The COVID 19 crisis has changed the way businesses function and it has the pushed the boundaries of companies to adopt new business strategies in order to achieve the business goals, stay relevant, and remain competitive in this new dynamic business and economic environment. One of the significant measures that all organizations have adopted in these uncertain times is digital transformation. Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business and fundamentally changing how it operates and delivers value to the customer. Professional data entry services can prove to be immensely helpful in a business’ digital transformation journey. So, small businesses, medium-sized businesses and large businesses are forced to adopt digital transformation and go online.
The outbreak of the pandemic has been a huge setback for the global economy. To maintain social distancing and to prevent the spread of the virus, most businesses have switched to online operations like online shopping, virtual doctor appointments, online learning etc. In the U.S., online sales for September increased 43% year over year, reaching $60.4 billion, according to Adobe Analytics. This growth was just above August’s online sales growth, which increased 42% year over year. This means that businesses that relied on brick and mortar locations were severely hit by the pandemic. As regulations forced many organizations in several locations to close down or limit their activities, some businesses switched to online platforms but some other businesses faced huge losses. Services like public transportation and airlines, were completely deserted and many lost their jobs. In short, within a span of six months the global economy collapsed, but now it’s time for businesses to gradually revive with innovative technology and digital transformation. By embracing the right tactics and the right technology, any business can become an innovator, bounce back and emerge as a strong market leader.
With the adoption of disruptive innovation in business, the traditional role of CIO (Chief Information Officer) has changed to a more strategic one that focuses on how the technology is used to make the business grow. To successfully lead new digital initiatives, CIOs must work with other leaders, and inspire, empower and engage them to build an enduring collaboration. To survive in these difficult times, here are 4 things that CIOs should consider:
- Make use of distribution networks and production expertise: To bring in valuable partners, make use of your distribution networks along with your production expertise.
- Gather data from vast customer database: If your business is a start-up, then you may not have a large customer base. So, your data gathering energy can be channelled to strengthen business innovations. For example, Sainsbury is a supermarket in the UK with 27 million customers. Its internal innovation team, Future Brands, identifies and recruits new brands for its shelves. In return, it asked for a period of exclusivity in their supermarket distribution. Future Brands’ Taste of the Future program gives Sainsbury’s customers the chance to try 30 products. Analysis of this data gives the supermarket sales information that can be used to nurture start-up brands as it brings better-selling items to its customers.
- Set up a new workforce to incubate ideas: Organizations could find it challenging to quickly embrace a new system and forgo their existing system. However, a technology disruption is essential to make the business more agile and less fragile as disruption grows fiercer and more widespread.
- Give a new direction to new opportunities without sacrificing the old ones: Make use of new opportunity in your business as usual to gain more advantage. For example, Amazon has disrupted itself several times with innovations like cloud computing and advertising business. Amazon was able to incorporate these new technologies without slowing down any of its retail operations by giving its internal start-ups the room to innovate, the funding to grow, and the sponsorship to avoid being crippled by legacy business units.
COVID-19 has definitely changed the way businesses function and today, businesses are amping up their technological systems with digital transformation and innovations to grow their business as the post-pandemic world takes shape. With online strategies on everyone’s mind, the power of digital transition is pushing businesses towards a brighter future where sudden regulatory changes don’t inhibit opportunity. To ensure efficiency, businesses can approach data entry services to convert all their data into digital data so that businesses can embrace digital disruption, derive valuable insights, improve customer experience and survive during COVID 19 times.
