eLearning courses: Digital transformation

What is Digital Transformation?

With the words Digital Transformation (in Italian "digital transformation") we mean the integration of technology and models coming from digitization, in all business areas with the related changes in the way companies operate and their staff . For companies, the process of digital transformation (or digital transformation) is enabled by the development of new technologies, but is not limited to their adoption, because it integrates and involves the entire ecosystem touched by the process, encouraging transparency, sharing and inclusion of all participants.

How does Digital Transformation impact companies?

Digital transformation is a revolutionary process that is affecting all business sectors, even those once considered traditional or far from the world of technology. It is not a question of innovating already structured processes but of substantially changing the corporate culture. The center of the process is the transition from a vision based on the product and on the opportunity to make it more and more effective, to a new vision "customer centric". It is not simply a question of creating better products and services, but of listening to the customer and knowing his needs, consequently creating products that increasingly meet his needs. The knowledge of the customer, of its specificities and needs requires adopting techniques and tools to know who it is, what its demand for products or services is and the specific needs.

What are the 6 pillars of the digital transformation

Digital transformation is not just about technology. In addition to this, companies must focus on six pillars to rethink the digital transformation as a "technology-enabled change". These six pillars represent the backbone of the success of a corporate digital transformation project:

1. Internal and external customer experience
   Your company must understand the path, the behaviors and the expectations of the customer before investing in the technology, and must know the experience of its employees.
2. People: the heart of transformation
   Without the right talent or focus on people, your organization will have difficulty competing with other companies in terms of innovation and digital transformation.
3. Change and resilience
   We cannot have any kind of transformation without change. Change is problematic but inevitable. Communicate your expectations to your employees. Provide the tools and work environment necessary to enable your staff to manage market change.
4. Cultural, managerial, technological innovation
   To transform, there must be innovation, a sudden spark of creativity that leads to the birth of something new for your business, and there must be communication, collaboration and freedom to create.
5. Leadership, willingness to evolve and improve
   If you want the organization to change, the change must always be supported and promoted from above. Since technology moves quickly, there is no time to wait.
6. Culture of change
   The digital transformation cannot take place without the right corporate culture. It is necessary to create an environment in which the experiences of employees and customers reign supreme, where change is planned and innovation is placed at the center of attention.

What are the benefits of Digital Transformation?

The advantages of the digital transformation are multiple and different in terms of competitiveness, and more specifically in terms of:

• Improved customer experience
  The main objective of the digital transformation is to use technology to improve the customer experience.
• Customer approval
  If your company follows the trail of technological change that people are already used to, customers will surely be satisfied.
• Valorisation of human resources
  Thanks to an environment that is attentive to the needs and requirements of its workers.
• Business management speed
  Through greater process flexibility.
• Increased business intelligence
  Possibility for companies to analyze the data acquired during online activities to optimize their strategies and processes and to have excellent results from an economic point of view.
• Development of communication networks between the various departments
  To maximize the chances of success of a digital transformation strategy, there must be strong communication at all business levels to align all the company's resources and direct them towards a common goal.
• Updating skills and knowledge
  Technology as a fundamental asset for companies imposes the need to develop specialized skills in the new digital business sectors: artificial intelligence, augmented reality, cloud computing, machine learning.
• Promoting a digital culture
  It is not enough to have the right technology, companies must also develop a corporate culture that promotes change and helps and educates employees not to feel overwhelmed by change.

How can corporate marketers and sales departments start to move towards the digital transformation?

1. Being guided by data
   The data must be unified and integrated between the different departments and ideally with the external partners to understand well where the potential customers are and how they move through the purchasing process.
2. Using marketing and sales automation
   In order to offer a personalized marketing and sales experience, the specialists will need a high level of control over their channels. Only then will they be able to identify points of decline in customer experience and make sure that what they are offering meets customer needs at every stage of the purchasing process.
3. Optimizing your business with continuous analysis
   None of this works without the analysis of consumer behavior through the different channels. We talk about web analytics, marketing analytics and sales analytics. Experiments, iterative changes and gradual improvements all contribute to an optimal customer-based marketing strategy.

What is the role of training in the Digital Transformation?

With Digital Transformation, companies are rethinking the ways they deliver training, to create more efficient learning experiences that can have a real impact on the business. Corporate training must therefore "transform itself digitally", but also "facilitate the company's Digital Transformation". With the introduction of new technologies, processes and procedures, corporate training must ensure that employees have the skills ("digital skills") and the behaviors necessary to advance the organization. And this competence development must be done digitally.