Covid-19 is pushing society’s limits, both from a personal and business perspective. Social distancing has pressured humanity into accepting the reality of physical isolation but has also cornered businesses into questioning whether or not their company is truly adapted to the digital economy. The Covid-19 outbreak has confronted the business sector with a stark reality: the degree to which quarantine has affected your company directly relates to how prepared it is for the digital age.
For businesses who have embraced digital transformation long before the outbreak, little has changed since lockdown measures have been put in place. The practice of solving traditional problems by means of digital solutions such as pre-outbreak remote working protocols, app development and other digital transformation practices, has assisted numerous companies, Swipe iX included, to seamlessly adjust to the international Lockdown period, while those who have failed to implement digital solutions are racing against the clock.
The two service industries that have experienced the biggest spike since the Covid-19 outbreak is Cloud Services and Digital Communication Services. Microsoft stated in a recent blog post that their Windows Virtual Desktop usage has tripled since Lockdown measures were put in place and their Team’s calling and meeting monthly users in Italy, increased by 775%. Microsoft’s audio and video calling service, Skype, is currently experiencing a 70% month-over-month increase and calling minutes are up by 220%. As stated by Sandy Shen, senior director analyst at Gartner, Covid-19 is the wake-up call for organisations that it’s necessary to invest in digital transformation tools and services. By shifting to technological solutions and investing in digital platforms, businesses may be able to survive the financial impacts of the Covid-19 crisis and increase their long term resilience.
While some companies have regarded digital transformation as a mere buzzword, others have invested numerous resources in transforming their business as a whole, with over $1.3 trillion spent on digital transformation in 2018 alone. Covid-19 has proven to be the great catalyst for digital business transformation, forcing companies to expedite their transformation timeline. Forced Digital Business transformation might be the silver lining for businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic, but it’s important to note that it’s a continuous process and not a quick fix. Not all digital transformations are created equally and as such it is advisable to make use of digital companies to streamline the process and develop the tools best suited to your business.
The basis of any successful digital transformation strategy, relies on two main aspects: digitising the inward facing initiatives and the company’s outward facing initiatives. The inward facing aspect of your strategy relies heavily on streamlining and evolving internal processes by means of digital solutions, whilst the outward facing aspects focus on digitally enhancing service and products offerings as well as how your company interacts with clients. These two aspects combined paves the road to your company’s digital transformation journey.
In order to craft the inward facing strategy, businesses need to identify who their customers are, what their needs are, how their needs are changing and how your company can adapt to serve these needs. You should start by assessing your entire value chain, how the industry value chain is changing and analyse the effects Covid-19 has on your industry value chain. Once you understand how your industry value chain is changing, you can move on to establishing micro digital transformation goals and linking these goals to key performance indicators related to your business. The digital world is omnipresent, and as such, it’s easy to incorporate “too much too soon”, and lose sight of what your company is trying to achieve. Digital business transformation needs to be implemented holistically and timely in order to succeed. Be sure to focus on micro achievements and wins within the company, and before long, these small changes will make a big difference.
Both the Inward Facing- and Outward Facing DBT strategies are anchored around a mutual concept: the customer. After you have identified your customer segments and reevaluated their changing needs, customer experience comes into play. Top Line Growth and Customer Touch Points are integral components influenced by digital business transformation, providing opportunities for digitally enhanced selling, self service, streamlined customer processes and predictive marketing.
In a mere 4 month period, businesses across the globe have come to realise that providing their services digitally and incorporating digital platforms such as websites and mobile applications, is a necessity rather than a luxury. Despite the devastating global economic impact of Covid-19, mobile app spending will most likely double by 2024, according to the market forecast released by the app intelligence firm, Sensor Tower. The latest app market forecast by Sensor Tower, also indicates that application downloads will increase by 9%, which is significant compared to the market forecast released before the Covid-19 pandemic, predicting that app downloads will decrease by 7 billion fewer installs. According to Sensor Tower, the uncertainty created by this global pandemic has pushed customers to rely more on mobile applications, and as a result app adoption and engagement has spiked significantly. The staggering market forecast will hopefully push businesses into reevaluating their need for mobile application development.
Swipe iX has assisted numerous companies, both nationally and internationally, on their digital business transformation journey, developing scalable solutions which perfectly cater to our clients’ needs. The recent lockdown procedures put in place have had little to no impact on our company’s productivity levels and output, purely because we’ve invested in digital business transformation ahead of time. If you need assistance during these trying times and would like to discuss how we can help your company mitigate the impact of Covid-19, get in touch! We’re more than willing to connect and share our digital transformation tips and get your company started on the digital transformation journey.
Digital Marketing Specialist