Digital – first is among the latest buzzword doing the rounds.. It is one of the most trending discussions after the onset of Covid-19. Many large companies had already adopted the digital-first strategy but now Covid-19 has accelerated the pace of digital adoption in many mid to small companies.
What is really Digital-First?
Simply put, digital-first means functioning and approach of a business with digital solutions whenever possible. Digital-first is a holistic approach to solve future challenges to help a business move forward. Although, solutions that might work for one business might not necessarily work for another.
As an organization scales up, so does the amount of work and complexities of challenges, so to meet the new demand, organizations need to be agile. The management of the organization needs to make the right choice of technologies and solutions keeping in mind the acceptability and benefits of such solutions.
With the evolution of new technologies on the horizon, often it becomes difficult for businesses to maintain agility and not fall by the wayside. Here are a few elements to consider while moving towards a digital-first strategy.
Simple yet effective
The journey towards digitalization can sometimes be quite complex and may become difficult to implement. Adopting a solution that might be very feature-rich but difficult to use by employees can lead to a complete failure of the solution. The choice of digital solutions should be such that they are easily accepted and understood both by employees as well as customers.
Transparency
The management needs to be transparent about the adoption of a new technology to ward off any negative reactions by employees. Management should explain to employees why technology is being introduced, clear doubts, and provide necessary training as needed.
Personalization
In this context, personalization consists of finding ways to make your digital environment feel personal to each individual interacting with it. Personalization also refers to tweaking your digital environment for many possible groups. For example, if it is the ERP of the company, it is best to show what is relevant to an individual and remove the clutter or maybe have a personalization dashboard for that employee.
Human Interaction
A Digital-First Strategy is meaningless if it doesn’t anchor itself in human interaction. For example, your website needs to be attractive, easy to read and navigate, and must possess beneficial information. In a sense, your digital elements need to drive a more robust human connection at all times. Without this humanistic approach, it is easy for a digital-first environment to feel cold or disconnected. Strive toward greater human interaction levels, and you’ll find that your digital-first approach reaps huge dividends and makes you feel even more connected to your customers.
Remote working
The current pandemic which has disrupted the world in many ways has taught us to work from home (WFH). It has taught us the importance of remote working. Companies that adopted the digital-first strategy are able to operate with relative ease with their employees working from home. The surge of cloud infrastructure at reasonable pricing and advanced security features makes it sensible for even MSMEs to opt for cloud digital services.
Security
With digitalization, it becomes imperative to secure your digital network and assets. It is important to maintain regular security updates and patches, together with having a strong firewall and using multi-factor identification as extra support. Daily malware scans, automated backups, and SSL encryption to protect customer’s data are a must to keep the e-commerce website secure.
The digital-first approach is rapidly becoming standard in many business environments because of the ways it transforms operations. Without a Digital-First Strategy, you are likely to fall behind your competitors in an increasingly digitalized world.
A true Digital-First Strategy will transform your branding possibilities by opening you up to a broader range of potential users. If you’re trying to expand your operation into new areas geographically, digital-first approaches help reach out to more potential buyers. The digital environment provides many efficacious marketing options giving excellent results. A Digital-First Strategy helps to make your information more easily accessible to a broader range of your employees and customers. While this approach allows you to stay competitive with businesses in your field, you should avoid getting lost in the shuffle.
A Digital-First Strategy creates more substantial and more efficient businesses that stay on top of the latest trends in the market but it does not become synonymous with a ‘digital-only’ approach. Businesses need to have offline touchpoints and backups. Remember, customers still like offline interactions and ultimately customer satisfaction is the top priority.
To sum it up, digitalization is essential to drive efficiency and growth but a mix of personal interaction should be beneficial for businesses.
Connect with us to know how Enspire Solutions can help you in your business’s digital journey at info@enspire.in
