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These digital transformation examples can help inspire you because undergoing a transformation journey for your business can be challenging and intimidating. It may involve implementing new digital technologies, shifting business strategies and processes, and even abandoning legacy systems.
Successful digital transformation, however, can improve your business processes, help you better meet rising customer expectations, increase employee productivity, and bolster profitability.
If you aren’t sure where to start, this post features five different real-world examples of digital transformation.
What Is Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation is the process of using technology and digital innovations to improve how things work. This may include improving customer-centric digital transformation initiatives that seek to improve the customer journey and focusing on refining internal business processes to increase productivity.
The migration can greatly impact your business’s performance, employees, and culture, from digitizing all your physical documents to taking your communications from hardware-based to the cloud. It can create a clear competitive advantage, helping your business stand out.
Common technologies being used for digital transformation efforts may include:
- Machine learning (ML): Utilizes complex algorithms to analyze potentially extensive data and offers suggestions or streamlines automation. These tools often “learn as they go.” They may offer suggestions for productivity optimization, user experiences, or cost savings, all of which can improve decision-making.
- Artificial intelligence (AI): Leverages technology to solve complex problems. For example, Nextiva’s contact center solution uses generative AI to provide suggestions to agents during customer interactions.
- Internet of things: Uses physical products with sensors or software that connect to the internet. They’re often used in healthcare, manufacturing, supply chain management, and in-store retail businesses to track everything from remote patient vitals to monitoring a warehouse’s packing processes.
- Cloud computing: Offers on-demand access to computing resources, including data storage, physical or virtual servers, and networking capabilities. Businesses often use these tools to scale their computing power.
- Robotics: Creates physical technology through engineering that can replicate or automate human actions. This technology can do everything from delivering pizza to helping surgeons conduct surgery.
- Automation: Improves business workflows with automation, including SaaS and business communication tools. This can be simple, like project management tools sending email notifications to team members when assigned a task, or it can be more advanced, including complex employee onboarding processes.
The benefits of digital transformation can’t be overstated, making it well worth the additional costs and change management efforts needed to implement them — even if it means ditching the outdated legacy systems you’ve been using for ages.
Related: How to Approach Enterprise Digital Transformation in the Age of AI
Successful Digital Transformation Examples
Wondering how you can leverage the new opportunities offered by digital solutions?
Whether you’re looking for ideas about what to invest in with your digital transformation efforts or you want proof it can work to get key stakeholders on board, these five examples can show you what’s possible with some creativity and new technologies ranging from generative AI to customer experience technology.
IKEA: From flatpack frustration to seamless solutions
IKEA is known for its self-assembly furniture, but it recognized a significant customer pain point: the often challenging assembly process.
While some handy customers had no problem putting together more complex pieces like dressers or nightstands with drawers, many of IKEA’s clientele still struggled with a skill gap. As a result, some customers would instead choose ready-made furniture or furniture suppliers that offered in-house delivery and assembly.
So, IKEA adapted. It acquired TaskRabbit, a “same-day DIYer” platform that connects consumers with people who can help with small tasks like painting a wall, mounting a TV, and furniture assembly.
IKEA also launched an augmented reality app that allows customers to place furniture virtually in their homes. They can then ensure a good physical and design fit before purchasing. This is particularly important because many customers choose to shop in-store, and this drives more informed purchase decisions and a more satisfying in-person and digital customer experience.
IKEA underwent a significant digital transformation with these two changes, which had significant impacts, including the following:
- Tripled e-commerce levels in three years
- Converted stores to act as fulfillment centers in addition to retail centers.
- Expanded data and analytics and altered how they’re included in decision-making
- Adapted to the closure of around 75% of stores during the pandemic and leveraged that time to accelerate changes
- Maintained the company culture despite many changes
Toyota: Gearing up for efficiency with digital tools
Toyota is a leader in the automotive industry, and it has heavily embraced digital tools to streamline both production and design processes.
The company uses computer-aided design for precise and efficient product development. 3D printing allows for rapid prototyping and testing of new designs, significantly reducing costs and time to market. Last year, Toyota showcased how it uses generative AI to streamline vehicle design.
Toyota also uses VR for training by creating immersive experiences for workers to learn new skills and procedures. These digital advancements contribute significantly to Toyota’s renowned manufacturing efficiency.
While Toyota has embraced new technology to make significant changes in its organization, it also takes precautions to ensure safety manually. The company conducts thorough and regular quality checks to ensure everything is working as it should so that safety and functionality aren’t sacrificed for speed—a common concern that some organizations have regarding AI and automation.
Goldman Sachs: Democratizing finance with digital banking
Goldman Sachs is a global banking, securities, and investment management firm that offers a wide range of financial services. The company launched its digital bank platform Marcus in 2020, which made its financial products more accessible to a wide range of customers.
The Marcus mobile app started with the option to set up recurring transactions or check account balances, but long term, the plan was for Marcus to act as the bank’s storefront. The goal was for the app to become the center of customer interactions by digitizing the customer experience.
And the app does something unique: it offers a choice of products, even those from competitors, to best allow customers to achieve different goals, like saving for college funds or retirement. By prioritizing the total customer experience, Goldman Sachs comes out ahead.
