Amidst the chaos caused by COVID-19, there is one thing certain that businesses have to accelerate their digital transformation journey to survive and excel. While an enterprise-wide transformation may take time, businesses can quickly deploy 5 digital technologies to continue their existing operations.
Business organizations of all sizes and shapes, that have been in the middle of their digital transformation journey and others who have not planned and committed to it are accelerating their efforts to navigate through the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. They have been compelled to reorient their digital strategies and think of digital as the core of their business strategy.
A Twilio study reveals that COVID-19 accelerated digital transformation in enterprises by an average of 6 years and 97% of decision makers agreeing that the global pandemic sped up their organization’s digital transformation. While the rush to digitalize their businesses may look like a short-term measure to address the impact of COVID-19 but experts believe that digital transformation is the future and the new world order. All businesses, from essential services to entertainment to groceries to travel, all need to put digital at the core of their business and embrace it wholeheartedly.
You would need a digital transformation partner to perfectly execute your strategy and help you select the right technologies as per your business needs. Gemini Consulting & Services has been helping businesses in their digital transformation journey and has experience working with several businesses and public organizations. Click here to know more about our digital service.
5 Technologies to Speed Up Digital Transformation
Time is of great essence for organizations that have just started their digital transformation journey. While they definitely need to work on creating a robust digital strategy and plan its execution, there are a few technologies they can immediately adopt to continue their business operations. These technologies will also help them in the long run and can easily become the part of their organization-wide digital transformation-
- Touch Free Technology: A study conducted among 2000 consumers, identified that 80 percent of them will change the way they engage with technology like ATMs, Kiosks and other publicly available machines in light of the pandemic. The study indicates big implications for businesses like retail, banks, and travel operators, where millions of customers engage with machines. Touch free technology makes use of sensors, IoT, cameras and other technologies to help businesses create a contactless experience. And many innovations and creative usages of the technology like contactless workplace and store entry/exit, touch free car wash and touchless payments have already started. Depending on your specific needs, you can use the technology to create a touch free environment for your business.
- Mobile Apps: During this global pandemic, mobile apps have made our lives easier. The usage of mobile apps for grocery, entertainment, and digital payment etc., has skyrocketed during the crisis. Mobile apps are also being used for work. So, mobile apps must also need to be part of your digital strategy. You can build mobile apps for your internal business processes as well as for customers. For example, restaurants and grocery stores can build mobile apps for taking orders and deliver them to customers’ homes. Internally, you can build apps for inventory management, employee engagement etc.
- Data Analytics: As your business goes digital, you would be collecting a lot of data in the form of orders, invoices/receipts, website data, social media engagements and so on. This data can be a treasure trove of business intelligence and insights to better understand your customers, identify gaps & opportunities in your processes and guide your decisions. AI-driven data analytics platforms can help you process your data to extract insights from it. With data analytics being central to your digital transformation initiative, it is another must for both the short-term and long-term.
- Conversational Bots: COVID-19 has compelled businesses to work with reduced staff. Conversational bots can help you drive your productivity with limited staff. Powered by AI and natural language processing, these bots can help you manage your customer support by automatically answering frequently asked queries by customers. The conversational bots can also be used internally to automate routine tasks that don’t require much human intelligence. For example, hospitals can use conversational bots in admission, billing and patient engagement processes. Retailers can use these bots as virtual shopping assistants to help customers in shopping and travel companies can use bots to help their customers plan to travel and book tickets.
- Digital Marketing: Now that you have all the technologies to run your business, you would need to reach out to your customers, promote your business and attract them. You can turn to digital marketing to promote your business. With most people shopping online for their needs, it is the best way to be where your customers are. You can use digital marketing tools like digital coupons, online ads, in-app notifications etc., to generate sales.
