Digital transformation is not a new concept, and yet with the business disruptions and changing demands in the market over the past two years, having a digital transformation initiative in place has become a business necessity.
The first and foundational step in digital transformation is digitization—the process of transforming information from analog or manual form into digital form—and that is where most organizations have stopped in their digital transformation initiative.
Digitization only applies technology to the same manual process that was previously done. And yet, most organizations have not moved beyond digitization, believing that the digital transformation process is costly, and takes away from the bottom line. In fact, digital transformation helps drive revenue, increasing an organization's profit margin.
The organizations that have moved beyond digitization in their digital transformation journey reported a 45% increase in revenue growth. (Deloitte, 2020)
Companies can approach digital transformation from four key areas: process, business model, domain, and culture. All of these areas positively impact an organization's bottom line, even cultural transformation. Taking a closer look at process automation and considering Deloitte's 2020 survey statistic—reporting companies who moved beyond digitization have reported a 45% increase in revenue—we can determine process automation is one area that can have a rather quick impact on improving an organization's profitability margins.
By automating processes that are still very manual, even in a digital form, we can potentially save an organization millions. Let’s take the finance department for example. When an organization receives an invoice there is an abundance of accounting controls that involve several departments and can take 40-60 days to process. By utilizing other forms of digitized data, companies can automate invoice reconciliation and save 10% or more on invoice cost and processing.
According to the PTC 2018 report, industrial enterprises are the ones seen to have benefited the most from digital transformation initiatives. Also, IDC 2018 report finds that 60% of executives say that the Internet of Things (IoT) will play a critical role in their digital transformation strategy.
While digitizing a business is essential to digital transformation, automating those processes is what helps organizations begin to realize financial benefits. If you aren’t automating your efforts today, you are missing out. And chances are, your competitors are taking advantage of process automation.
