Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Lazar Bošković, creative director, AgitPROP
There are two common and superficial approaches to explaining the term “digital transformation”. The first form of naive interpretation speaks only of the digitization of something that was previously on paper or some other physical form, while the second wrong approach concerns only digital media, ie. simply having a website and presence on social media. This is first of all a necessary technical precondition, which serious companies did all the way back when they transferred to (today already obsolete) electronic business. And the second is just a promotional and sales channel for every modern business.
Digital transformation integrates the latest digital technologies into all areas of business and creates tectonic changes in the way the company operates and its relationship with the outside world, as well as the relationships within the company. The Digital Industrial Revolution, fourth one, also called Industry 4.0, is fundamentaly changing all areas of business, both in services and manufacturing sectors. The way people, data and processes are connected is completely changed, in order for the company to create the desired value for their customers and maintain a competitive edge in the digital age. The core of digital transformation is the application of modern technologies that revolutionize, link and streamline production and sales processes, by removing time and space barriers.
The Digital Strategy provides guidelines for the use of digital technologies to achieve business goals, so that it best serves a particular group (management, employees, partners, clients, suppliers …) or the needs of individual company sectors (production, marketing, sales, HR, IT, customer support, transport, finance …).
Digital business, unlike the current e-business, strives to completely overcome the boundaries between digital and physical world by integrating digital technologies into all business processes.
New technologies for digital transformation of business
The needs of each company in the process of digital transformation vary, but each of them needs some of the following dozen new technologies and solutions:
IoT – Internet of Things is a network of sensor enabled devices that can collect data from your environment and then upload them via the Internet. Through IoT you can achieve immediate tracking of production processes, timely restocking, automated monitoring of physical conditions in warehouses, tracking real-time transport, tracking employee activities…
AI – Artificial Intelligence is a branch of computer technology devoted to the development of intelligent computer systems, capable of solving complex tasks in a way that resembles human action.
Machine Learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that deals with building and studying systems that can learn from data. It enables monitoring user activity and, based on these data, improving functionality and improving sales.
Big Data refers to datasets whose scope and complexity surpass the capabilities of traditional data processing software, and a special concept of connected components that enable it has been developed for Big Data.
BI (Business Intelligence) is the transformation of raw data into significant indicators that reflect historical, current and predictive business operations and performance.
ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning is a comprehensive suite of software that integrates and processes information from business processes, in order to optimize business management and improve communication and collaboration with all employees and business partners.
CRM – Customer Relationship Management means the software solution and business strategy of the company at the same time. It represents a harmonization of business strategies, organizational structure and business culture, customer information and information technologies, so that needs of customers are met at all points of contact, with the goal of achieving profits.
SaaS – Software as a Service is an outsourcing solution that allows the user to use bespoke software developed by a provider, located on a cloud platoform.
VR – Virtual Reality is a technology that uses VR headsets to visualize virtual world in 3D.
AR – Augmented Reality is a technology by which any camera equipped smart device, with an installed AR app, can very realistically visualise virtual products, blended with the surrounding reality.
Global changes in modern business
The main reasons for companies entering into the process of digital transformation are the global changes that have changed many business areas to their core.
Globalization of production has made it possible, thanks to the technological development of transport and telecommunications, that almost every company can potentially market their products on the international market. From day to day, all aspects of production are less dependent on the physical location on the planet and increasingly depend on the degree of digital connectivity and cooperation outside one’s state boundaries. Concept models of products are sent in the form of digital data to be physically produced on 3D printers, and for some products it is even profitable to deliver them to end users digitally, so they could produce them on their own 3D printers.
Globalization of sales is a consequence of the fact that brands don’t recognize state borders, and are focused on global sales. The divide into online and offline points of sale is also outdated, and for customers it has become completely irrelevant from which point on the globe they ordered their goods. There are numerous software solutions for e-commerce on the market, and the launch of e-commerce online business has become much simpler than it used to be.
Globalization of the workforce led to the loss of the concept of “employed” in many areas of business, so their physical presence in the business premises of the company became unnecessary. Cloud technologies enable remote work and the creation of international virtual teams, which see and hear each other only through Internet-based communication services.
Globalization of communication imposes quite new models of companies’ appearance in the public. The world of marketing and PR was among the first to experience numerous forms of digital transformation, but even in it, this process is still closer to its beginning than tits end. Digitally transformed communications are based on omnichannel marketing, which removes the boundaries between different sales and marketing channels and creates a unique integrated whole. It also means overcoming offline and online sales, marketing and customer service segregation, because all channels are digitally synchronized to each other.
A digital conclusion
The question whether to move into a digital business transformation is an outdated one as well. The real question is when the businesses that have not digitally transformed will close their doors. Digital and physical worlds have become irreversibly connected, through machines, systems, and people who are able to exchange information and automatically adapt.
Industry 4.0 has revolutionized production processes by shifting production from analogue and mechanical technologies to fully digital models. Through the digital transformation, the consumer world has formed a brand new customer behaviour model, and from the contemporary e-commerce they expect personalized shopping experience and products tailored to them.