Going completely digital should be every company’s goal going forward. Many businesses have already seen the value of going digital and are in the middle of their transition. However, there are many obstacles to your digital transformation. If you don’t address these before you implement new processes, you could create problems that will be much harder to solve in the future. That’s where digital transformation consulting comes in. With the help of an experienced team, you too can go digital.
But what does it really mean to achieve a digital transformation? A fully digital company is one that can turn every interaction into measurable data. It’s a business that has computer control over every aspect of its operations. With those systems in place, a digital business can then derive insights from its data and improve its operations over time. With a digital transformation, you’ll have more control over your enterprise, smoother operations, and a better bottom line.
7 Reasons to Get Digital Transformation Consulting
1. Transform Your Data Collection
Data is the foundation upon which your entire digital transformation will be built. Every department in your company must be able to deliver quantitative data about every metric possible. If you are still depending on your employees for weekly or monthly reports, it’s time to automate these processes as much as possible. For example, using a virtual phone system, it’s possible to automatically track all of your call activity. This can then be used to inform the sales department’s decisions.
A major part of your digital transformation will be to evaluate which tools will best allow you to capture as much data as possible. We take the time to get to know your processes intimately so we can identify the right solution for your company, and if one doesn’t exist, we can help you customize a solution. Nothing is impossible. Even old industrial equipment can be retrofitted with components to allow for data collection.
2. Avoid Data Management Mistakes
Collecting data en masse leads to new risks. You have to take your customers’ privacy into consideration, fortify your data security, and ensure that your data stays organized to avoid confusion. Minimizing these risks is essential to a successful digital transformation. Given that you will suddenly be taking in much more data than before, it’s vital that you manage your data correctly from the very beginning. Your consultants keep an eye out for these issues and help you avoid problems.
Data Security
Your data is extremely valuable, and the more you have, the more you become a target. Cyberattacks show no signs of letting up. However, setting up some protections can deter many attackers, who will instead choose a more vulnerable business. By securing your data properly from the start, you can avoid the bad publicity and lost business that a data breach brings.
Data Compliance
As data privacy laws like the GDPR continue to make their way into the books, we need to make sure your business is able to stay compliant. If you cannot adhere to GDPR policies, you may not even be able to do business with European customers. By staying compliant, you make sure that no market is closed off.
Data privacy laws require you to protect individuals’ personal information. In addition, they require you to provide a report on any individual’s data upon request. Customers can even ask you to delete their data, and you have no choice but to comply. This should be easy, but many businesses struggle to fulfill these requirements because they did not take compliance into consideration in their digital transformation.
Avoiding Data Chaos
After considering security and compliance, we also strive to ensure that your data stays organized. Mass data collection can lead to unwanted redundancies, which creates confusion when your workers need to decide which file is the right one. Likewise, you don’t want your data storage bill to balloon unexpectedly. Smart data management policies will help you discard unnecessary data while gaining the most value from key data points.
3. Use Data Analytics to Your Advantage
Once you have a pristine data environment, with excellent data collection and management practices, you can then use data analytics to further improve your business. This is the most exciting part of your digital transformation. You can process data on local servers or using cloud computing. The data you feed into the system will be analyzed and you’ll receive reports via your dashboard. However, what data should you pay the most attention to?
Digital transformation consulting will help you identify the most important data points in your organization. While industry benchmarks and standard key performance indicators for your business are always a priority, we also want to find data points that are specific to your operations. For instance, a parts manufacturer could benefit from tracking the prices of raw materials and demand for parts over time. Your dashboard could highlight an opportunity to buy material at a lower price and lower your costs.
4. Set Up a Preventative Maintenance System
Data analytics is only the beginning. When you can process data, you can also turn it into a mechanism for control. Returning to the example of a parts manufacturer, wouldn’t it be great to know when your equipment is nearing failure? Instead of running maintenance on a scripted schedule, what if you could schedule maintenance on the machines that need it most before they shut down? That’s exactly what predictive maintenance can do thanks to the data you have collected.
Sensors on your machines can gather data related to vibration, temperature, and even mechanical noise. Computers analyze this data and spot machines that are starting to slide out of spec. This data can then be automatically reported to your maintenance team so that they can schedule a repair. The end result is better uptime and less money spent on maintenance.
5. Improve Your Logistics
Without reliable data, it can be difficult to manage your logistics precisely. A purchase order for a construction site will likely try to meet quantities exactly but still has to account for some margin of error. This is where guesswork enters the picture. If your inventory was completely digitized, you could more accurately see what you have on hand, know exactly what to order for a particular job, and time deliveries more accurately to avoid extra storage expenses.
Data analytics can help you see the big picture as well. Instead of placing purchase orders to meet clients’ requests one at a time, you could spot an opportunity to buy in bulk to satisfy several orders. Traditional corporate environments make this difficult since employees typically work on orders for specific clients. In a digital environment, everyone can work on everything, making logistics a much more streamlined department.
6. Future Proof Your Company
The future is digital whether your company is ready for it or not. You can expect your competitors to embark on their own digital transformations if they haven’t already. Starting now helps you to get a step ahead of the competition and avoid struggles down the road. What’s more, your business will be able to adapt more readily to changing circumstances in the future when it has completed its transformation.
The global pandemic proved this to be true very quickly. Companies that had gone fully digital were able to switch to remote working almost instantly. Businesses with strong data collection and management practices didn’t need to rely on the physical office and its printers. Digital transformation consulting prepares you for the future and the uncertainties that it can bring.
7. Scale Up Faster
Perhaps one of the most important benefits of digital transformation consulting is that you can scale up your business faster. Going digital makes expansion easy. If you need more computing power, you just use it in the cloud instead of buying more server components. If storage is lacking, cloud storage is unlimited. Even employee onboarding is easier in a digital environment since you’ll have better tools for your staff and your processes will be standardized across every location.
Start Your Digital Transformation Today
Few companies have truly achieved a full transition to the digital world. Many businesses are struggling to find the path forward, even though they recognize the need for a digital transformation. If you’re not sure what to do next or want to evaluate your company’s digital capacity, get an expert’s opinion. Contact SAAB RDS to learn more about our digital transformation consulting and how we can help you take your business into the future.