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How To Approach Digital Transformation In The New Normal

Founder and CEO of Insightly and a lifelong techie with a passion for all things startup.

In the new post-pandemic world, businesses have had to rethink operations, culture and even customer relationships to ensure survival and continued growth. For many businesses, this has meant a rapid digital transformation.

Based on my experience as a business leader and the CEO of a marketing and CRM platform, here are a few insights to help you continue that digital transformation in three key areas of your business:

Business Operations

Whether you had to introduce an online sales channel, transition your team to remote work or rethink your digital ad campaigns, you had to rely heavily on technology to implement changes. 

Now you have to shift your focus to better preparing your business for future disruptions and growth. Your new strategy should include careful consideration of how and where your valuable business data is stored so you can better measure progress toward your goals, assess risks and take a proactive, data-driven approach to operations and growth. 

To do that operationally, remove roadblocks and bottlenecks among teams to speed up execution and enable continuous innovation. If you have not already adopted an ERP or CRM system in your business, you can consider investing in one to help you with this. (A number of companies, my own included, offer these types of solutions.)

This type of foundational technology can help speed up digital adoption across the board, and as your business faces new challenges and growth, you will be able to adjust and course-correct without wasting time and resources. If you do invest in this type of solution, ensure the one you choose is both easy to use and flexible enough to fit your future requirements. 

Organizational Culture

For many companies, the "new normal" means all-remote work and restricted in-person interactions and gatherings. And while we can easily connect with one another and stay productive thanks to a plethora of communication tools, there's something to be said about people meeting up in a shared physical space where spontaneous conversations can lead to breakthroughs, creative ideas and innovative thinking.

Your company culture won't just follow along into the digital realm or somehow reshape to fit the new normal. If you want to keep your people engaged and inspired, you need to be proactive about rebuilding your organizational culture and include it in your overall business strategy.

One way is to reinforce your shared values through clear messaging and opportunities for people to take action — as a team or individually — to support internal diversity and inclusion and/or contribute to causes and projects that reflect your values in society at large. It's the right thing to do, and it's also the only way a modern business can stay relevant and build trust and meaningful relationships with employees and customers.

Customer Relationships

In a time of crisis and post-crisis recovery, you have a great opportunity to double down on your existing customer relationships, test new ideas and find new opportunities. Find ways to identify with your customers and focus on serving them, and they will become your biggest source of new revenue.

Chances are the majority of your customers are now spending most of their time online. Develop a digital brand strategy that reflects your company values, provides customers with helpful information and sets your business apart from its competitors.

You can also consider using marketing automation tools to quickly build and execute campaigns, measure performance against your baseline expectations for engagement and tweak as you go. If you are considering launching an online sales channel, make sure you select an e-commerce platform that aligns with your business model, is easy to manage, is SEO-friendly and can scale as you grow.

Final Thoughts

Don't wait for the economy to rebound, customers to start buying or life to return to what it was a few months ago. Now is the perfect time to take a proactive approach. Lean on your strategic partners and technology providers, as they can help you execute your digital transformation and prepare for future growth.

Considering the importance of digital transformation, your technology providers should be on your partner shortlist. Don't just auto-renew your software subscriptions. Reach out to your vendors to discuss your goals and explore options to solve your problems. They can also help you to decide on strategic digital investments, whether it's to introduce artificial intelligence in your business or launch an e-commerce website.

If your technology vendors and partners are not willing to help or have no solutions that can solve your problems and help with your digital transformation, it makes it that much harder to succeed. If that's the case, it might be worth finding new vendors and partners that better suit your goals. From my perspective, the worst thing you can do now is stay inactive or stick to your old strategy that does not reflect the new reality we're all facing.


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