There is often a question about what Digital Transformation actually is. Digital Transformation, then, could be understood to mean the knowledge and adoption of new technologies, such as Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, 5G. A fair definition, however, is not all there.
We are facing a much larger change that has multiple and pervasive implications on every dimension. In fact, the it is forcing a drastic change in the models of action adopted to date.
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A definition of Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation is the process of organizational, economic, social, and creative change enabled by the adoption and development of technologies.
There is no company, Public Administration or individual citizen that has not been touched by it: digitization is a process of transformation that is changing our habits, the way we do business, our workplace and more generally our lives. It affects each of us and increasingly in more and more contexts.
What few yet tell is that we are facing a shift toward digital and digitization that is not only inevitable, but irreversible. Given this premise, then, we need to look ahead. Thus, seeking to seize all the opportunities that this transformation sets before us.
How to manage Digital Transformation
How to do Digital Transformation? And how to initiate and enable this change in your own enterprise? It seems that the only alternative we have is to make ourselves ready, reconfiguring quickly, leveraging internal and external stimuli, promoting Digital Innovation in the company. And, at the same time, looking beyond its boundaries with a collaborative approach.
There are several dimensions on which a company should work to introduce Digital Innovation and digitization to accommodate:
- goals: the risk of developing Digital Transformation as an end in itself, not aligned with what are the real strategic needs, is always high;
- skills: Digital Transformation is, first and foremost, a cultural change to be stimulated within the organization itself, through communication, training, digital skills diffusion and entrepreneurship;
- idea development: it is essential to identify the stages that innovative ideas must go through. And with them the people and functions in charge of this process;
- budget: remains the key tool for having the resources needed to finance Digital Transformation projects;
- supporting functions: Digital Transformation affects all business functions. It is, therefore, necessary to provide the tools to enable and make the innovation process as agile as possible through the involvement of the different functions;
- open innovation: managing Digital Transformation also means coordinating an external ecosystem of actors. Who, can add the ideas and skills that are difficult to acquire internally;
- performance measurement: a key aspect, but still little addressed due to its complexity and specificity compared to traditional performance measurement models.
The industries most affected by the Digital Transformation
Beyond the numbers that still testify and certify a delay of our country in the digitization of companies, it is good to investigate and know which industries have been and will be the most impacted by the Digital Transformation process.
HR and labor
Digital Transformation has touched, as it did in 2021 and the post-pandemic period, the world of HR and Smart Working worldwide. These are two segments that have become even more strategic precisely because of the difficulties of the first lockdown.
The introduction and extensions of remote working have enabled government and businesses to move forward in the months of the lockdown.
PA and healthcare
Digitalization, however, has not only touched the world of work. Another department that implemented a major adaptation is the healthcare sector, as well as the entire public administration one.
In both Healthcare and PA, new technologies are often developed and introduced. After the boom in telemedicine, now in recession, in the area of digital healthcare one of the most relevant points.
Retail, digital finance, marketing and automotive
With its digitization processes, the Digital Transformation is touching increasingly broad and diverse sectors. From Digital Finance, with Fintech and Insurtech, to Retail and Logistics. There, thanks to technologies ranging from Augmented Reality to the Internet of Things, from Big Data to Cloud Computing, important sectoral evolutions are being drawn.
Another sector strongly touched by a strong digital transformation is the automotive one. The technologies introduced in recent years determine a strong impact in the growth and evolution of this sector that makes cars not only a means of transportation. But, a real interconnected and increasingly smart environment.
Read also: The future of Data Science: upcoming developments and new industry trends