The company also leverages data analytics to gain valuable insights into customer behavior and market trends. This data-driven approach allows Goldman Sachs to personalize services and make informed financial decisions, further solidifying its position in a competitive market.
In 2023, the company launched a reorganization that divided Marcus into three divisions. While the platform didn’t work out quite as intended, there was a powerful lesson to take away: keep your customers’ needs at the center of your digital transformation efforts.
Goldman Sachs tried to create a “digital speedboat” to compete with established competitors in the space and reach new audiences. However, it focused predominantly on new branding and marketing. Attracting new lower-income customers outside the company’s previous demographics required a tailored approach to their specific needs.
Netflix: Binge-worthy content curated by data
Since its inception, Netflix has used digital innovation to shake up entire industries. It revolutionized the entertainment industry with a data-driven approach to content creation and delivery. While it originally delivered video content through direct mail, it shifted to a cloud-based approach and created streaming as we know it today.
Netflix’s recommendation algorithms personalize content suggestions for users, keeping them engaged and hooked on the platform. The company tracks customer interest based on viewing activity and lets customers indicate whether they like content with “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” buttons.
Netflix uses this data on the app’s home screen and after a user has finished watching another show on the platform. It then shows trailers for the content it thinks specific users may be interested in to hopefully keep them watching.
Netflix also analyzes audience viewing data to identify key trends and then produces new, original content that aligns with its overall subscriber preferences. This focus on data ensures that viewers have a constant stream of new content that they’ll love, keeping them subscribed to the platform. As true crime has continually risen in popularity, Netflix has subsequently rolled out more relevant content.
State Bank of India: Ultra-intelligent data integration
The State Bank of India (SBI) analyzes data in real time, providing the organization with immediate insights into customer behavior and market trends. This allows SBI to make informed decisions quickly and adapt to changing market conditions.
Thanks to a five-year agreement with HCLSoftware for its MarTech solution, the organization combines real-time data with AI capabilities to improve the customer experience.
The goal was to transform the customer interaction framework to facilitate personalized digital communications while still adhering to security requirements, like the Digital Personal Data Protection Act. SBI wants to market these changes effectively and in a personalized way.
By understanding customer needs and preferences, SBI can develop more relevant and personalized data-driven financial products and services, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Streamlining data management processes with an intelligent platform allows SBI to free up resources and improve operational efficiency.
How to Successfully Adopt Digital Transformation
Many executives and business owners are rethinking products and business strategies to keep up with consumer and employee shifts. They may be looking to offer new products, like a banking mobile app, or to leverage process automation to reduce the time to market for new car models.
No matter what business model you use or which industry you belong to, here’s what to keep in mind when implementing digital transformation efforts:
- Focus on customers: Solve customer pain points and personalize technology experiences. Consider each demographic you’re targeting, and as you expand your offerings, look for potential pain points for each audience segment.
- Embrace data: Leverage data to understand customers and inform decisions. You can also use this data to create more personalized and relevant user experiences throughout the customer lifecycle.
- Explore new tech: Utilize emerging technologies to improve efficiency and innovate. This can include software and hardware, and don’t be afraid to think outside the box.
- Be adaptable: Curate a culture of learning and adapt to today’s customer demands. And remember that you can maintain your current company brand and culture while adapting to new changes.
- Track program effectiveness: Monitor key metrics to assess whether your new digital solutions are as effective as you’d hoped. These metrics should relate to quality, customer experience, and cost.
- Don’t abandon the human touch: Maintain human oversight to ensure your new technology works for you and delivers the best results possible. Toyota is an excellent example of leveraging new technology in the digital age while still using human expertise to ensure an exceptional result.
Transforming Your Business Communications? Nextiva Can Help
The digital transformation can be intensive and require new business strategies and processes. Knowing where to start can feel overwhelming, but if you’re ready to transform your business communications, we’re here to help.
Nextiva’s business communications solutions can help you modernize internal and external communications with cutting-edge features like the following:
- Advanced voice sentiment analysis: Use AI to analyze call sentiment from recorded calls to understand customer pain points better and identify agent training opportunities.
- Interactive voice response: Offer callers automated navigation and assistance to streamline their experience.
- Workforce optimization: Ensure the right staffing levels for peak activity times to improve contact center performance and workforce engagement.
- Task automation: Automate repetitive tasks to save your team time and boost productivity.
- Dynamic scripting: Incorporate ML and AI into live, dynamic scripting to help agents say the right thing every time.
- Chatbots for high-performance teams: Answer simple customer questions through automated chatbots, and pass complex concerns to live agents.
Mountains Community Hospital, for example, improved its employee and patient experiences by using Nextiva’s digital solutions. Team members downloaded the NextivaOne app to answer calls from anywhere in the hospital, as they were always on the go. The hospital also deployed our HIPAA-compliant voice, video, and fax for all users, improving and automating communications compliance.
“The Nextiva Professional Service team was doing the work that needed to be done, and I didn’t have to babysit — the team took care of everything.”
~Patrick Miller, IT manager and information security officer at Mountains Community Hospital
It’s essential to remain open to digital transformation and its potential impact on customers. The examples above demonstrate this, and your business can be next.
Related: Best Digital Transformation Companies & Their Key to Success
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