We’re now irrefutably in a digital age, and it’s changed the face of the business world.
This shift has brought many advantages – we can reach customers across the globe from anywhere and engage consumers in a myriad of new ways. But it throws up an equal amount of challenges for businesses that must now know how to stay secure and be aware of the fact that competition can now come from unexpected places.
Meanwhile it’s become increasingly difficult to keep up with the ever quicker pace of change in technology and the impact this has on consumer and organisational behaviour.
research, carried out by YouGov, has revealed that businesses view technology as a double-edged sword. Harnessed in the right way, it can be your biggest asset. Yet a real fear of how it evolves so quickly is also one of the things that keeps many business leaders up at night.
Reasons to love digital
Over the past five years British businesses and organisations of all shapes and sizes, have embraced technology to improve how they work. From enhancing the way they develop products and services, to facilitating a better working environment for employees and making their organisations work more efficiently, it’s all been possible thanks to digital.
In fact, the power of digital is stronger than ever – 90% of organisations surveyed felt that technology is essential to their success. And the proof of how it can transform is in 1 in 4 having completely overhauled the way they do business since adopting and implementing digital technology.
The key benefits of digital technology that respondents gained:
· Let employees work flexibly / remotely (52%)
· Became more responsive to customer queries (47%)
· Improved access to, and flow of, information across the business (44%)
· Improved the way the business stores and manages company & customer data (43%)
· Better streamlined internal processes (38%)
But it’s not all good news…
Working in a digital world has also brought a number of pressures to bear on businesses – in particular, handling what both customers and employees have come to expect. The decision makers surveyed told us the most significant are:
· Customers expecting an almost immediate response to their enquiries (73%)
· Customers expecting to be able to purchase a product/service through a variety of different channels (70%)
· Customers expecting a consistent experience on and offline (53%)
· Employees expecting to be digitally connected to colleagues and information from anywhere, anytime (56%)
· Employees expecting flexibility in working hours (43%)
The fear of not being able to keep up
Half of British businesses fear and worry about how their business will keep up with the pace of digital over the next 5 years. For 1 in 7 (14%) it’s one of their biggest fears over this period. Top of the list were:
· We don’t have the right skills in the workforce (38%)
· We don’t have the cash flow to make the investments we need (36%)
· We can’t find people with the right skills to hire (26%)
· We can’t justify the investment needed with decision makers (22%)
The danger of not responding quickly enough
Worryingly for the future, the majority of British businesses aren’t responding quickly enough to the things keeping them awake at night – which could leave them in a precarious position: only 22% businesses say they have a plan to address these issues, including their fears around digital.
“The next five years will be a critical period for British businesses in terms of digital development. It won’t be sustainable for business to meet evolving expectations if they continue to operate how they used to. The big concern is that, whatever their perceived fears, only 22% of organisations said they had a plan to address them and were implementing it already.
In a digital world, the 70% who have yet to implement a plan or don’t have one may find they are being too slow to respond. Businesses that don’t look at transformative processes won’t just end up behind the digital curve and unable to meet customer expectations, they could end up with an outdated business model that has no hope of being successful as digital disruption continues.”
Three places to start getting up to speed
For those businesses that don’t have a plan to stay with the pace of digital change yet, here are three potential starting points:
1. Look at how you can use digital technology to improve your employees’ access to your business networks so they can collaborate as easily as possible. Give them up-to-date devices. It’s worth the investment!
2. Look at the power of social media. The tools at your disposal can greatly improve the relationship your business has with its customers.
3. Look at how your business and its processes are set up. Put your employees at the heart of technology decisions. This will improve their work life balance and your balance sheet in the process.
