{"id":9904,"date":"2020-05-26T11:52:49","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T10:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/?p=9904"},"modified":"2023-01-17T10:26:12","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T10:26:12","slug":"what-is-digital-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/what-is-digital-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Digital Transformation?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In recent years, digital transformation has emerged as an imperative for businesses of all sizes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whether you look at retail, healthcare, hospitality or financial markets, virtually every industry is looking towards technology to help it become more efficient, productive and profitable. However, while the message that \u201cdigital transformation is crucial\u201d is being clearly received, there are still some companies that don\u2019t fully understand what digital transformation really means.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first thing companies need to know is that digital transformation doesn\u2019t refer to a specific technology or service. Instead, it\u2019s about integrating digital technology into various aspects of the business so that it can operate more efficiently and effectively.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Digital transformation sometimes even means leaving pre-established strategies behind in favour of ideas that haven\u2019t yet been fully defined.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>The Driving Factors behind Digital Transformation<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most obvious factor pushing the demand for digital transformation in the current landscape is the rise of new technology. The evolution of everything from artificial intelligence to the <a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/the-internet-of-things-iot-and-collaboration\/\">internet of things<\/a> and 5G means that we can now embrace more opportunities in the modern workplace. Companies can embark on digital transformation initiatives to differentiate themselves from their competition, eliminate common pain points in their operations, and attract new customers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With digital transformation, modern brands can:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Build stronger customer experiences:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Digitally transformed <a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/definitive-guide-customer-experience\/\">customer experience<\/a> initiatives allow companies to offer more meaningful moments to customers. Just look at how customer relationship management (CRM) systems are integrating with interactive voice response (IVR) systems and contact centres to ensure that clients get the service they need in a personalised and contextual way.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Engage and empower employees: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Digital transformation also supports <a href=\"https:\/\/flippingbook.com\/blog\/how-to-create-an-employee-handbook\">user experiences in the workplace<\/a>. With collaboration tools, for instance, team members can connect instantly through video chat, instant messaging and file-sharing applications, without having to worry about switching between apps or calling an in-person meeting.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Improve business bottom lines:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Digital transformation can even increase profits while lowering initial outlay. For instance, VoIP and cloud communications eliminate some of the expenses associated with old-fashioned telephone systems, while giving businesses better accessibility and scope for the communications stack.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\t\t<style>\r\n\t\t\t@media (min-width: 768px) {\r\n\t\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-img {\r\n\t\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\r\n\t\t\t\t\twidth: 50%;\r\n\t\t\t\t}\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-img img {\r\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta {\r\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #001138;\r\n\t\t\t\tpadding: 30px;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-copy {\r\n\t\t\t\tpadding: 0 30px;\r\n\t\t\t\toverflow: hidden;\r\n\t\t\t\tcolor: #fff;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n\t\t\t.bottom-cta .bottom-cta-copy .btn-primary {\r\n\t\t\t\twidth: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\t\t<\/style>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"bottom-cta  CID-cta-2FdM5dTp IID-cta-6a0bc1c0667cf\"\r\n\t\t\tdata-dl-custom-type=\"cta\">\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"bottom-cta-img\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/498023704-Datasheet-forRingCentral-Office-Rapid-Deployment-banner_1200X627-1.png\" alt=\"Call to action banner\">\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"bottom-cta-copy\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<span style=\"font-size: 24px; line-height: 30px;\">Get up and running in 48 hours with RingCentral Office Rapid Deployment.<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"text-center\" style=\"display: block;\">\r\n\t\t\t\t<a class=\"rc-cta-shortcode btn btn-primary btn-lg\" data-dl-element=\"button\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"btn btn-primary btn-lg\" style=\"margin-top: 16px; font-weight: bold;\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\ttitle=\"Click for more details\" href=\"https:\/\/netstorage.ringcentral.com\/documents\/datasheet_for_ringcentral_office_rapid_deployment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\trel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-dl-additional-info=\"Get up and running in 48 hours with RingCentral Office Rapid Deployment.\"\r\n\t\t\t\t\tdata-dl-name=\"Get up and running in 48 hours with RingCentral Office Rapid Deployment. | Find out more\">Find out more<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"clearfix\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\n<h2><b>The Pros and Cons of Digital Transformation<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps the biggest downside of digital transformation is that it forces companies to leave behind the practices and methodologies they\u2019ve grown familiar with. When you engage in a digital transformation strategy, you have to give up some of the components of running your business that you already feel comfortable and confident with in exchange for ideas that might not be thoroughly tried and tested.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Issues with adoption or a lack of interoperability between tools could mean digital transformation initiatives don\u2019t take off as well as a company would hope. Even if a plan is successful, it takes time for companies to get used to a new way of working. However, if a business can cope with the growing pains of digital transformation, the benefits are astronomical, including things like:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Access to greater amounts of information and analytics that couldn\u2019t have been collected manually by human employees.