Group Marketing Director reflects on what Digital transformation (DX) means for the channel.
Over the past few months, my radar has become saturated by only two topics. If it’s not the advent and perils of GDPR, then it has to be Digital Transformation, which now even has its own punchy abbreviation – DX.
Across my formative years, I recall a plethora of similar catch-all phrases that were going to dominate our thinking and impact our way of conducting business for years to come. Who else recalls that world changing benefits promised by the “Information Superhighway” of the Nineties? I am trying unbearably hard not to file “DX” on the same shelf as The Millennium Bug or Y2K, where hyped marketing jargon for non-events with no meaning goes to die, but the sheer weight of output on this topic should give us all pause for thought.
Refreshingly, I have yet to meet a single customer who is begging to be digitally transformed, so why are we all knee deep in this hoopla? Well, the way that customers consume information, make purchase decisions, acquire goods/services and utilise them, has been changed dramatically by the development of reasonable speed internet access and resilient cloud services. Add in some Millennial employees (another phrase that nobody can tightly define) and there is obviously something afoot.
On a grand scale, we have seen nuclear level disruption to traditional business models characterised by examples such as On-Line Banking, Amazon, Netflix and Uber. The high-street estate agent is not so much endangered as doomed and I would not recommend that you invest in the building of shiny car showrooms anytime soon, but what does this all mean for the channel?
I would be delighted to hear your perspective, but for me, it is recognising a few key elements around how to be successful in the digitally transformed landscape.
The demand for connectivity will increase exponentially, as more business is transacted on-line. This connectivity will be required from desktops, mobile, tablets and wearables, so make sure you become the trusted supplier of choice for your customers.
Ensure that you recognise the insatiable hunger for insight and information that Millennials consider to be “table stakes.” Attention spans are short and the need to transact immediately is high, so align your systems and sales process with these factors, or prepare to fall behind.
Office based working has reached, or even passed its peak, so employees need high calibre collaboration, mobility and communication tools that can reach outside their organisation, but don’t require another stand-alone system to operate them. Integration and single platform systems will increasingly be “must-have.”
Change is generally fantastic for business, because it creates opportunities. The increasingly digital business world which we operate in is no exception, so do not be alarmed, but do be informed and prepared.
Finally, why not share your thoughts on what digital transformation means for you – DX is a very broad church after all, so let’s all start evangelising.
