Are you ready for digital transformation?

​Digital Transformation is a hot topic for companies across the globe.

Establish a robust foundation for the business
Many leaders may be tempted to relegate Digital Transformation initiatives to their IT departments, or to product teams that have historically dealt with topics like tactical product related initiatives, but this would be a mistake. When executed well, digital transformation initiatives can achieve significant cost savings and establish a robust foundation for the business.

So, how can digital transformation help your business?
In 2007, I was part of a Wunderman team that engaged with 3 EMEA Microsoft markets (Poland, Czech Republic and Romania) and conducted a series of in-market workshops with senior executives to explore ways to use of digital technology to radically improve pipeline management performance and enable Microsoft Seattle to have greater visibility of market enterprise sales performance.

• In 2008, at gt/WPP we explored digital transformation approach for other Microsoft products and campaigns: Microsoft Silverlight, Microsoft Photosynth, Microsoft "I Live to Code", Microsoft HTC EMEA launch, Xbox "xtival" EMEA Launch, and others. At that time, executives in all Microsoft divisions wanted to leverage digital advances such as media, analytics, video and social media, as well as improving their use of traditional technologies such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to change customer relationships, internal processes and value propositions. 
• In 2009, at MediaCom/WPP, we leveraged social media listening to gain an in-depth understanding of customer needs, market segments and supply chain business performance. This enable our Automotive client to refine their business model and develop a most profitable partner dialogue with dealers.
• In 2010, also at MediaCom/WPP, we helped increase the online visibility of IKEA's Kitchen products. We supported IKEA by launching a new eCommerce kitchen website by reviewing digital content, leveraging digital technologies and creating an immersive evergreen eCommerce website. This enabled IKEA to increase their sale conversions touch-points.
• In 2011, we supported a EMEA Bank enhancing internal enterprise collaboration to enable the EMEA team to be more productive while working at various locations. The bank was keen to leverage digital technology to enable deeper customer experiences and for every market to make the most of best practices.
• In 2012, I lead an initiative to increase visibility of performance management and give executives deeper insights into products, regions and customers, allowing decisions to be made on real data and not on assumptions.
• In 2013, I conducted a series of workshops around Digital Globalisation to help companies transforming from multinational to truly global operations. The goal was to help companies explore digital technology opportunities to move their business forward and make it more relevant in the marketplace.
• In 2014, I worked with several clients to support them implement digitally modified businesses and finding ways to augment physical with digital offerings and to use digital to share content across organisational silos.
• In 2015, Digital Business Partners joined a series of workshops for a major UK Bank to explore the introduction of new digital products and services that complement your traditional products. This was under consideration due ever changing competitor landscape and consumers starting to adopt more digitally connected products.

Combine digital activity with strong leadership
Lately, I have been approached by various companies that are starting to take seriously digital transformation and the impact on their business model. Some of them are moving forward with digital transformation at varying paces and experiencing varying levels of success. Others are still seeing digital technology as simple add-on project. In our view, the best companies combine digital activity with strong leadership to turn technology into transformation. 

Opportunity: customer experience, operational processes and business models
Leading digital change requires executives to have a vision of how to transform their company for a digital world. We are seeing executives digitally transforming three key areas of their enterprises: customer experience, operational processes and business models.

Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence
For the past few weeks, I have been connecting with a few industry colleagues and the main topic of the conversation is Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence. I strongly believe that Artificial Intelligence will be a key driver for digital transformation success and creation of new business models. This area is starting to see some serious investment activity and significant amount of industry coverage. However, most people see Artificial Intelligence, as just robots or customer service led technology. They are surprised, when I state and explain that there is more to Artificial Intelligence.

Reviewed the 74 companies that received investment
Over the last 3 months, a wave of start-ups received significant investment. We are seeing an increase in corporate activity, both through outright acquisitions and through a rise in the number of corporate investments or corporate venturing.

Digital Business Partners reviewed the 74 companies that received investment and we see 4 startups, we think are most unique and have the potential to transform their industries. While there were many impressive Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tech companies to choose from, these are the ones that excited us most.

1. SoundHound is the leading innovator in voice-enabled AI and conversational intelligence technologies.
2. WorkFusion automates enterprise business processes by combining robotics, AI-powered cognitive automation, and workforce orchestration.
3. Conversica’s AI platform intelligently convert leads into sales opportunities via natural, two-way email conversations.
4. Appier’s CrossX Programmatic Platform uses AI to identify and buy the best audience for your campaign using AI algorithms that predict the cross screen behaviour of users minute by minute.

Digital Business Partners Take-Away
We strongly believe that digital transformation requires strong leadership to drive change. But it also requires a vision for what parts of the company you want to transform. We are seeing significant amount of companies that are experimenting and starting to making the most of digital transformation. You need to strive constantly identifying new ways to redefine the way you work in the new digital era.

Ivan Fernandes, Senior Digital Business Transformation Consultant at www.wearedbp.com

First Published on LinkedIn: 
​https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/digital-technologies-changing-face-business-ivan-fernandes