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Five benefits of digital transformation

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The GoCardless content team comprises a group of subject-matter experts in multiple fields from across GoCardless. The authors and reviewers work in the sales, marketing, legal, and finance departments. All have in-depth knowledge and experience in various aspects of payment scheme technology and the operating rules applicable to each. The team holds expertise in the well-established payment schemes such as UK Direct Debit, the European SEPA scheme, and the US ACH scheme, as well as in schemes operating in Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand. See full bio

Last editedMar 20232 min read

Digital transformation can play a vital role in organizational growth and the evolution of business operations and processes. And while it’s never been easier to embrace technological innovation, there are barriers to progress, from employee pushback and operational disruption to confusion within senior management. But, when navigated successfully, digital transformation solutions can enable significant improvements in quality, cost, and time-to-market. That’s why adapting to digital isn’t just a desirable outcome, it’s table stakes for businesses across virtually every industry to succeed and compete. So, what are the benefits of digital transformation? Navigate five significant business benefits of digital transformation with our helpful guide.

What is digital transformation?

Let’s start off with a basic question: what exactly is digital transformation? In essence, digital transformation is about using digital technology to modernize the way your business works, improve its processes, nurture employee expertise, and support technological penetration. Broadly speaking, digital transformation covers four main areas: business model transformation, process transformation, domain transformation, and organization transformation. However, it’s important not to think about digital transformation as a one-time activity, but an ongoing process that is woven into the very fabric of the company.

Now that you have a slightly clearer idea about the meaning of digital transformation solutions, let’s explore some of the major business benefits of digital transformation.

Improve customer experience

Firstly, businesses (particularly those operating within customer-facing industries like retail, healthcare, finance, and so on) can use digital transformation solutions to improve the customer experience. Younger generations of customers are accustomed to digital. In many ways, offline businesses simply don’t register for them. Bottom line: if a service can be provided online, it should be. By delivering intuitive user experiences and aligning product design to customer preferences via real-time product usage data, you can ensure that you’re meeting the high expectations of the digital consumer.

Facilitate data-driven decision-making

Another enormous benefit of digital transformation solutions is enhanced access to data, as well as access to the digital tools you can use to analyze that data. By using business intelligence and analytics, you can start making better decisions. How? By grounding those decisions in historical and present data. There’s almost no aspect of your business that can’t be improved through the use of business intelligence processes like data visualization, performance metrics, and statistical analysis. From setting performance benchmarks to analyzing customer behavior, better data equals improved decision-making.

Foster a spirit of collaboration

The use of digital transformation technologies can help you create a digital-first culture that encourages seamless, cross-border collaboration, enabling teams to collaborate beyond the four walls of the office. Siloed businesses are at risk of inefficiency, unchecked error, and reduced competitiveness. Building continuity across your business by adopting cloud-based tools can help to produce a more flexible and responsive culture, reducing friction between departments and minimizing the risk of duplicated labor.

Shorten time-to-market

One of the most impactful business benefits of digital transformation concerns the product lifecycle. Digital transformation solutions and process automation can help companies bring new products to market faster than ever before, accelerating product development and optimizing supply chain execution. From using digital channels to communicate with potential customers to developing agile methodologies and tools to streamline collaboration and reduce bottlenecks, digital transformation can help businesses speed up the pace of business and shorten time-to-market.

Reduce costs and drive profitability

Finally, it’s important to mention one of the key starting points for digital transformation: cost reduction. Using digital technologies can help to boost worker productivity, reduce overheads, streamline after-market service, and improve efficiency.

A great example of how businesses can use digital transformation technologies to reduce costs is to transform their digital payments processes using GoCardless. GoCardless can help businesses collect payments directly from their customers’ bank accounts, eliminating late payments and helping to improve the customer acquisition funnel. Combining the strength of bank debit with the security of open banking technologies, GoCardless is a one-stop solution that optimizes payments processes and maximizes customer lifetime value, enabling your business to reduce the costs associated with payments.

We can help

GoCardless is a global payments solution that helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of financial admin your team needs to deal with. Find out how GoCardless can help you with one-off or recurring payments.