Aspects of digital transformation

I recently had a key digital experience. I was in the office of a small municipality for a registration. The office had opened up to digitalisation and converted its processes accordingly, but the older employee was not yet familiar with the programme. We spent half an hour on a process that would normally only take a few minutes, and in the end we chose the classic option with the printer. The man's nervousness was palpable, his colleague rolled her eyes. It is precisely obstacles like this that some entrepreneurs fear, because not all employees are familiar with new programmes and applications.

But if it fails because of such supposedly minor issues, how can the company benefit from the advantages of digitalisation and keep pace with the market?

Great challenges and great opportunities - the digital transformation is changing our entire lives.

Communication and data processing in companies is changing rapidly

All companies are asking themselves how they can best implement digitalisation or digital transformation (these terms are often used interchangeably). The answer is always individual, but there are some aspects that are relevant for all companies. This increasingly includes internal communication.

This communication is digitalised when chat or instant messaging tools such as Slack or Skype are used instead of emails and employees have access to the most important applications while on the move. However, the digital transformation only begins where internal communication is consciously used to build a certain corporate culture, and this requires a significant rethink on the part of those responsible. The movement is moving away from a hierarchical division into important and less important opinions and towards a form of cooperation that is not just about utilising the skills of the individual, but about actually involving them.

Digital communication is based on flat hierarchies. Important discussions are no longer held behind a padded door at the boss's chair, but via centralised and easily accessible communication channels.

Motivating employees

For many employees today, it is no longer enough to simply be a silent cog in the wheel; they are most motivated when they see themselves as an important part of the organisation. Remuneration is not the decisive factor for motivation. Of course, this does not mean that the IT specialist should sit with the shareholders in the meeting or be involved in all business decisions, but it does mean giving each employee the greatest possible freedom within their scope and area of responsibility. The motivation and attitude of employees is a crucial part of the corporate culture, and as this can - and must - be communicated to the outside world much more easily in a digitalised world, special attention is required here. And not just because dissatisfied employees no longer vent their displeasure at the coffee machine but on social networks and review platforms, but also because employees are more important than ever in a digitalised world.

Managing and analysing data intelligently

Data processing in a digitalised company is no longer comparable to the measures we are used to. On the one hand, significantly more data is generated, which must be stored in accordance with data security regulations (which is why the cloud providers used should be located at least in Europe, but preferably in Germany); on the other hand, analysing this data offers undreamt-of opportunities to drive your business forward. This is because the success of certain measures can finally be analysed in concrete terms, making targeted marketing possible. Analysing data provides answers to many questions:

- How many people clicked on the link in my newsletter?

- How often was the voucher offered actually used?

- How satisfied are my customers, with whom do they compare me and where do they see room for improvement?

- How satisfied are my employees?
- How many visitors does my homepage or shop actually have?

- Which pages are clicked on particularly often, i.e. are the most interesting? and countless other questions

Of course, completely different questions arise in production companies than in administration or online shops. In each case, however, a huge amount of data is generated that not only needs to be collected, but also analysed. And in order to analyse the data, you have to ask certain questions that have a concrete benefit. It's nice to know how many visitors you have, but the whole thing only becomes interesting when there are objectives that can be achieved by working out specific measures. Not just knowledge, but also application, not just traffic, but also conversion. Digital transformation means making data a partner, even a friend, and using it to develop a deeper understanding of the customer's needs. These are at the centre of all efforts.

There are numerous tools on the market that can be used to understand and utilise the data collected, but this is also where the personnel challenge for SMEs arises. Who understands the data, can use the tools and suggest suitable measures? If in doubt, the analysis can be outsourced to other companies.

The biggest challenge for companies

Many bosses are good forward thinkers who learn from the mistakes of other companies and use clever methods to drive their business forward, and young employees are also open to new technologies and management styles - they even demand them, the more the better educated they are. For many companies, the biggest challenge lies in taking middle management and older employees with them on the path to a digital corporate future. A great deal of patience is required here, firstly to explain the benefits of new methods and then to train them accordingly. Whereas it used to be enough to be familiar with Office, for example, and to master some of the common applications, today specialised applications are constantly entering the office and need to be learned again and again. What is a matter of course for digital natives is particularly difficult for older employees - you have to integrate all employees into the communication structures, for example, which can become a problem.

Marketing is changing

Of course, we could go into a number of other aspects of digital transformation here, from agile management to new forms of production and the effects of networks, but these are all topics that may leave us open-mouthed in amazement, but provide little of substance for our own business. That's why we want to focus on a point that affects every entrepreneur on a day-to-day basis: marketing.

We are in the midst of a fundamental change that will leave anyone who cannot keep pace behind. We are moving from push to -> pull, from me to -> you, from the interests of the company to the interests of the customer.

For many years, push advertising was the standard means of getting into consumers' heads and annoying them. Today, consumers simply click away and choose one of the many other channels - one without adverts, for example. So how do you reach this customer? You have to attract them by having something they want, for example important information and useful tips for certain of their problems.

Important: This is not just about content marketing and other measures, but about understanding change at its core. The customer is at the centre and can only be reached through their needs. Ultimately, all measures, whether data analysis, individualised production, multichannel communication and sales or even the development of a corporate culture with important guiding principles and visions, are aimed at just one thing: reaching the customer, winning them over and persuading them to buy. To do this, companies today have to orientate themselves to the customer and can no longer fit them into a template, as was the case for many years.

The customer is online

This starts with one of the key differences: in the past, customers went to companies, visited their shops and had to make do with the available range. Today, consumers sit on the couch, on the train or lie in a hammock while they go through the typical ordering process:

Inform -> Compare -> Build trust -> Buy

which, of course, is not always so straightforward. It is said that a customer must have had seven contacts with a company before it is considered a potential seller. This ranges from reading an online review, to recognising the social media presence, to telephone contact with an employee and, in the best case, culminates in an order, after which the marketing is by no means over. Once a customer has been acquired, they need to be nurtured and retained, which is much more cost-effective than generating a new customer. This is also where customer data comes into play, the analysis of which is an important part of customer relationship marketing. Essentially, however, it is not just a matter of reeling off certain measures because someone recommends them, but of acting with a genuine desire for customer satisfaction.

In the B2B sector, too, more and more companies are realising that traditional sales methods no longer work. Unlike in the past, however, there are no longer any panaceas and methods that can be applied to everyone, as we are on the threshold of a new era. Digital transformation has brought us numerous software solutions for the automation of marketing measures such as email marketing, website tracking, search engine optimisation and landing pages, but as these are available to all companies, every single provider is becoming a hound. The magic word for the solution is agility (at all levels), which also takes marketing to a new level.

It's not about operating according to prefabricated standards, but rather finding the right, flexible solutions for each company that continuously adapt over the course of use. Digital transformation also means that everything is changing and in flux and that it is an ongoing process.

Summary:

Digital transformation is more than digitalisation and essentially means accepting the current social change and embracing it with a willingness to experiment and innovate. This means that resources must be freed up for the transformation, which is a real challenge for SMEs in particular.

Internal communication is changing, which is why employees need to be trained and new applications need to be used. You are rarely "at the destination", but actually always "on the way", which requires a rethink at all levels. The hierarchical corporate structure will no longer be able to prevail, as the importance of employees and their competences and opinions is growing, as they make a significant contribution to the corporate culture. At the centre of all measures, however, is always the customer, who must be understood, convinced and won over on the basis of their data.

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