As the saying goes, businesses that are not busy adapting are busy falling further behind. And nowhere is that more apparent than in the tech and digital solutions that companies use to get the most out of their budgets and resources. But for those that are wondering how they can modernize their business, it’s not always easy to know where to start. There’s certainly no shortage of tools and platforms out there, and making sense of it all could require a team of those dedicated exclusively to the task.
The good news is that your business doesn’t need to sit at the cutting edge of technology to benefit from it, and there is help out there for those that need assistance in managing their digital transformation. While business process modernization doesn’t happen overnight, you can move significantly forward with the right partner to guide you through. Those that go it alone may think that a few new computers here and a couple IT workers there may do the trick, but it’s much more of a holistic effort that requires buy-in at just about every level.
What Is Business Modernization?
Generally, business modernization is a unified effort on behalf of your company to bring all of its systems, tools and processes up to a modern level of efficiency. Rather than making do and pushing off certain challenges until later, business modernization forces you to address the important things now, which means getting the benefits of innovation and modernization while you’re still in a position to capitalize on it. After all, if you wait too long, the demands and needs of your customers and clients could push them to your competitors.
In practice, business modernization means auditing and reviewing all your practices to see if they can be improved by a new approach or by the introduction of new digital solutions. However, it’s true that it’s often your employees and others that are the worst at evaluating how you’re doing things. That’s because the current way of doing things will often seem right even if it’s packed full of inefficiencies and other challenges.
Often, that means bringing in a trusted third party to help identify the pain points and to help point the efforts in the right direction. While this typically includes integrating new technologies, it may impact your sales, marketing and anywhere else you have budgets and resources to consider. Essentially, business modernization is tasked with replacing your legacy processes and tech with modern solutions that enable you to do more in less time with less resources while spending less money overall — and all that adds up to a huge benefit to your bottom line.
By utilizing tech such as AI and other platforms, you can relieve much of the tedious work that your employees are engaged in day after day, freeing them up for more advanced analysis and critical thinking that can help you save even more money and time elsewhere. It’s all a part of managing the digital transformation that your business needs, and after all of it your business should be a more efficient entity with better processes and protocols.
How Businesses Can Benefit From Modernization
If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that we can’t always count on the old way of doing things. Businesses that were able to quickly pivot under various lockdown orders and social distancing measures were some of the biggest winners of the year, and those who couldn’t saw firsthand how their outdated processes and tech could be problematic in a time of need.
But 2020 wasn’t some landmark shift, it was more of a speeding up of things that many have long seen coming. From the flexibility of remote work to systems that enable asynchronous collaboration, there are many avenues to business modernization but no one road map.
That won’t stop businesses from trying, and nine out of 10 businesses report that business modernization is an important focus. But the worst thing about it is that as more and more companies get on board and see how business modernization can revolutionize their business, those that don’t run the risk of being left further behind. And as time passes, business modernization becomes more important as companies increase their efficiencies, giving them more leverage and power in their business dealings.
Which leads us to this truism: business modernization is less of a choice and more a matter of necessity. If you want your business to scale and get the most out of its resources, you need modernization to help you do that. And if you think that modernization is only for huge businesses with largely digital footprints, think again. Small and medium sized businesses actually have the most to gain because they’re the ones that may lack comprehensive processes and workflows altogether.
Why Business Modernization Is Important
For companies that have engaged in business modernization, only one percent report no measurable gains after implementing modern business practices. In reality, even that one percent is likely due to other factors such as noncompliance and a reversion to their old processes and ways. But for businesses that are ready to embrace business modernization, there are many benefits.
Aside from the benefit to your efficiencies and the bottom line, business modernization can also help you serve your customers better, leading to a customer base that is more invested in what you do, which can be a big help when it comes to your brand and the story that you tell. In addition to the conveniences that you can extend to your customers, business modernization can also help you increase the quality of your work, as well as expand your overall reach online and in the places where your customers tend to be.
But it’s not all about your customers. Business modernization can help optimize your internal communication so misunderstandings and lost tasks become a thing of the past. It can also help you improve your security and harden your systems against data loss or theft, which can easily pay for itself 10 times over when considering the cost to your reputation and bottom line if your company ends up as the victim of some kind of hack.
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For more on how you can get started with business modernization, contact the digital solution experts at iTransform.
