My Take On Digital
Definition of digital has been under the cloud with many interpretations depending on the context of the person(s). There are2 parts to Digital:
1. Digitization: it is an operational necessity and involves standardizing business processes for improved operational efficiency and excellence and cost. This helps companies scale with disciplined execution imposed by the tools and technology and retain data securely. Thus, Digitization primarily focuses on the internal organization.
2. Digitalization: is a customer focused use of standard available technologies (SMAC and IoT) that enables entirely new business and customer value propositions. A digital company innovates to deliver enhanced products, services and customer experience and engagement.
Rendezvous with Digital Our (Praxis Home Retail Limited) digital transformation plan revolves around integration of business practices and unified value proposition to the customer at her terms of engagement on a channel of her choice to allow for a seamless digital and physical experience. The ground work for this has already begun and we are well on our way to start delivering differentiated customer engagement soon.
These shall manifest with instore technologies as well as our presence on the internet and the mobile.
3. Digital Practices
1. Take a long-term view: don’t measure digitalization initiatives on short-term ROI or other financial parameters. With such measures they will fail to take off or be constrained for resources and thus achieve limited or no success.
2. Make data work for you: most companies use data very ineffectively, i.e. operational reports from transactional systems or even data warehouses consumed in spreadsheets. They are a good rear view mirror and rarely offer predictive or prescriptive analytics. Thus, data ends up backing up decisions taken based on experience and does not aid decision making 3. Think Customer: Whether B2B or B2C, think about the customer and how they take their decisions; be in their first consideration set for buying services/products you have to offer. Get into their shoes, engage, offer information and nudge them to a decision; it may not always be in your favour, but the relationship bond gets stronger with every positive interaction.