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A \u2018digital culture\u2019 where employees are more agile, adaptable, and responsive to change.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Efficient and productive workforces where bottlenecks are found and eliminated quickly.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Improved employee engagement thanks to better workflows where people feel empowered.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enhanced customer experience leading to improved brand reputation in any landscape.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reduced expenses associated with maintaining hardware and legacy systems.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, according to studies, less than <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mckinsey.com\/business-functions\/organization\/our-insights\/the-people-power-of-transformations\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">30% of digital transformation initiatives succeed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This indicates that companies who want to truly step into the next generation of their business operations need to not only have the right plan in place, but the right support to make their transformation success.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Digital Transformation and UC<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the most common examples of digital transformation in the current landscape can be seen in the area of unified communications (UC). Through unified communications as a service (UCaaS), delivered via the cloud, businesses of all sizes can finally leave behind expensive initial investments into extensive hardware and telephone switches.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The growth of the cloud means that companies can tap into the communications technology they need, from video conferencing to instant messaging, without a substantial initial expense. What\u2019s more, UC solutions like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/office\/product-overview.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">RingCentral Office<\/a> use the cloud to ensure that businesses can upgrade their communications tools as and when their business evolves. With the right UC solutions, companies can digitally transform to a point where all of their communications technology is available to access and manage in the same seamless interface.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Focussing on digital transformation in UC will help companies from all industries to access greater cost savings, improved scalability, and enhanced flexibility. What\u2019s more, a business that communicates well can also serve customers more effectively.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Approaching Digital Transformation as a Business<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Digital transformation isn\u2019t something that happens overnight for modern companies. Today\u2019s businesses need to ensure they have the right strategy in place to pursue their transformative goals. This means settling on a selection of specific objectives that you want to achieve in your business \u2013 from reducing costs to eliminating inefficiencies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The starting point is for a business to identify clear goals. The point of digital transformation is to enable a workforce and support productivity, so it&#8217;s crucial to examine business processes to understand exactly where and how digital capability could improve them. Once business has a clear set of expectations, it can start looking at the next steps it needs to take in order to reach its goals.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"uc-expo-cta-2 text-center IId-bottom-banner-144903516 CId-bottom-banner-1098205596\"><span style=\"font-size: 24px; line-height: 30px;\">Get more information on RingCentral Office Rapid Deployment.<\/span><span class=\"text-center\" style=\"display: block;\" data-dtm-element=\"button\" data-dtm-context=\"bottom-cta\" data-dtm-additional-info=\"Find out more\"><a class=\"btn btn-primary btn-lg\" style=\"margin-top: 16px; font-weight: bold;\" title=\"Find out more\" href=\"https:\/\/netstorage.ringcentral.com\/documents\/datasheet_for_ringcentral_office_rapid_deployment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-dtm-name=\"Bottom CTA\">Find out more<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In recent years, digital transformation has emerged as an imperative for businesses of all sizes. Whether you look at retail, healthcare, hospitality or financial markets, virtually every industry is looking &hellip; <a href=\"\/gb\/en\/blog\/what-is-digital-transformation\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;What Is Digital Transformation?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":244,"featured_media":9906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,116],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What Is Digital Transformation? | RingCentral UK Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the most common examples of digital transformation in the current landscape can be seen in the area of unified communications (UC).\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/blog\/what-is-digital-transformation\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"RingCentral Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Is Digital Transformation? | RingCentral UK Blog","description":"One of the most common examples of digital transformation in the current landscape can be seen in the area of unified communications (UC).","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/blog\/what-is-digital-transformation\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"RingCentral Team","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":":\/gb\/en\/blog\/what-is-digital-transformation\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/what-is-digital-transformation\/"},"author":{"name":"RingCentral Team","@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cc4f043d2b478862a8622c28b0ebd08c"},"headline":"What Is Digital Transformation?","datePublished":"2020-05-26T10:52:49+00:00","dateModified":"2023-01-17T10:26:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/what-is-digital-transformation\/"},"wordCount":972,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["cloud communications","digital transformation"],"articleSection":["UC - Collaboration"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":[":\/gb\/en\/blog\/what-is-digital-transformation\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/what-is-digital-transformation\/","url":":\/gb\/en\/blog\/what-is-digital-transformation\/","name":"What Is Digital Transformation? 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