By Michelle Glennie, The Partner Marketing Group
Digital transformation has been a message and movement we have seen grow throughout many partner and ISV organizations over the past year. It has become a hot marketing topic for the technology industry. With all the buzz, we thought we’d ask some of our clients their thoughts on digital transformation.
For starters, what is digital transformation?
Microsoft gave us this visual at Envision in 2016:
Graphic from Microsoft: https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/04/05/microsoft-envision-a-conversation-on-digital-transformation/#sm.001hh7x121d3jcz1uiz2divqjl6r8
This illustrates what digital transformation can be, but what does it mean to each partner and ISV out there? I wanted to know just that. In asking some members of the Microsoft channel, I found commonality within their answers, but also some unique positions on it as well.
Question: What does digital transformation mean to you?
“Digital Transformation is top of mind in our software company. We must remain relevant to the digital age in our business practice and solution offerings, paying close attention to where things are heading and formulate strategy to accommodate changes. In marketing, specifically, that means staying involved in the current driving forces, noticing what we can use to market our software now as well as monitoring trends for future marketing opportunities.” – Lindy Belley, Integrity Data
“The term ‘Digital Transformation’ references the practice of leveraging technology to dramatically enhance or evolve processes and operations across an organization to achieve desired business outcomes. In the Microsoft ecosystem, ‘Digital Transformation’ specifically refers to fully integrated solutions and applications that allow organizations to maximize the value of their data by applying intelligence across their business systems on a unified platform.” – Amanda Cash, Tribridge
“Digital transformation is a holistic approach to modernization of one’s business processes, communication and integration. It represents an end-to-end process within an organization, and goes beyond the concept of transformation in the 90’s and early 2000’s. Data and systems are interdependent and the ability for a company to work smarter and connect deeper with their customers represents the true value of the digital revolution.” – Stephanie Barton, Concerto Cloud
Question: How do your clients benefit from digital transformation?
“Digital Transformation is an ever-changing element. As we determine best practice and make changes to our software accordingly, our prospects and clients will glean the benefits from solutions that are keeping up with the times. On our marketing team, that means creating experiences in our online presence that makes us easy to find, research, and team with.” – Lindy Belley, Integrity Data
“Digital transformation offers businesses unprecedented integration capabilities, informative and predictive insights and increased productivity, allowing them to become customer-centric, data-driven organizations. By unifying ERP and CRM with Dynamics 365, Microsoft has enabled companies to realize the vision of a business intelligent culture where team members are empowered to deliver better customer engagement and make strategic growth decisions in real time.” – Amanda Cash, Tribridge
“Modernization is not just something that businesses benefit from. Customers and partners benefit a great deal from this transformation. Yet it’s important to know there’s not a ‘digital transformation’ manual one can pull out and execute on. The assessment of a customer’s current scenario and the journey they need to be on, enables them to create their own digital transformation plan. Our customers and partners benefit a great deal from the transformation journey we guide them through. Many know they need to modernize their business, but aren’t sure where to start. Understanding holistically where their business is today and where they are going tomorrow helps to create a customized transformation plan based on the workloads that make sense in the right cloud environment. The important factor is their ability to conduct business seamlessly and with an integrated experience and provide their customers a positive outcome.” – Stephanie Barton, Concerto Cloud
Where does your organization fit in with digital transformation? Is this a message you are sharing with your clients and prospects? It is something that can truly be harnessed throughout your organization – from sales and marketing to customer service. There are many ways you can take the digital transformation message and make it uniquely your own.
What’s your take on digital transformation? Leave us a message on this post!
