The digital transformation of a company is an essential factor for its survival. In an interconnected world, which is advancing at great speed and absorbing technological changes on a daily basis, the adaptation of companies to a digital environment is already an obligation. That is why today we want to analyze the different phases of this process.
The shift of companies towards a digital environment is already a proven fact. It is necessary to digitalize business processes, tools and services in order to get closer to a globalized and interconnected system.
Digital transformation is the process by which companies incorporate different digitally based tools and a new business logic that allows them to improve processes and, in turn, to interact with each of their stakeholders in the virtual environment as they would do physically.
Within the digital transformation there are different phases of action, depending on the depth to which the digitization of an entity has reached. Acting focused on mobile devices, and therefore on mobility solutions, being interconnected and knowing how to take advantage of the benefits offered by technological innovations, are some of the main factors that can help to address the digitization of the company.
Reading Andrés Pastor’s reflections in the Novagob portal, we have drawn our own conclusions to analyze the 3 fundamental phases of digital transformation for any company.
The Digital Transformation of the company in 3 phases
Phase 1: Awareness
Knowledge of market and societal developments
It is necessary to know where the markets are heading and the possibilities they offer to add value to society. Technological evolution and innovation are constant and the adaptation of society to these changes generates new needs.
The Internet, and specifically broadband, has brought about a social and economic revolution, creating an interconnected society that is giving way to new business models. Thus arises the need to carry out a digital transformation at all socioeconomic levels.
Transformation is necessary because technological advances make it possible to predict events and stay ahead of the competition. Developing technologies that add value to companies will enable them to differentiate themselves in the market, and the authorities, aware of this, have already begun to legislate in this regard.
From Europe come guidelines to promote the digital leap, a transformation that improves the management and efficiency of companies and institutions. The European Union has set the Europe 2020 objectives to consolidate a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy that will help the EU and its member states to generate high levels of employment, productivity and social cohesion.
To implement this Community strategy, the Union has drawn up the eIDAS regulation. This regulation regulates and lays the foundations for moving towards a new digital era. The aim is to increase the efficiency of EU administrations and companies and improve the management of relations between member countries. With this measure, the European dream of consolidating a Digital Single Market (DSM) is getting closer.
The work and efforts of the European Union will drive changes towards the digitalization of companies and public administrations, which see digital transformation as an opportunity to improve their management.
Phase 2: Innovation
Technological development and innovation to create a strong and common marketplace
This second phase refers to the implementation of actions, the development of technologies and solutions that promote digital transformation. After a first stage of awareness of the socioeconomic changes and the advantages that the Internet offers to the markets, we reach this second level, in which services such as those offered by Viafirma take center stage.
Companies specialized in the development of technological solutions for organizations and administrations play a fundamental role in this stage of digital transformation. Their solutions make it possible to anticipate the needs of society, offering effective tools that improve the management and administration of resources.
This sector develops technologies related to Cloud services, the Internet of Things (IoT) and mobility security. Following European guidelines, solutions are developed to digitize and improve the management of private companies and public administrations.
One of the sectors that promotes digital transformation is related to authentication tools, mobility and cloud application development. Electronic signature solutions, advances in biometric technology and cloud services are some of the keys to progress towards the new digital era.
These tools favor the ‘zero paper’ policy, which improves time management and streamlines procedures for companies and institutions. Solutions such as electronic signatures bring greater security, efficiency and agility to procedures between companies and administrations.
Mobility and cloud services are a necessity in this context of digital revolution. Being able to carry out procedures between agents located in different locations and to access and manipulate documents hosted in the cloud are major advantages that organizations are beginning to adopt. To simplify these actions, electronic signature pads have emerged.
There are solutions that allow managing documents that need to be signed on mobile devices, serving as a gateway between the client’s backoffice, for example a CRM, and the end user. These tools facilitate procedures between companies or institutions and reduce waiting times. In short, they improve the efficiency and management of any process.
Another solution that improves management and increases the efficiency of companies and public organizations is electronic invoicing. These tools allow the management of the digital invoicing process in a transparent way for the organization, suppliers and customers.
In addition to mobility, cloud services offer a wide range of advantages that favor digital transformation. The cloud signature -also known as cloud signature or centralized signature- allows multiple uses such as signing documents with certificates hosted on a secure server (HSM) in the cloud with the highest level of security.
The digitization of companies would not be possible without the guarantee of security in their processes. To this end, technologies such as biometrics have been developed to reinforce the security of user authentication.
Phase 3: Application
Training of the human team in digital processes and promotion of new business models
After a first phase of awareness, and a second stage of technological innovation and development of solutions, it is time to implement digital processes and adapt the company to market changes. Connecting people, processes, objects and data of the entity is the definitive factor for the achievement of the digital transformation.
The human team must be familiar with technology and, above all, have an attitude prone to change. They must adapt new technological solutions and adopt market changes to their work.
It will be necessary to conduct an assessment to see if you have the right employees, the ones that a digitized 21st century company needs. If the answer is no, it will be necessary to train them. Digitization cannot be consolidated without training the people who must carry it out.
This implies allocating a budget item for research and development of new applications and adequate technical and human resources. In addition, it will be necessary to create a calendar of actions, where those responsible for each process are identified and trained to coordinate the work.
For the workflow to be correct, collaboration will be paramount. For this, internal communication and daily work must make the leap to the network, using online tools for organization and communications that allow great savings in time and money.
These are the 3 fundamental phases of a company’s digital transformation. All those entities that wish to make the leap into the digital era go through these stages. Digitization means a move towards a globalized, interconnected and accessible market for a greater number of agents.
Great efforts are being made in Europe to ensure that EU institutions and companies adapt to the online environment, as they see the Internet as an opportunity to improve management and increase the efficiency of administrative processes.
We hope you found our analysis useful. We encourage you to share it and comment on your opinions. If you would like to know more about digital transformation, we look forward to seeing you on our blog.
See you next week!