TechKnowmad
Businesses have been aware of the trend of digital transformation for a long time. Since computers started showing up in offices, businesses were the first to realize that speed is the biggest benefit of digital technology.
But in the 21st century, digital transformation has huge advantages. Speed is no longer the only benefit of digital technology. Its ease of use, power, and versatility have an effect on everything from interactivity to accessibility.
As technology moves forward at an incredible rate, digital transformation is helping businesses move forward. People who know how to use technology and have digital skills will be the ones who drive success and use these changes to get ahead of the competition.
In this article, we talk about what businesses should do and the skills they need for digital transformation to improve their performance, customer engagement, and profits.
Table of Contents
Digital Literacy
Businesses should never take the basics of digital for granted. This should go without saying.
A recent study called “The New Landscape of Digital Literacy: How workers’ different digital skills affect economic mobility and business competitiveness, and what policymakers can do about it” found that one in three workers in the United States lacks basic digital skills. In particular, 13% have no digital skills at all, and 18% have only the most basic skills.
Keeping this in mind, it’s not too much of a stretch to think that some possible employees don’t know how to use technology. Most people know how to post simple things on social media, but many may not know how to do more advanced things like make a paid ad or look at how well something did.
Your business also needs people who know how to use online tools like the business communications hub, Slack, or the video conferencing platform, Zoom, or who have mastered content creation programs like Photoshop or Illustrator or analytics software like Google Analytics. You shouldn’t assume that everyone in your company can use these programs the same way with little or no trouble.
Software, algorithms, programming languages, online standards, and protocols are always being updated. Make sure your staff knows about the next big things in digital marketing so they know what to watch out for.
Your business should also find ways to reward and encourage employees who learn more about technology and how to use it. This could be as easy as giving employees short courses in fields like digital marketing that lead to a professional certification when they are finished. In a competitive business world, ignoring technology can cause you to fall behind and become irrelevant.
Data and Digital Security
Last year, the number of data breaches rose by 68%, which was the most ever according to The Identity Theft Resource Center’s annual report. This is because of high-profile cyberattacks that went after everything from America’s biggest oil pipelines to companies like T-Mobile, putting the personal information of millions of customers at risk. While it’s easy to “harden” a building with security cameras, good locks, and, of course, security guards, physical security is more complicated. But how do you keep your data safe? More importantly, how do you keep customer data safe?
Do you know what to do if a data hostage threat happens and your information is taken? Do you know if someone has broken into your system and is watching what you do or making copies of sensitive research or private information?
Cybersecurity, also called “cyber resilience,” is a big worry for businesses all over the world. To predict attacks and set up defenses to stop them, you need technical know-how, specialized skills, business plans with clear priorities, and strong leadership.
This is a top priority for industries like health care and finance that deal with sensitive data or customer information. Make sure that someone in your business understands digital security and is in charge of it. If not, you risk leaving your customers and your business open to a serious data breach and theft. Your business stores a lot of information online or in digital databases, and you need to keep this information safe so that customers will trust you and so that your business will have a good name and a bright future.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is an important skill for any business to have in this day and age. We still live in a world that responds to traditional media like billboards, signs on the sides of buildings, radio ads, and TV ads, but we also have to deal with the digital world.
In our modern world, we use social media and digital content on our phones and desktop or laptop computers just as much as we use things in the real world. According to Statista data, by 2025, there will be 4.4 billion more social media users around the world. That’s a huge number of people using social networks who need to be engaged and turned into customers. To do this, you need to have the right skills in-house.
Marketing departments must now be willing to explore the interactive and analytical possibilities that come from using digital media to inform and engage the market. The one-way, passive experience that marketing used to be for an audience has been changed by digital transformation.
Digitally savvy marketers who know how to use and take advantage of the level of engagement that digital marketing offers have the best chance of making an impact on consumers.
Effective digital formats and channels include:
- Social media
- SEO & SEM (find out the how you can make SEO and SEM work together for great impact)
- Websites
- Paid search
- Display advertising
- Influencer marketing
- Affiliate marketing (consider affiliate marketing as a new revenue stream)
Digital marketing is an important part of a skillset for digital transformation, so make sure your business takes the time to hire people with these skills or improve the skills of the people you already have.
Data Analysis
“Knowledge is power,” as the old saying goes, and one of the best things that digital technology gives to businesses is a huge amount of data that can be used. But that’s only true if your business can recognize and use that data to get better insights.
After all, your organization won’t know where to put its marketing and creative dollars if it doesn’t know who its target audience is, where they like to shop, or what devices they use to research and browse. How will your business know if your campaign is worth funding if your teams can’t find the analytics tools or understand the data they produce?
