The Digital Transformation of Companies
The disruption of new technologies in the business world has catalyzed a strategic evolution towards digital transformation.
Some companies have been obligated to transform their obsolete processes and to adapt them to new technologies. The objective of these companies is to further develop their business activities, however, others do it to stay at the vanguard of the digital revolution by automating their processes to minimize costs and maximize efficiency.
What is the Digital Transformation of a Company?
Digital transformation can be described as the implementation of new technologies, processes, and business strategies.
The new context presented by digitalization involves a continuously changing mentality regarding how people and companies conduct professional relationships.
Why is it Important for Companies to Undertake a Digital Transformation?
Companies ultimately want to improve their profitability, and new technologies enable them to optimize their processes enabling them to achieve that goal.
Digital transformation requires the initial investment of financial and human resources, but it also enables you to automate processes minimizing costs and maximizing efficiencies.
Advantages of a Digital Transformation
The digital transformation of business models brings many benefits, including:
- Improvement of communication with partners or clients, making it faster, more fluid, and adapting itself to every type of client and their needs.
- Improvement of internal communication by establishing systems that facilitate the exchange of information.
- Decentralization of work and enabling the mobility of teams, improving employee satisfaction.
- Enabling more control and follow-up around administrative tasks.
- Automation of repetitive processes to optimize resources.
EDICOM is a provider of international trust services and develops global electronic data interchange (EDI) solutions, electronic invoicing, digital signature services, and many others.
EDICOM's services enable companies to move towards digital transformation with security and efficiency. 3 Examples:
- Electronic Invoicing: EDICOM transforms and automates manual electronic invoicing processes and adapts to the different electronic invoicing processes around the world.
- Document workflow approval: EDICOMSignADoc is a document approval solution that uses digital signatures, turning complex approval processes into something efficient, automatic, and with probative value.
- Electronic Archiving: EDICOMLta is a long-term archiving solution provided by a qualified trust service provider.
Digital Transformation Around the World
Europe
On March 9th, 2021 the European Commission presented a plan called the Digital Decade for the transformation of Europe by 2030.
One of the four main objectives of this plan is the digital transformation of European companies. The plan is for 75% of European companies to use the cloud, AI, and big data.
The European Commission proposes a Digital Bubble as a guide with three main points:
- Citizens with a high level of digital and professional skills.
- Efficient, secure, and sustainable digital infrastructures.
- Digital transformation of companies.
- Digitalization of public services.
Australia
In September 2020 Australia launched a digital business plan to promote economic recovery.
The treasurer Josh Frydenberg said that the business plan “is directed to take advantage of the digital transformation of Australian companies and to promote the growth of productivity and to create employment.
Latin America
The Latin America Economic Perspectives Report 2020 highlighted the role of digital transformations as a tool to catalyze the development of counties in the region.
The majority of Latin American and Caribbean countries have begun digital agendas with different characteristics that propose transversal programs to achieve the objectives of policies that promote the digitalization of the economy and society as a whole.
One example is the Business Digital Transformation Centers (CTDE) in Colombia whose objective is to help small and medium companies to achieve their digital transformation.
Another country in South America at the vanguard of digitalization is Brazil. The Gov.Br portal which consolidates all the government’s websites and has more than 97 million registered users is evidence of its position as a digital government leader.
Its advances in the digital transformation of the country are backed by public policies like the Digital Government Strategy 2020-2022, the National Cybersecurity Law, and Law No 14.129 for digital government approved in March 2021
Sus avances en materia de Trasformación Digital se apoyan en políticas públicas como la Estrategia de Gobierno Digital 2020-2022, la Ley Nacional de Ciberseguridad o la Ley Nº 14.129 de Gobierno Digital aprobada en marzo de 2021.
The Rapid Digitalization of Companies
The global health crisis caused by Covid-19 has accelerated the digitalization process in most countries around the world.
Public and private entities have witnessed and taken part in a major evolution of business processes towards digitalization, seen as an unstoppable process that enables companies to adopt new technologies.
Governments are now designing strategies that will help companies successfully implement different digitalization mechanisms, even if it is companies themselves who must act and initiate their digitalization processes efficiently and effectively.
