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“Successful digitalisation happens when you leverage technology to disrupt your current business model and transform your business.”
Most businesses understand what digitalisation entails, but many, especially smaller businesses have yet to fully implement it. While the digital transformation can be time-consuming and perceived as costly, businesses don’t need to go all in at once. Taking small, strategic steps can pave the way for meaningful digital progress without overwhelming resources.
Fundamentals of Digital Transformation
First let's explain what digital transformation truly means. Digital transformation is a journey that unfolds in distinct stages for any business. Businesses typically begins with the adoption of basic IT tools such as Microsoft productivity suite and conferencing platforms like Zoom, used to support day-to-day operations.
As the business grows, companies often implement systems like ERP accounting, CRM, or payroll software to digitise records and manage increasing transaction volumes. This marks the digitisation phase, where analogue information is converted into digital form. This supports sharing of data, enabling greater efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility across business operations.
The next stage, digitalisation, occurs when businesses begin to streamline and automate internal processes. Process redesign or reengineering seek to eliminate silos between departments, and the business now looks to adopt integrated systems to improve efficiency and data integrity. At this stage, the focus is all about creating a single source of truth across the organisation. With real-time data across the business, management can significantly improve strategic decision-making and plan for growth.
However, true digital transformation goes further. It is a strategic shift that leverages digital technologies to rethink and reshape business models, customer experiences, and the company's culture. It is not just about adopting tools but about reimagining how the business operates to stay agile, competitive, and resilient in today's digital-first world.
Develop a Digital Transformation Strategy – The 3Ps
- PEOPLE
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Don’t rely solely on the IT team; the digital team needs change agents from different departments and specialisations. Team members must be familiar with daily operations to offer workflow must-haves and areas of improvement. These individuals must have the autonomy and confidence to make decisions on behalf of their departments or teams. Non-technical people bring valuable business perspectives and help identify real challenges.
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Focus on breaking down silos by identifying gaps and streamlining processes for smoother digitalisation. Clearly define roles and responsibilities across departments to balance efficiency, compliance, and sustainability.
- Involve advisors, such as industry peers, to provide valuable external perspectives. They will be able to provide key learnings from successful initiatives as well as industry support and programmes which you may not be aware of
- Engage external vendors who are leading technology practitioners to advise on market trends and solve technical challenges. Most importantly, they must be able to tap on their networks to recommend suitable solutions and talents (if required).
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- PLATFORM
- It must be accessibility. This refers to how easily your users (both staff and clients) can access systems or data. Prioritise platforms with strong uptime records and fast response times. Carefully assess existing legacy systems to decide how your business can achieve greater ROIs with either enhancements or integration or upgrading strategies. When looking to adopt a new cloud solution, first identify your specific goals, workloads, and scalability requirements.
- It must be compliant. Ensure the platform meets industry standards, regulatory requirements (PDPA, ISO27001, etc.), and statutory obligations (business, legal, and financial requirements).
- It must be secure. The firm must consider data (encryption, backup, and restoration) and user (end-point protection) security in a holistic manner. Firms should look into how data is being secured and make sure users access these data in a secure manner.
- It must be accessibility. This refers to how easily your users (both staff and clients) can access systems or data. Prioritise platforms with strong uptime records and fast response times. Carefully assess existing legacy systems to decide how your business can achieve greater ROIs with either enhancements or integration or upgrading strategies. When looking to adopt a new cloud solution, first identify your specific goals, workloads, and scalability requirements.
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- Examine Innovation and Features: To be future-ready, always look for AI, analytics, and automation tools that enhance digitalisation.
- Examine Innovation and Features: To be future-ready, always look for AI, analytics, and automation tools that enhance digitalisation.
- PROCESS
- Work flow, checklists, reports, security configuration matrixes should be standardised and kept consistent. By standardising workflows, checklists, and reports, organisations ensure that every team follows the same steps, reducing errors and miscommunication. Security configuration matrices, when standardised, help maintain a consistent security posture and ensure compliance across all systems. This uniformity simplifies monitoring, auditing, and continuous improvement efforts.
- Maintain data integrity without data patching and data reconciliation, amongst different systems. Successful digital transformation relies on accurate and reliable data. This requires the adoption of seamless, well-integrated systems to ensure that all stakeholders work with the same trusted information, enabling better decision-making and operational efficiency.
- AI and Automation will eliminate redundancies and allow for higher-value work. Automation reduces repetitive manual tasks by streamlining and combining process steps, saving time and minimizing errors. When enhanced with AI, businesses can unlock even greater benefits such as intelligent data analysis, predictive insights, and automated decision-making. These enabling smarter workflows, faster problem-solving, and continuous process optimisation. Together, automation and AI drive higher productivity, scalability, and innovation throughout the digital transformation journey.
- Work flow, checklists, reports, security configuration matrixes should be standardised and kept consistent. By standardising workflows, checklists, and reports, organisations ensure that every team follows the same steps, reducing errors and miscommunication. Security configuration matrices, when standardised, help maintain a consistent security posture and ensure compliance across all systems. This uniformity simplifies monitoring, auditing, and continuous improvement efforts.
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