6 Solutions to Digitalization Headaches
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Don't jump into a digitalization initiative without a solid plan. Make sure it has management buy-in and defined responsibilities.
Digitally transforming a company or certain processes equips many entities to make gains that improve competitiveness and their ability to meet company goals. However, the road to digitalization can get bumpy.
Thinking ahead and considering these six solutions could help companies overcome common obstacles.
Align the digitalization effort with the corporate strategy
At many companies, some team members, such as those working in the IT department, realize that it's past time for those organizations to become more digitized. However, if they encounter friction from company leadership when bringing those concerns to light, it'll be much harder to make progress. One common pitfall is that company leaders don't see how digitalization fits in with the overall corporate strategy. However, research published in 2018 by McKinsey & Company found that 55% of companies that are leading in their digital strategies made sure the actions taken supported the corporate strategy.
So, people aiming to help their companies digitally transform should always assert how and why it's in line with the corporate strategy. Moreover, they should specifically mention how the benefits of digitalization connect to organizational goals.
Create and maintain a digital-friendly corporate culture
Of course, it's crucial to get members of company leadership in agreement with the need to go digital, but the transition cannot stop there. More specifically, a successful digital strategy requires looking carefully at the current company culture and determining whether attitudes within it could create barriers to digitalization.
Next, companies should strive to cultivate the characteristics of a digital-friendly culture. That may mean giving employees more tools that allow collaboration with team members from wherever they are, or offering courses or training workshops that help them move into the digital age. There is no single way to change a company's culture so that it suits a digital transformation, but it's worth taking the time to identify aspects of it that could stand in the way of digitalization.
Use a modern PDF solution
One crucial aspect of company digitalization involves improving how people within the company use files. It may seem like a relatively small detail, but some file formats make it easier than usual to move toward a paperless goal. PDF is an extremely popular format that people at most companies interact with daily.
However, as Reena Cruz, Brand Manager for PDF solutions company Investintech.com Inc., notes, "The very nature of the PDF file format presents a huge hurdle for businesses trying to digitize workflows. The format was primarily developed to preserve digital content and ensure that electronic documents can be universally shared and accessed on any platform."
She continues "You’re limited to what you can do, which is good for the sender as it prevents unwanted tampering, but is not necessarily good for the intended recipient who needs to work with the content." One of the main features of many PDF solutions on the market today is that they convert PDFs to other formats. For example, people could change a PDF pricelist to an Excel document, thereby making it substantially easier to edit.
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