Blockbuster is one of the greatest cautionary tales in business history. The downfall of this leading video store chain is a lesson on what happens when a company doesn’t evolve. Why? Because there will always be someone else who will use technology to its full advantage and deliver a better experience. In Blockbuster’s case, Netflix was that someone.
On the flip side, “old school” companies who have integrated technology into their operations – such as IKEA, Lego, and Home Depot – are seeing new highs and dominating their industries.
But how do these companies stay on top of the latest innovations and weave them into their business model? They use a powerful tool called a digital transformation strategy. In this article, we’ll discuss why you need a digital transformation strategy and look at four cutting-edge technologies changing the digital landscape.
What is a Digital Transformation Strategy and Why Do You Need One?
A digital business transformation strategy is a comprehensive plan for improving a company’s operation using digital technology. It can be applied to any operation, department, or facet of doing business. For example, the recent popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) has urged many companies to incorporate it into their workflow. AI is now a part of many businesses, from network communications to data analysis.
Nowadays, a strategy for digital transformation is becoming crucial as markets become more crowded and competition becomes fiercer than ever. Technology is also being developed and implemented more rapidly than ever before. To stand out, businesses need an IT transformation strategy to leverage that technology properly. Any business leader knows that when new technology is introduced, it has to be done carefully and tactfully. Building a strategic plan allows them to become more agile and efficient in solving their customers’ problems, delivering solutions, and improving revenue.
Unleashing Business Evolution: The Power of Digital Transformation Strategies
In today’s evolving business landscape, harnessing the potential of digital transformation strategies is crucial for companies striving to not only survive but thrive in the digital age. Let’s look at some of the benefits of adopting digital transformation initiatives:
- Increased Efficiency – One of the key benefits of a digital transformation strategy is increased efficiency. The right technologies can automate manual processes, streamline workflows, and improve resource allocation with reduced human effort. This leads to higher efficiency and lower costs.
- Improved Customer Service – Delivering an excellent customer experience is another benefit of digital transformation and strategy. Consider how Amazon uses AI to give production recommendations based on the customer’s past purchases, or the emergence of chatbots enables people to interact with a brand 24/7.
- Informed Decision-Making – Digital technologies can also help companies in decision-making. By using tools that collect, visualize, and analyze data from various sources, you’ll unlock data-driven insights to make smarter (and faster) decisions.
- Better Scalability – Digital solutions and cloud infrastructure enable organizations to scale their operations quickly to meet growing demands or enter new markets. This translates to competitive advantages and increased revenue.
- Reduced Costs – Streamlining processes and reducing manual intervention often leads to cost savings. By adopting cloud computing and other digital solutions, organizations can lower infrastructure and maintenance costs.
While these are all significant benefits, futureproofing is perhaps the most critical benefit of having a digital strategy. Transformation and disruption happen all the time in any industry, causing those unwilling to change or those who are unprepared to fall behind. A technology-first plan can help your business adapt quickly and stay competitive in the market for years to come.
4 Cutting-Edge Technologies Driving Digital Transformation Strategies
So what are the driving factors behind these digital transformations? Let’s explore four of the most transformative technologies that are at the forefront of driving digital transformation strategies across various sectors.
Revolutionizing POTS: The Transformation Your Business Needs
A digitized voice infrastructure (such as telephones and voice calls) is one of the foundations of any modern company. Yet, far too many are still relying on POTS (plain old telephone service) that use outdated copper wiring.
Transforming your lines to a digital solution with POTS replacement offers a variety of powerful benefits. Technologies such as Voice over IP (VoIP) typically provide clearer and more reliable call quality than their analog counterparts. Additionally, digital channels offer more advanced features that are impossible with analog lines. Think voicemail-to-email, auto-attendants, voice conferencing, and other innovations.
However, one of the biggest advantages is cost. Using digital technology can reduce phone bills, especially for businesses that operate internationally. Plus, scaling digitally is cheaper as it doesn’t require adding more phone lines.
Connecting Without Limits: Microsoft Teams Operator Connect
One of the goals of a digital transformation strategist is to unify all communications (such as voice and video) into a single platform. This allows for improved collaboration, enhanced productivity, and lower costs.
MetTel’s Microsoft Teams External Voice solution can help you achieve this on the voice-call front. It enables your team to use Microsoft Teams as their primary tool for outbound calls, replacing analog phones and your PBX (private branch exchange) system.
With this approach, users can seamlessly switch between communication channels in Teams. For example, they can call someone and send a file at the same time, saving time and boosting productivity. Plus, this moves your communication infrastructure from equipment-heavy to cloud-based, leading to easier and cheaper scaling.
CCaaS: Your Gateway to Elevated Customer Experiences
Customer support is a critical yet resource-intensive part of any business, requiring expensive equipment and costly staffing investments. However, you can optimize your customer service with CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service).
Similar to SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), a CCaaS allows you to outsource your entire customer service operations. This means you get the benefits without having to invest in building it yourself. This results in major cost-savings and higher customer response times, leading to improved customer satisfaction.
MetTel’s managed CCaaS takes the concept one step further by incorporating artificial intelligence (AI). This enables innovative features such as automatic call transcriptions, guided answers for agents, and call analysis for a comprehensive customer service solution.
Managed SD-WAN’s Role in Digital Transformation
Digital transformation would be impossible without a strong network backing it up. That’s what MetTel’s managed SD-WAN Service brings to the table. Our award-winning software-based service enables you to manage a wide area network (WAN) efficiently, making it suitable for larger enterprises.
We combine various technologies such as MPLS, broadband Internet, and 4G-LTE to give you the fastest and strongest connection. By dynamically switching these on the fly, we can guarantee maximum uptime and speed. The result? A more resilient and reliable network. Managed SD-WAN also helps you manage your network better with integrated security, lifecycle management, and intelligent automation.
Build a Powerful Digital Transformation Strategy with MetTel
Digital transformation strategies are the only way to ensure your company stays at the forefront of the latest innovations, ready to adapt to new changes on the fly. However, in order to make your digital transformation foolproof, you need a partner you can trust.
MetTel transforms businesses at the fundamental level – from the infrastructure itself. From replacing your POTS lines with digital to making your network more stable with managed SD-WAN, MetTel provides the solution on which other solutions are built.
We’re the trusted service provider of big tech companies like Verizon, Cisco, and AT&T. We’re also recognized in the industry with accolades, such as the 4X Leader in Gartner’s 2023 Magic Quadrant for Managed Network Services.
Contact us today and discover how MetTel can transform your business.