Signs Your Business Needs Digital Transformation

The term “digital transformation” gets thrown around a lot these days. But what does it really mean? And why should companies undertake such a significant change?

Digital transformation is often regarded as the shift from analog to digital technologies. However, it’s so much more than putting technology in place. A successfully executed strategy evolves the business into a digital-enabled enterprise through new ways of working, interacting, and communicating.

With modern technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) driving the next wave of digital transformation, now is more important than ever for organizations to recognize that they need to pursue this path.

7 Red Flags Your Company Needs Digital Transformation

Organizations worldwide are looking for solutions to integrate their operations into the cloud, automate processes, and adopt AI. Companies that don’t adapt to these new disruptive technologies risk being left behind.

Here are seven signs your business needs digital transformation to stay competitive in today’s market:

1. Not Using Digital Tools to Improve Processes

Technology is changing how businesses operate, yet many companies still don’t use these tools effectively. As a result, they miss out on improving a wide range of business processes, such as accounts payable, supply chain, onboarding, and more.

2. Document Processing is Cumbersome

Is your document processing slow, error-prone, expensive, or all of the above? Turn that around completely with an intelligent document processing (IDP) platform that handles the entire lifecycle — pre-processing, data capture, validation, post-processing, and reporting.  

3. Reliance on Manual Processes

Manual processes are great for simple tasks, but they’re terrible for complex ones. Automating repetitive tasks frees up employees’ time to focus on higher-value activities. AI eliminates human error, saving money and boosting productivity. Also, consider solutions that enable seamless integrations for fast automation.

4. Employees Aren’t Receiving Proper Training  

Technology changes fast, which makes it hard to stay ahead of the curve. To avoid falling behind, you must invest in training and education programs to ensure your team knows how to use new technologies.

5. Missed Cost-Caving Opportunities

The cost of running a business is always going up. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore the opportunity to cut back on expenses. For example, having a single platform to process documents intelligently helps reduce overhead costs while increasing efficiency.

6. Customers Are Leaving in Droves

Customers often leave businesses when they feel their needs aren’t being met, understood, or valued. By adopting a digital transformation approach to business processes, your team can focus on providing a higher level of service that retains customers and attracts prospects. 

7. Collaboration is a Struggle

How well do your departments work together? Do employees struggle to manage and share documents? Effective collaboration is vital for productivity and job satisfaction in the workplace. By transforming key processes, your business can streamline operations, align departments, and strengthen your company’s culture.

Tips to Move Your Digital Transformation Forward

Before you start planning your digital transformation strategy, it’s important to understand where your business currently stands. Ask yourself some basic questions. What are your strengths? Where are your weaknesses? Are you well-positioned for digital innovation? Do you have the right team in place?

Start by taking stock of who you are now and where you hope to be in the future. Then use those answers to help guide your strategic approach. 

Know What You’re Trying to Achieve

Once you have a clearer picture of where you stand, you’ll be able to figure out what you want to accomplish. Is it simply making existing processes easier? Or are you looking to develop completely new ways of working? Knowing what you’re aiming for will help you determine the changes you need to make.

Identify Gaps Between Your Current State and Desired Future State

Now that you know what you’re hoping to achieve, you can begin thinking about how you plan to get there. Start by identifying gaps between where you are now and where your company wants to be. 

This step helps you narrow down potential opportunities for improvement. It also lets you know whether you need to build new skills internally or look to outside experts for assistance.

Plan Your Strategy Based on Your Priorities

Next, you’ll want to prioritize your efforts. Determine which areas you should invest in first and which ones you can put off until later. Depending on your industry, your company size, and your budget, you may decide to tackle everything at once or pick only a few items to pursue immediately.

You may find that focusing on a single area makes sense. After all, if you have several projects going on simultaneously, it can become challenging to keep track of them all. If you’ve identified a particular challenge or opportunity, it may make sense to devote your attention to it exclusively.

Accelerate Change with Intelligent Processing

A key component of any digital transformation strategy is automating document processing. Whether it’s invoices, purchase orders, or medical forms, every industry and department uses documents, yet many don’t use a centralized solution for all their document processing needs. 

Try Rossum for free to see how our cloud-native IDP platform transforms how organizations manage, store, and share their documents.