The biggest accelerator of the digital transformation is the Covid-19 pandemic that stroke without a caution.

The rapid development of global technology has revolutionised the way the world functions. During the past decade, much has been changed in the digital landscape which has big impacts on almost every industry. The 2000s have marked the beginning of a digital era which is never-ending.

The biggest accelerator of the digital transformation is the Covid-19 pandemic that stroke without a caution. Everyone has imagined a situation where people are not allowed to come out of their premises because of a deadly disease. The thought has always been in people's minds as movies and dramas promoted the concept for a long time. Still, the world was not prepared to face the pandemic when it actually happened. Businesses that embraced digital changes in the organisational system won the race and reached an unpredicted height in a short period. However, other organisations faced a downturn due to their inability to leverage technology. While those businesses reported losses and other challenges related to the coronavirus effects, businesses that have implemented digital transformation have contrarily increased their profits.

One of the troublesome parts for companies was to connect with consumers remotely. Companies strived to remain agile and constantly adapted strategies to stay on the edge of the digital marketplace. Connecting with consumers faster, more effectively and personally is essential to doing business in the modern world. Ultimately, the only solution that organizations had in hand was to undergo a digital transformation to achieve those goals. Even though when organizations struggled at the beginning, they somehow managed to secure a stable place in the digital world. Businesses are also rephrasing their strategy with technology for better tomorrow. When the actual time came for transformation, thriving in the digital world was not as difficult as people imagined. It was partly sloppy, but somehow businesses managed to get through it well.

Digital transformation is on a strong foundation

Technological disruption is not a sudden thing. People were expecting it for a long time. To understand digital transformation, we should first clear the meaning of transformation in our head. Transformation according to the dictionary is transmutation, conversion or metamorphosis. The definition itself portrays digital transformation as the never-ending saga of events and changes. If we look back at time and analyze the digital transformations that took place in recent years, a lot of them are not at existence now. However, that didn't end the digital era. Digital transformation is more about emerging technologies to which people switch from time to time. For many, internet itself is the starting point of digital technology.

Many businesses embraced technology by creating informational websites and email account, but then technology advanced companies started accepting online payments, allowing consumers to make purchases without the need to call the company. The great breakthrough came in the form of mobile phones. The exposure to social media and easy modes of payments helped businesses become more digital. Today, businesses are scrambling to harness the power of virtual and augmented reality, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, big data, biometrics, cloud computing and a host of other innovative technologies.

Tips for continuous transformation

As mentioned earlier, digital transformation is all about continuous transformations. Businesses are bound to change the technology they use from time to time to keep themselves and their customers updated. Continuous transformation means responding quickly to the ways that technology can change how business is conducted, consumer expectations and the needs of employees. Here are some tips to keep business updated with digital transformation.

• Pay attention to the digital landscape- People working in organisations, especially people in the authoritative and decision making positions should keep a tab on emerging technologies.
• Innovate in ways that do not revolve around technology- Develop staff members through in-house training centres, recruit talented employees whenever they become available and look for ways to boost employee engagement.
• Overhaul company's culture- New technologies are increasingly going to require collaborative efforts across departments and with outside vendors. Henceforth, it is a haven to build a company culturethat supports technology and its changes.

All is not good

Not every business has the capability to embrace technology. This has gone wrong in many ways in recent months with companies barely managing to strive in the tycoon of digital transformation. Earlier this year, Gartner has published a roadmap for transformation to help organisations speed up the pace of digital transformation across the enterprise. In a typical scenario, the introduction to the roadmap reads that the transformation journey is taking large enterprises at least twice as long and costing twice as much as they anticipated. The author mentioned that due to lack of cultural readiness, 53% of the organisations surveyed were untested in the face of digital challenge. The flip side of this is that many other enterprises and smaller companies are a long way down the road in their transformational effort. Henceforth, it is always advisable to be precautious about technology and the disruption it could bring.