Paths to end-to-end digitization

Changing customer behavior, new competitors and, in some cases, new regulations are driving rapid change in the market. Those who hesitate or even stagnate quickly fall behind in the digital race. That is why consistent end-to-end digitization can provide the successful basis for a sustainable realignment.

Isolated solutions are usually not sustainable and cannot adequately meet the requirements in terms of customer orientation and efficient processes. For implementation, many areas of the company must work together, with IT playing an important role as a business enabler.

Customers demand digital services

Our everyday lives are becoming more and more digital. Most people appreciate the information and transaction opportunities provided by the Internet. They take advantage of the permanent availability of product and price information and even design their products online according to their own wishes.

In addition, they increasingly rely on intermediaries and comparison portals and are transferring this sense of entitlement to almost all industries.New competitors are penetrating the markets, breaking up previous value chains and in some cases changing them in striking ways.

Many companies have already responded to the gap between digital customer requirements and previous offerings. However, some have so far often focused only on individual measures and have usually not yet tapped the enormous potential of end-to-end digitization or recognized the need for it.

Examples of such individual measures are the modernization of the website or the introduction of apps. These measures make sense for many companies, but as long as many complex processes continue to be carried out manually and old habits are maintained, digital customer expectations will fail.

Understand customers

If we consider the convenience desired by customers, the processes of some innovative business models come into sharper focus. Good examples of successful implementation are Airbnb or Uber:

Neither company has reinvented the wheel. However, they have launched a very convenient digital handling of their business models for customers and made use of the digital capabilities available in the post-Google phase.

Most innovators now agree that it is important to also focus on customer needs from the customer's perspective. What is new for many, however, is the possibility of implementing this in an end-to-end digitalization and thus bringing about increased customer penetration as well as an increase in growth through an improved customer experience.

However, the process should not be isolated; companies must seize the opportunity to rely on paradigm shifts offered to them by modern technologies. The established market players in particular have highly divergent views on the best approach:

Some are focusing on parallel implementation on a greenfield site and others on embedding in existing structures. Some advocate an integrated multi-channel transformation of the existing business using new tools such as robotics in the processes.

Others, on the other hand, are focusing on the parallel development of a purely digital business to replace existing processes. There is much to be said for the second approach, as speed is a success factor in the digital age that should not be underestimated.

Entrepreneurs should also rely on the involvement of neutral "digital talents" for end-to-end digitization. They bring an unbiased and new perspective to the company and can contribute significantly to the success of digitization.

These talents can hold both the position of CDO or change manager, while also acting as a "catalyst" for the other employees.

Conclusion

The success of digitization presents many companies with major challenges. The digital transformation of individual processes and areas should be consistently pursued as an end-to-end solution in order to survive in digital competition with other companies.

One thing should be clear to everyone: doing nothing is not an option when it comes to digitization. It is also important not only to implement these challenges with the existing team, but also to bring in new and neutral specialists and managers, or even those from outside the industry, to provide new input. These are not widely available, but professional HR consultants know where to find them.