Moving to a Digital single market (DSM)

The word digital, is derived from the latin word digitus, which means finger or toe, dating back to the 15th century, where it was used in a sense to describe a whole number less than 10. In the last 5 years, phrases such as: digital art, digital economy, digital money (crypto), digital transformation and a digital single market (DSM) have sprung up, the word "digital" has come to be applied to pretty much anything involving computer technology or the Internet, it's a buzz word with powerful implications...

Digital is a sociological change, not a technical one.

So what does a Digital Single Market (DSM) look like, and are we in one? A digital single market will connect everything around us, it enables the free movement of services, people and capital, where people and businesses can seamlessly access and engage in online activities simultaneously, under conditions of fair competition, along with a high level of cybersecurity - consumer and personal data protection. Digital is here, it's also the future: Digital transformation is about unlocking future growth across single instances and/or platforms, disrupting and decentralizing economical, physical & technological borders equaling free movement.

We are not in a Digital Single Market. However, the EU is developing a mid-term DSM strategy, a single market fit for the digital age – tearing down regulatory walls and moving from 28 national markets to a single one, they predict this single market will contribute €415 billion per year to our economy (https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/digital-single-market-mid-term-review). Having worked on a number of digital transformation assignments, for central government, end users and consultancies, I have come across multiple interpretations of digital transformation. Without a clear understanding of what digital means, business owners struggle to develop a shared vision, which makes it almost impossible to capture value.

Present: digital technologies are transforming the world, having a "digital edge" is now part of every board pack (if not, it should be), typically the following question is asked: "How can we use our digital information and physical resources in new ways to create revenue?". Businesses seeking that "digital edge", need to transform their processes, revenue models, tweak the customer/client experience and then exploit pervasive digital connections linking people, technology systems, telecommunications, office locations, customers, partners, suppliers, associates, previous employees... the list is extensive and in some cases infinite. Digital Transformation is currently a moving target, an agile - digitally transformed business needs to deal with constantly changing technology and social media landscapes, data, data and more data!

Step one on the digital journey, identify who your audience is in the context of a digital world, evaluate everything. To take the digital journey, you must first develop a customer journey, every single interaction your audience has with marketing, sales, partners, media and customer services affects how those consumers feel, it also highlights numerous digital touch points, from turning your iPhone on in the morning, to surfing the internet on an iPad in that bar at night. Once you understand your customers and/or clients journey you can start mapping internal & external digital information, build a digital go-to-market roadmap, mobilize resources and utilize new technology to start your own digital transformation.

The Digital Future: Digital centralization - the move to a digital single market (DSM), started over a decade ago, back then it was tough to see just how all these technologies would fit together, we’ve seen the debut of many different types of devices/technologies, smartphones 3g - 4g and 5g (2019), tablets, smart TVs, smart appliances, AI automation, global platforms - single instances, the move from on-presmise to SAAS & cloud offerings... unknowingly walking us towards a digital future.

Digital technologies/trends to watch in late 2018 early 2019

• 5G preparation
• Commoditization of consumer data
• AI permeation
• White collar automation
• Converged telcom solutions - Seamless Communication
• Next-generation UI`s

Have a look at Cognizant`s recent white paper on digital transformation: https://www.cognizant.com/whitepapers/the-work-ahead-40-months-of-hyper-digital-transformation-codex2342.pdf

Present day technology gives us an indication of the future, within 10 years all the institutional barriers, centralized banking, physical borders, monetized bureaucracy, online constraints and the lack of digital ability, will be replaced with the free movement of a single global digital market.

Article by Leigh-jay Lawrence.