From new analytics and digital toolsets to building on the successes of existing technology, digital transformation promises to revolutionise the way we work.

Your enterprise could be transformed by new digital processes and improvements to its existing CRM and ERP platforms, but there are many pitfalls you’ll probably encounter during the rollout phase.

The challenge for IT

Identifying the benefits of digital transformation and applying them across the business is a significant challenge for any IT department.

Significant help can be gained by enlisting the services of a forward-thinking and reputable Managed Print Services (MPS) provider. They’ll assist you in creating a roadmap to success and play a vital role during the digital journey.

Your MPS provider will offer major benefits in two key areas:

1) Process automation

This involves removing any bottlenecks you might have within workflows, and driving up operational efficiency.

Operational strain can now be taken by MPS software and hardware. Automation of paper-heavy, labour-intensive processes across the organisation will offer significant benefits for expenses management, archiving business-critical information and accounts payable activity.

Company-wide buy-in is essential, therefore automation should always be pitched to employees as a benefit, and something that will make a positive difference to their working lives.

2) Document digitisation

A key part of digital transformation is moving away from an over-reliance on print.

By using the latest scanning software and MPS services, your business can create a central ‘hub’ where employees can access critical documentation, no matter where they are.

This approach helps rid businesses of interdepartmental silos and vastly improves collaboration. As a result, they usually enjoy a more efficient, ‘sharing’ work culture.

Combining automation and digitisation

The combination of automation and digitisation offers numerous benefits, including:

• workflow enhancements and the ability to remove bottlenecks by digitisation of key business information;
• significantly reducing the risk of human error;
• ensuring access to business-critical information is controlled within the organisation and secured against external threats; and
• acting as a basis for real-time data solutions that aid decision making.

For digital transformation to succeed and the benefits above enjoyed, the business itself must be placed at the heart of any planned changes.

Thinking ‘business first’ - not ‘digital first’

Many enterprises will often focus on the business case and the roadmap as the basis for successful digital transformation.

Unfortunately, this limited approach may stall the programme, because exclusive focus on the business case (as important as that is), may result in stakeholders failing to ‘think digitally’.

For instance, if you decide to roll out a suite of apps to meet a particular need, people may delude themselves into thinking that digital transformation has been achieved. In reality, the fundamentals of products, services and the customer experience may have remained untouched.

By leading with business values and objectives, your digital transformation processes can align better with the business using digital as a delivery mechanism rather than a starting point.