As the fourth wave of industrialization spreads throughout the world, businesses that have digitally transformed themselves are clearly ahead of the pack. Digitally mature companies have shown a sustained increase in revenues, reduced costs, and enhanced customer experience and satisfaction. Organizations that designed digital transformation solutions and implemented them successfully aren’t just keeping up, they are leading, and they also innovate with more agility and speed. Let’s see how a few organizations have ushered in digital transformation in their industries.
The universal understanding of this field is now this – digital transformation is the planned and gradual process of using digital technology in all business areas to either create new or modify existing processes. This leads to better customer experiences that fundamentally improve how organizations deliver value to their customers.
Digital Transformation Case Studies
1. Healthcare
Digital transformation is expected to impact healthcare more than any other industry within the next decade. Across the world, healthcare companies are adopting digital technologies to improve every aspect of the healthcare experience and even advance medical science to cure some of the most challenging diseases.
Hospitals are now using big data from patient databases and via partnerships with healthcare apps to predict, possibly prevent and manage illnesses. They are transforming from reactionary models to proactive models. Medical science is also harnessing the power of digital transformation to reduce costs of medical treatments. In the field of research, in the past decade, digital solutions have brought the cost of genome sequencing down to a tenth of what it used to be.
A surgical equipment manufacturing company has successfully implemented a robotics system to carry out keyhole surgery, which has also been approved by the FDA. Doctors were then quickly trained to use these robots to carry out the surgery. This digital innovation had a two-fold impact. Firstly, it reduced surgery complications and errors, and secondly, it eliminated the need for an assistant to hold surgical tools and cameras, as these came preinstalled on the robot.
Digital solutions are entirely changing the healthcare landscape. An app-based startup is also helping hospitals increase the usage of their medical machinery, reduce costs, and improve accessibility and operations by bringing in a B2B on-demand model. This means that hospitals can list their medical and surgical machinery on the platform when it is not in use, and other hospitals can utilize these idle resources by renting them via the platform.
2. Manufacturing
A decades-old, luxury shoe manufacturing company needed to find ways to reduce time wasted on menial tasks, enhance coordination among multiple teams, and ensure that data is updated. The company required an internal operational overhaul to improve efficiency and productivity of day to day tasks. For example, the sales teams needed to focus their time and efforts on generating leads, closing sales, and enhancing customer experience both for B2B and B2C segments.
The company implemented a CRM that automated daily time-consuming tasks related to sales and marketing for both B2C and B2B teams. They extended the features of the platform to include a customizable product matrix and a one-step checkout. Then they built a 360-degree view of the customer, which provided teams with valuable insights on customer journeys. Now sales teams were empowered to provide better customer support and manage B2B accounts. At the same time, manufacturing, planning, distribution, and logistics could respond to B2C demands with far greater speed and accuracy.
The benefits of this single view of the customer and an integrated approach to marketing, sales, manufacturing, and distribution led to improvements in various KPIs and greater revenue realization.
3. Consulting and Auditing
A major accounting and management consulting firm decided to digitally transform the way they work – something that they had been advising their clients to do but had yet done themselves. The firm has over 200,000 employees across the world, working for thousands of clients. Enterprise-wide performance metrics had become very difficult to track, measure, and analyze, as teams worldwide were working in separate silos. The firm overcame this seemingly insurmountable challenge and brought all teams together on an enterprise platform that could track all projects and activities in a consistent format.
While the core of this transformation was the technology platform, the changes were seen across management and in the work culture, which was also critically important. The firm incentivized adoption by using gamification, which made the system fun and engaging and rewarded participation.
The progress of projects and corporate initiatives could now be tracked consistently across global offices while still leaving space for regional flexibility. The program was incentivized, where a matrix of metrics were created to track employee behavior and engagement with the new technology. Those who engaged the most and used the platform effectively were given rewards. The system directly led to a measurable increase in revenue.
4. ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Transformation – Broadcasting and Energy
Transforming the ERP of an organization often proves to be the bedrock of digital transformation and has a twofold advantage. Firstly, it increases the core agility and flexibility of the operations that enable digital transformation. Secondly, it empowers innovation, personalization and increases efficiency by reducing downtime between decision making and implementation. Some of the largest conglomerates in the world have reaped the benefits of an ERP led digital transformation.
A British broadcasting conglomerate merged its smaller Dutch and Italian subsidiaries to increase user base and standardize operations across the continent. With the merger, the group’s procurement team set out a bold vision; to create a next-generation commercial purchasing function, building on a robust and digitally focused capability by providing leading class tools and processes. To achieve this, the team employed a three-stage process that helped them transform the company from the core to the edges. In the first phase, the sourcing and supplier management modules were implemented to create a single European platform for strategic sourcing for all three countries. In the second phase, the contracts module was deployed for all three countries, extending the already deployed strategic sourcing capabilities. The guided buying component was also integrated with the existing ERP solutions in Germany and Italy. The third phase saw the integration of the new ERP applications with the master ERP on high-end database management and backend systems for a streamlined end-to-end procure to pay solution.
As a result of this ERP overhaul, today, the organization is reaping the benefits of having everything from procurement and sourcing on a single, seamless platform. Multiple functions use the same platform, ensuring effective coordination and communication. The analytics from data about procurement guided to implement a range of productivity and profitability enhancements. The platform could also ensure compliance to process, contract, and policy requirements without burdening the teams.
Along the same lines, a $10 billion energy enterprise executed an ERP digital transformation and experienced a range of benefits. It strengthened its acquisition strategy, got the agility to build new services such as cloud for service and internet of things (IoT), and delivered stronger business value to end-customers.
5. Automotive
A luxury car manufacturer was challenged by constraints to display all the options to potential buyers. On the one hand, real estate prices were rising rapidly, and the problem was compounded by a growing catalog of cars that they needed to exhibit in their showrooms. With limited space to only display 4 to 5 vehicles at a time, the brand decided to carry out a digital overhaul of its showroom concept to improve customer experience and increase sales.
The brand decided to transform traditional showrooms into new-age digital spaces by bringing the power of technology into physical architecture. They developed power walls – digitizing the walls of the showroom into smart walls where customers could view the entire catalog of cars and have a personalized experience of the models using multi-touch tablets. The power walls used augmented reality technology to re-create the car experience through life-size displays, interior tours, and even drive off with engine noises. Along with the digitalization of showrooms, the brand re-trained employees to assist and guide the customers through the experience.
This digital transformation of retail sales delivered a range of benefits – optimizing resources, going beyond customer expectations, and increased sales in some cities by 60%!
Visionary leadership with a strategic partner that understands your needs for a customized digital transformation can seamlessly overhaul your business and prepare it for a technology-led future. At Treehouse, we believe every business can be better and do better if the power of data analytics is harnessed with the smart use of technology through an effective digital transformation customized to your specific needs. So, if you are looking for a digital transformation solutions partner that can help you stay ahead of the rest, look no further.
