Technology opens up endless opportunities for companies and new businesses. However, some challenges were unthinkable two decades ago. Here are 9 tips for staying ahead in the digital age.
Regardless of the field of work or innovation, technology is a fundamental part of any organization. Staying at the forefront in this increasingly digitized age is imperative to achieving any goal.
“For companies and governments around the world, the rapid integration of digital technology into business has opened up enormous opportunities. But this digital age has also created challenges that didn’t even exist two decades ago,” says an Ernst & Young study.
Fortunately, he highlights, the same digital tools that have generated challenges also make it possible for companies to adapt and evolve faster than ever.
Here are 9 ways to stay ahead in the digital age:
1. Innovate regardless of the business model
Innovation is a challenge that is often made more difficult. The larger a company, the more concerns arise in the short term. That means that if you want to innovate, it is necessary to interrupt the business model itself. It’s difficult but not impossible.
It takes a separate group that is not governed by the short-term constraints and pressures of the organization to undertake this long-term planning and strategy.
2. Remember that now every company is a technology company
Innovation is an inherent part even for industries that seem to have no connection to the new digital economy. Agriculture, for example, is undergoing a major technological evolution. Now companies can apply soil and climate data analysis to and say exactly what seeds farmers should plant, where to plant them, and even how to grow them for greater success.
3. Don’t just collect data: turn it into knowledge
There’s a lot of talk about “big data” these days, but in fact, companies cannot use 80% of the data that is collected from the customer at this time.
To build a data-driven strategy, someone has to be in charge. There needs to be a dedicated leader.
4. Create partnerships to complement your strengths
More and more companies are looking to partner with another organization, specifically technology companies, to expand their offering.
This means that you can combine forces to improve your offering to customers in areas such as data analytics and digital security.
5. Create a paperless office
Although the move from paper to electronic form is, in itself, a momentous leap in the evolution of a modern organization, it is convenient to take advantage of this change to improve the essential processes of our business instead of simply streamlining what exists.
A good network, a good e-mail system, well-articulated web pages, is all that is needed to eliminate internal forms on paper. Once you have that infrastructure set up, you can easily add any local network application that comes to mind.
Common sense tells us that people work better when they are not distracted or burdened by routine issues. From the customer’s point of view, the advantage is that our employees will spend less time on paperwork and more time attending to their needs.
6. Touch the consumer
As e-commerce explodes, the businesses who could find creative ways to use the internet will not only strengthen their relationships with customers, the merchant capable of approaching e-commerce as something more than a kind of digital cash register emerged.
Selling is always the ultimate goal, of course, but in itself, it is only part of the new online customer experience. Some companies use the Web to engage with their customers in ways that were not possible before; the sale becomes part of a sequence of customer services, for which the Internet offers new possibilities.
7. Go for digital marketing and e-commerce
Having a digital presence today is essential. And if the customer is looking for your company name and cannot find it on the internet, they may not connect with you at all. Digital marketing offers the possibility of attracting people who are really in your product/solution. Also, digital marketing can be much cheaper than offline marketing.
While conventional retail chains invest considerable capital in bricks and mortar stores and seek to adjust the collection to the demand of the average buyer, the online business is in a position to take advantage of digital information to personalize the offer based on the target individual.
8. Get the staff thinking
Data mining has become ubiquitous and has become a normal function of the infrastructure of computer systems of any business.
The main value of data mining is in the possibility of determining precisely what a viable product is and what its fair price is. Companies can evaluate various options of presentation and price scales to establish which are the most interesting and profitable for customers.
9. Raise corporate IQ
Knowledge management is nothing more than managing information flows and getting the right information to the people who need it so that something can be done quickly. It is a means, not an end. And the goal is to create institutional intelligence, what I call corporate IQ.
In today’s dynamic markets, a company needs to have a high corporate IQ to succeed. Corporate IQ means sharing both historical and current knowledge. Contributions to corporate IQ derive from individual learning and mutual development with the ideas of different people.
When it comes to writing, she believes that the simplest form of words can help build better opinion in front of people. With this thought, Garima Aggarwal is an aspiring content writer working in the field for last 2 years. Currently, she is working for TABSCAP. Being from the journalism background, she is passionate to write about topics related to lifestyle, health, and digital marketing.