in 2012 that soon became a global phenomenon for businesses where data, software, and devices are used to update how they operate, manufacture, and market products and services. Wasn't that all blessing in disguise?

Today, with harsh times of social distancing, it is only social and digital platforms that are bringing these businesses closer to their esteemed customers. Corporates are swiftly adopting the concept of Business Process Re-engineering to enhance their digital strategy and maximize their customer success metrics. Ground-breaking practises across all industries like AI & ML, Cloud Adoption, RPA, Analytics and many advance mobile applications have found their strong foothold for building lifetime loyalties with customers.

Just like, every adversity is an opportunity in disguise, COVID 19 is too becoming an opportunity for businesses to cut down their costs and look forward for ROI-driven business strategies to provide value by optimizing their remote monitoring operations for fad of the year "Work From Home".

The Digital Awakening will only give that breakthrough and competitive advantage to bring you closure to ways to mitigate the risks and challenges of these tough times. Since we cannot have “one size fits all” approach for managing businesses, it is only source of bringing the best of the hopeless situations. New ways, new tools, new platforms for businesses is way to go!