Data can be a great way for businesses to find their weak spots and make the most of their strengths, but only if they have the people with the skills to find the right software, understand the data, and come up with actionable insights. Every business needs to be willing to look at the huge amounts of data that come from customers and clients, as well as the data that comes from running the business normally.
This is especially important because Google will stop allowing third-party cookies in 2023, so companies will have to find other ways to get information about their customers. First-party data and zero-party data are both good ways for a business to get information that is unique to them and that they have permission to use.
Businesses will benefit from the skills of employees who can look at important data, figure out what it means, and use that information to make new policies and plans. Data and web analytics may not seem like a fun job, but they are important skills for any business that wants to adapt to the digital world.
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Metaverse
When Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook’s name would be changed to Meta, people’s knowledge of the metaverse grew by leaps and bounds. What is the metaverse, though?
Simply put, it is a network of immersive 3D worlds where people can interact. This is usually done with virtual reality headsets, and games like Minecraft and Roblox are already in this area. It will soon be a new place to buy, sell, and mint products on digital platforms, and research by tech company Wildbytes estimate that 70% of big brands will have a presence there in the next five years.
The metaverse gives businesses a new way to interact with customers and makes digital products, avatars, and virtual reality more important. To do this, you’ll need AI skills and to change your marketing and sales plan so that it includes more than just social media and paid ads.
Still up for debate is how the technology and platform will develop, but brands like Nike and Gucci are already in the space, so your employees will need skills to make the most of this new metaverse reality.
DevOps
In the last ten years, DevOps or software development that focuses on working together rather than being alone, has grown in popularity as a skill set or business philosophy.
It’s a mix of development and running the business. In the past, coders and programmers who made software were separated from the rest of the company.
People had ideas for what they wanted the software to do, but they didn’t know if those ideas were possible or not. The coding team was in charge of making this vision come true, and the operations team and the technical staff didn’t really talk to each other.
Collaboration skills are needed for DevOps so that a whole team can work together to imagine and build software that helps a company run well. So, marketing, ideas, and programming are no longer separate areas.
They want to work together and figure out how each department can help the other. They don’t want to use each other as competition to get ahead in their own departments.
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Enterprise Mobility Management
As digital technology and processes change how businesses work, they have to change how they store and access information and how they manage their human resources. This was especially true after the pandemic, when offices were closed and businesses had to find and use digital tools (like Dropbox, WhatsApp, etc.) to stay in touch and get work done.
So, do you really need to open a call center when you can use automation or chatbots for low-level customer support and a remote team for the rest of the technical support that requires a human?
We now live in a time when you don’t have to be in the same city or even country to work remotely and work together with new vendors, clients, and partners. Businesses must now think outside of the box to find the most efficient and cost-effective ways to get things done, like physical facilities and full-time staff.
Leaders in businesses need to be able to find and run digital solutions. For example, your company might benefit from storing files in a hybrid cloud system for security or from putting in place a tool that HR or team managers can use to get more employees involved. Learn about the digital solutions that could help your company communicate better and run more efficiently.
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & Robotics
Automation is important for a business because it saves time, effort, and money and reduces the chance of mistakes made by people or by hand. This gives your business more time to work on important goals and business results. And automation is affecting every industry.
- Manufacturing – Robotics and remote operations can help companies make more while reducing the number of people they need to hire.
- Retail – Self-checkout terminals, self-scanning robots, inventory checking, and unloading in the back room can be done automatically so that staff can do other things.
- Customer service – With the help of bots, companies can now respond to customers on platforms like WhatsApp and send their requests to the right department.
- Administration – The cloud can be used to store files, and software can be used to make invoices, send emails, and set up appointments. This can help with repetitive tasks that take up a lot of time.
- Automotive – Even though automation is common in this field, parts can be made with 3D printing, collaborative robots are used by BMW, and self-driving cars are already on the road.
All of this is possible because of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Understanding how each one works or figuring out how automation could make your business run better is a good place to start.
Businesses should focus on learning how to make AI, ML, and RPA software, hiring people who can do it, or teaming up with companies that are experts in this fast-growing field.
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Blockchain
In the business world, digital currencies are becoming more and more important. Due to the recent rise of blockchain-based Non-Fungible Tokens as currency for digital assets, the piece of art “The Merge” was sold for nearly $92 million. And brands are getting in on this NFT trend by using tech platforms to make assets that can be sold online or in virtual worlds.
But NFTs are not the only thing blockchain is used for. The technology is also used in healthcare, banking, real estate, and insurance, among other places. Blockchain is used in these areas because it helps verify and track multi-step transactions, makes things more open, and keeps things safe. It also cuts costs for compliance and speeds up the transfer of data.
Because of this, there is a need for skilled blockchain architects, blockchain software engineers, and blockchain developers. It is changing how businesses work and could be good for yours, especially in terms of security and data transfer.