Digitalization evolves rapidly. How do you tackle the challenges? Find your digitalization strategy, exploit your opportunities and change your business models.
Digitalization simply is one of the biggest topics of our time. One of the nicer achievements of our era is that web-based services have made life easier for us in practically every area of our lives.
According to the German Federal Statistics Office, for instance, around 77% of German Internet users used online shopping in the past year. Online services such as online banking are also hugely popular (with more than 50% of Internet users). In recent years, the range of digital services for end consumers has grown significantly: apps or browsers make it easy to book vacations, organize a ride, transfer money – the list is endless.
These examples illustrate the fact that daily Internet use is now a feature of everyday life for many people: in 2017, 98% of 10 to 44-year olds were active online. If you include the percentage of the population over 44 years in that figure, the number falls to 87 percent. In the future, we can expect for more and more consumers to use online services and for such services to become increasingly important as a result.
Customers just expect more in the era of digitalization.
Now more than ever, consumers expect to be able to contact companies and institutions through digital channels and access the information and services they require quickly – at any time and with the highest possible quality.
These expectations exist both in the economic relationship between end consumers and companies (“B2C”) and between companies (“B2B”). In some sectors, digital services are practically self-evident or simply indispensable.
The agricultural industry as digital pioneer.
One such example is in agriculture, which has rapidly developed into a digitized industry. A study by the German digital association Bitkom found that more than one in two farmers or contractors use digital solutions and are therefore involved in “smart farming.” Digitalization is making agriculture more efficient and ecological.
However, the agricultural industry is just one example illustrating an underestimated industry that is already heavily shaped by digital services.
Industries and products vary, but the questions about the digital change remain constant.
An even more interesting question is how the range of web-based digital services offered by companies from the widest variety of sectors will develop in the future – quantitatively, qualitatively and in terms of user opportunities.
To be successful in the long term, companies must offer their customers products and services that meet their expectations and needs. From the customer’s perspective, however, the quality of the product they require is no longer determined solely by factors such as their workmanship, price or level of innovation, but also by digitalization-driven factors:
- Through which digital channels can products be ordered or consumed?
- When and how fast is the product available to me?
- How flexibly can I use the product?
Naturally, these factors do not apply to all products. However, they illustrate the challenges that digitalization presents for many companies. Based on these findings, each company must ask itself how to prepare for the digital future and how to find a fitting digital strategy.
How can companies get ready for digitalization?
To us, employees and their attitudes to change as well as digitalization are the most important factor of every company’s success. To enable employees to do a good job and utilize opportunities for the company, their minds should be clear: that means supporting them in their work for their customers with intelligent processes and solutions.
Smart, digital processes with media continuity build the cornerstone for the performance of your company, particularly in view of the increasing skills shortages in many sectors. Your digital strategy should reflect that!
Digitalization is going to affect every industry. At the same time, it is the key to the future success of every company.
The good news is that, according to a recent study, four out of five companies are more or less aware of that fact and have a “digital strategy” in place. The slightly worse news, however, is that only around one in four companies is investing in digital business models and digital solutions.
The digital transformation began some time ago, and we know that you and your company want to help shape it. Let’s work on your issues together: many digital initiatives are already focusing on a smarter way of working with information and documents.
We can tackle the challenges together – We can help you, because digitalization is your process.
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