As humans, our reliance on technology has never been as strong as it is now; working and living in a post-covid-19 world has placed digital technology at the centre of today’s economic development. While the pandemic continues to impact lives globally, it’s acting as a catalyst for change – economical, societal, personal and corporate, on a scale that hasn’t been seen since wartime. In our view covid-19 has changed the way we connect, work and live forever, the digitally connected world has arrived.

Those with a through-cycle mindset will accelerate out of the downturn

Some business owners are making cutbacks in the current climate, while others are choosing to ride out the storm. However, there are also those who are taking decisive actions now that will place them in a position of strength when the crisis ends and are continuing to invest. Experience from the 2007-08 recession, alongside newer research, suggests that those business owners who act early and decisively in a crisis are ultimately the ones who will do best.

Before the pandemic struck, technology platforms were already disrupting the traditional boundaries of firms, creating new processes and changing the geography of jobs - it’s thought that around 92% of CEOs thought that their business model would need to change to adopt digital transformation.

One of the best ways to enable digital transformation, it to ensure that the business has good ‘digital health’; there are a number of factors that should be considered if the organisation is to succeed digitally. Whether you need guidance on how to take the first step, or support as you implement your digital strategy, Boss is here to help.

Performance is based on industry-standard metrics

For business growth to accelerate and meet industry best practice and metrics, there are a variety of factors which are key.

1. Optimisation

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and a high Google ranking are essential; this is what will help potential clients to find a suitable business. Ultimately, a business with good digital health will rank in the top five businesses suggested within its industry. Mobile optimisation and a positive User Experience are also key, as the majority of people now search on their phones. If a website isn’t up to scratch for mobile users or is difficult to navigate then it’s less likely to see digital growth or success.

2. Marketing

For good digital health, online marketing plays an important role. Whether this is done by securing backlinks in relevant publications or by having a strong, consistent presence on social media, it’s important that this area is not overlooked. Digital marketing has been proven to aid business growth, so for businesses ready to embrace digital transformation, it’s important to have a strategy.

3. Use of analytics

The use of analytics can provide CEOs with a very detailed insight into customer journeys, as well as what’s working and what isn’t. By looking at stats such as the amount of site traffic, number of unique visitors, bounce rate, average pages looked at, goal conversion etc, it becomes easier to create and implement digital strategies which will enable business growth and transformation.

4. Website speed

Finally, it’s absolutely crucial that the website speed is meeting user expectations – if the pages are too slow to load, the customers are likely to go elsewhere, ultimately hindering growth.

For many organisations, the fact is that digital transformation must be accelerated – moving from active experimentation to active scale-up, supported by continuous testing and improvement. These new technologies have decreased the cost of doing business, they complement the investments in infrastructure, and they help with the scale-up for business, enabling start-ups to grow rapidly and SMEs to streamline their processes.

For businesses that once would have thought remote working to be impossible for its staff, the pandemic has created seismic shifts, increasing the reliance on digital transformation and adapting to and benefitting from its possibilities – a huge proportion of businesses are thought to be open a future of remote working.

A survey by Twilio of over 2,500 enterprise decision-makers in June 2020 found that, for all its trouble, covid-19 is undoubtedly the digital accelerant of the decade, speeding up some UK companies’ digital strategy by an average of 5.3 years. In fact, as many as 96% of the surveyed decision makers from the UK said that the pandemic has sped up their digital transformation plans ‘a great deal’. It seems as though the previous inhibitors to digital transformation have been broken down:

• 77% of UK respondents said that covid-19 has increased their budget for digital transformation
  • Just over a third said it has increased dramatically

The traditional barriers to digital transformation that are often cited also seemed to have eased, those being:

• Lack of clear strategy
• Getting executive approval
• Reluctance to replace legacy software
• Lack of time

Digital transformation can be a huge benefit to society if businesses prepare, adapt, and accept that digital transformation is critical to address current business challenges. Boss Consulting is here to help you with this – we’ll assess your digital health on our ‘Digital Scorecard’ and aid you with the transition to digital. We’re now at a point where embracing technology is no longer an option but a necessity, so with the right steps and actions, businesses must embrace the opportunity to build for the future.