Digital Business Transformation: The Impact of Digital Innovation on Business in a Changing World
The term global village implies that the world is becoming smaller not in size but as it concerns interconnectivity, global culture and, of course, digitalization. Digital transformation describes the forward-thinking change which comes from embracing digital technology.
From analogue to digital, there are many examples of change-resistant organizations that have gone under. From Kodak's inability to envision and adapt to digital cameras, which led to its ultimate downfall, to Blackberry's lack of foresight in envisaging touchscreens and aesthetic designs and Motorola's incapacity to invest in software and key into the 3G movement, posterity is full of examples of how digital business transformation is a winner any day.
An example of digital innovation is systems automation. This combination of software and hardware mechanics is designed to work automatically without human intervention, eliminates the risk of human errors, improves user productivity and standardizes work operations. It also saves labour, time and cost while increasing precision and accuracy on the job. Automatic systems operation, which has its origins in OS/360 operating system produced by IBM, paved the way for the automated allocation of system resources and batch processing of jobs and, in time, came to fill the demand gap for more developed mechanical systems giving rise to advancements in robotics and artificial intelligence. Examples of systems automation abound in today's workplace, from Chatbots that help with customer support to facility management automated system tools like Comfy, Kisi and Estimote that assist in navigating and customizing physical workspaces to even hiring. There is also employee analytics, where software like Gusto, CultureAmp and Smashfly is designed to look for specific keywords that help facilitate these processes.
Virtual Reality is another digital transformation technique that has completely changed customer experience and marketing. From the tourism industry to automobile and entertainment, VR was used by Volvo in their campaign, where they teamed up with an Oscar-winning VFX studio and Google to release the Volvo Reality app along with a branded Volvo VR viewer kit so users could take the Volvo XC90 for a breath-taking test drive in the mountains. This paved the way for Toyota and Fiat to follow suit with their own virtual test drive apps. Also, Marriott Hotels sent newlyweds on a virtual honeymoon of a lifetime. They got newlywed couples who wanted to experience a VR honeymoon and brought them into a specially designed installation which incorporated live-action video and CGI on VR headsets, combined with 4D sensory effects like wind and ocean spray. This has induced more travel companies to use VR as a lure to let tourists explore faraway destinations in the hope that it will sway their decision when it comes to booking trips abroad. Amusement parks are also known to use VR in shopping malls and highly commercial areas to create a memorable experience to lure fun lovers to the physical parks usually located on the city's outskirts due to the space demand.
Another indelible impact of digital transformation is predictive marketing, which entails gathering specific data on specific customers and using these insights and analytics in effective decision-making and customer targeting. This is quite visible in the e-commerce industry, where data is used as a predictive marketing tool. North Face, the US clothier and footwear store, leverages artificial intelligence technology to help online shoppers find the right clothing and footage preferences on its website, thereby gathering invaluable data. This helps North Face position its many brands in front of prospects (based on data collected on consumer preference and behaviour) more effectively.
The Internet of things, otherwise known as IoT, allows for digital and physical interconnectivity. It allows factories, cars, and even natural environments like rivers to be controlled by sensors at the switch of a button. Using the power of connected devices and utilizing generated data from IoT to make intelligent decisions to boost productivity are some ways today's workplace leverages the Internet of things. The Smart Factory is a manufacturing leap forward to a digital and flexible system of things and is expected to generate $3.7 trillion of economic impact.
Examples of organizations that have disrupted their industries using digital innovation include GE and their work on the digital wind farm, which seeks to boost wind farm energy production by as much as 20 per cent. Also is Smart Silo technology used by CEMEX, which installs trackers into customers' silos to track consumption and dispatches cement accordingly, ensuring a seamless flow of information and an uninterrupted procurement process. Alibaba also makes use of robotics in the stocking of warehouses.
Caterpillar and Uptake co-developed predictive diagnostics, a way to turn data into meaningful information to help Caterpillar's customers catch potential maintenance issues before breakdowns occur, thereby minimizing downtime. Porsche has leveraged digital transformation to transform their cars with automated driving using the "Car Connect" app, which renders navigation services with real-time traffic information, reading out news and selecting music, all with the touch of your smartphone.
In these ways, we can see how digital innovation has transformed and is still transforming the world of business in the 21st century.
With the evolution of the metaverse, we cannot wait to see how this further extension of AR and VR will impact our daily lives and boost the world of business as we know it today.