What is digital transformation?

At this year’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company’s focus was firmly on digital transformation. But what does that actually mean?

In a business context, transformation is when your business makes fundamental changes to its working practices, processes and infrastructure, in order to create better outcomes. Those outcomes could be smoother operations, better-engaged customers, more-empowered employees or even new products and services. Digital transformation is simply using the latest technology to get there.

Outcomes, not just technology

Satya Nadella’s point was that Microsoft have taken an important recent shift, away from selling software, to creating technology that can provide transformative business outcomes. As a Microsoft gold partner, we’ve been banging that drum for years – our ethos has long been about determining the outcomes businesses want first, then providing the right technology to make them a reality.

Transformation, by its nature, is a big deal: it reaches into and changes every area of the business. That means wide-scale change can feel daunting, even with determined leaders and buy-in from stakeholders. Fortunately, there are now widely-available, affordable digital tools, such as Microsoft’s enterprise cloud platform, that can help every business achieve true digital transformation.

Digital transformation in action

We’ve helped a number of customers undergo a digital transformation. In the public sector, we are working with the Scottish Housing Regulator to revolutionise their internal systems. We’ve not only made processes more efficient for staff, but – using powerful business intelligence tools – we have opened up the data to tenants of social landlords. That lets them keep tabs how their landlord or housing association is performing, and is leading to improved services across the country. You can read more about our work with the Regulator in our short case study.

In the private sector, financial firm Hymans Robertson are working with us to implement their vision of a business transformed by digital technology. Together, we’ve undertaken a major programme of work to implement a new client information management system, which is having a huge positive impact on customers and staff. You can read some of the details in our case study on this work.

If you’d like to discuss how digital transformation can drive efficiencies in your own business, please get in touch for a no-obligation chat.

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