Digital transformation for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) has become increasingly important in recent years due to the constantly evolving landscape of technology. It’s easy to see why — technology has completely taken over the business and personal landscape, as evident in how people use smartphones and applications to interact with others.
What Is Digital Transformation
Digital transformation refers to turning an organization’s business models into or supporting them with, digital platforms that enable more efficient interactions with customers, partners, suppliers, and other stakeholders. All these efforts are expected to result in better customer experiences and improved quality of services.
While digital transformation is essential for big businesses, it’s also important to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). If you’re an SMB located in Australia, you may visit sites like kmtech.com.au to learn about the opportunities provided by digital transformation in your business.
Digital Transformation Examples For SMBs
Today, even small and medium-sized businesses have a chance to utilize digital transformation strategies to revolutionize their business models and increase productivity. For example, when a small restaurant is looking for new customers, they can use social media ad localization to find more people who are interested in eating at the restaurant.
Another great way to utilize digital transformation strategies for SMBs is by offering a mobile app with their principal services available on them. This is particularly helpful when you’re running a successful delivery business. You may be able to track your inventories in real-time and your clients can also see their purchases straight from their phones.
SMBs may also want to invest in technologies like the cloud which can help them organize their business activities, such as with calendar scheduling and business storage.
What Are The Benefits Of Digital Transformation
As mentioned earlier, digital transformation offers several advantages for both big businesses and small ones. Some of these advantages include:
- Improved customer experience
- Better quality of services due to disruption to existing markets
- Extra revenue due to increased automation
- Better operational efficiencies
- Innovative marketing strategies
- Scalable business models
Four Types Of Digital Transformation For Small And Medium-sized Businesses
There are four kinds of digital transformation that SMBs should consider to achieve their goals. These include:
1. Transforming the Business Model
SMBs need a process for assessing how they’ll compete in the market and then take steps to ensure that their business model is competitive with existing or new alternatives. For example, if an SMB has been selling products in a local area and doesn’t see any competitors, someone else might come along and offer the same type of product at a lower price. To compete with this lower-priced product, the SMB needs to be able to reduce costs or improve its products.
2. Transforming Data
Data is what drives business growth and improved customer. Therefore, SMBs need to be able to increase their data collection efforts and make the most out of every piece of information they have.
In addition, they should consider tools that help them aggregate data from across locations and systems as well as those that help them analyse it promptly. This will allow SMBs to lower costs, increase revenue and improve their products or services.
3. Transforming Technology
The core of digital transformation is the technology used. Technologies are constantly evolving, so SMBs need to keep up with new developments or face being left behind by competitors who are implementing these technologies faster.
Furthermore, SMBs should update their current systems to make sure that they’re using state-of-the-art technologies while making sure they’re compatible with existing infrastructure.
4. Transforming Organizations
To complete digital transformation, SMBs need to rethink how they structure their business and ensure that it’ll align with the new technologies available for digitalization. This could mean changing how companies are staffing their departments or changing the reporting structure within the company.
SMBs should hire top talent to help them complete digital transformation, as well as train current employees so they can be productive in the new environment.
Once all four of these stages are completed, the next step is implementation. This is when an SMB brings the new digitalization techniques into their business.
Digital Transformation For SMBs: How To Get Started
If you’re a business owner, making the right decision on whether your business needs digital transformation can be difficult. This question should help simplify things for you:
‘What services or processes could be improved by incorporating technologies such as machine learning and AI?’
Once you’ve answered this question, it’s time to implement the digital transformation and reap the associated benefits. If you need help implementing digital transformation strategies, you may consider hiring a business development company. They can assist with the entire process from start to finish and make sure that your technology is compatible with existing systems.
What Are The Risks
Although implementing digital transformation strategies can provide many benefits for SMBs, these strategies also come with some potential risks. To reduce the likelihood of failure when planning a digital transformation, SMBs should carefully consider all available options before bringing new technology into their business.
Also, although digital transformation may sound easy because it’s a buzzword, the reality is that technology is constantly evolving and becoming more complex. As such, SMBs may hire professionals who have completed digital transformation initiatives before or at least have experience working with modern technologies.