SMB: The Why Behind Digital Transformation

As a small or medium business owner (SMB), you are likely considering digital transformation to improve your operations. Amid your daily responsibilities and the multiple hats you wear, remember this crucial principle: digital transformation is not just about moving paper forms to screens. It must be about fundamentally improving how your business operates.

In other words, your digital transformation project should help your team achieve at least one of two goals:

1. Deliver significantly more value with the same effort.
2. Maintain the same value but with substantially less effort.

This may seem like a lofty goal, but it must be so. You are about to undertake a project where costs can escalate quickly and returns are not always immediately visible.

In this sense, keep an eye out for these warning signs:

• Software developers or vendors that use excessive jargon and cannot clearly articulate actual business outcomes for your specific business.
• Your project starts to look like a replica of an existing process but on a digital platform—such as simply converting paper forms to a digital format.
• A narrow approach where the solution provider focuses exclusively on one area without considering the rest of your operation. Focus is not necessarily bad, but lacking an understanding of the full picture can lead to problems.

To help you identify areas with the most potential for value, consider these key areas where digital transformation is particularly useful for SMBs. Aiming for one or more of these areas in a single project is a good starting point:

Cross-Department Data Integration

One of the most significant inefficiencies in many businesses is redundant data entry. Consider how often different members of your team enter the same information into various systems:

• Customer details being entered in both CRM and billing systems.
• Employee information duplicated across HR and payroll platforms.
• Inventory data manually updated in multiple tracking systems.

When you set up ways for those systems to "talk" to each other, you can enter information once and have it automatically populate across all relevant systems. This not only saves time but also reduces errors and improves data consistency.

TIP: Before synchronizing data, identify which system will be your "Source of Truth." Assign a team member to manage duplicate removal before integration.

Process Automation

Look for opportunities to automate routine tasks. Implement a system that automates predictable, routine tasks while flagging anomalies for human review. This system should allow your team to still see everything, but their focus will be on exceptions and high-value activities. For example:

• On-demand document generators (invoice copies, field report filing).
• Standardized approval workflows for common requests.
• Automated inventory replenishment based on predetermined thresholds.
• Customer support ticket routing and AI-generated initial responses.

TIP: Start small with a system that is flexible and allows your team to customize it as they become more comfortable with the process.

Service Enhancement

Digital transformation should enable you to provide auxiliary services to both internal and external customers. These enhancements make customers feel your team is on top of everything at all times. Consider features that:

• Give customers self-service access to common information and requests.
• Provide real-time status updates on orders or service tickets.
• Send thank-you messages or proactive customer service follow-ups (use thoughtfully!).

Remember, these strategies can be combined, and this is where having a developer who truly understands your business becomes invaluable. In another article, I explain why a developer should provide valuable insights from the very first call.

Key Take away:

The goal of a technology project in a business isn’t just to digitize your current workflows—it’s to transform them into scalable, efficient operations that drive growth and productivity.