In Digital Transformation, The Pandemic Should Push You Forward — Not Leave You Behind

Joanne Collins Smee serves as chief commercial, SMB and channels officer of Xerox. She is also an EVP of Xerox Holdings Corporation.

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It's not surprising to hear that some companies haven't used this time to speed their digital transformation goals. It's a challenging time for businesses to simply maintain operations, let alone take steps to improve them. According to my company's new research, 36% of the U.S. Companies surveyed put digital transformation efforts on hold while they dealt with Covid-19's disruptive impact.

But even now, there's a strong case for digital transformation. The transition from paper-based processes to a more productive, secure digitized workflow might speed the return to solid ground. If you can, getting started now could pay off sooner than you think with lower costs and increased revenue.

The pandemic has demonstrated the immense value in embedding flexibility in every dimension of what you do, whether it's the ability of your staff to work securely and without interruption from anywhere or your company's speed in pivoting products and services in support of new opportunities.

What else could better enable that flexibility than the agile capabilities — automated, digitized and cloud-based — of digital transformation? Revenue and efficiency are two good reasons to make the jump. To illustrate with an example from my industry, an astounding 70% of all invoice processing globally was paper-based in 2019, but with electronic invoices, EY reported they could handle an estimated 15 times more processing annually.

If it feels like there's no time to waste, it's because there isn't.

The Potential To Transform Revenue

Research suggests digital transformation has a transformative effect on revenues — for those who have embraced it, of course. The World Economic Forum (WEF) notes (download required), "Digital laggards missed out on 15% in foregone revenues in 2018, which could grow to 46% of annual revenue in 2023." What's more: The WEF found that digital ecosystems will produce $60 trillion — or 30% — of global corporate revenue by 2025. Why get left behind? Start now.

Companies with a strong digital component have found it easier to weather the unexpected. The WEF outlined some big gains for digital-forward industries even in the midst of the most crushing downturn we've seen in more than a decade: a 160% projected increase in the frequency of digital purchases; 146% year-on-year growth in online retail orders in April alone; and 20% annual growth in telehealth forecasted through 2024.

Looking at another sector, online food delivery, also illustrates the art of the digitally enabled possible. Instacart, for example, raised a $225 million round (paywall) and bumped its valuation to nearly double at $13.7 billion — all because of its Covid-fueled growth. Grubhub, the takeout delivery service, is similarly being purchased for $7.3 billion. What do they have in common beyond a newly motivated, growing customer base? Their services are offered entirely online.

Not every industry or company should operate solely online, certainly, but these examples show what can happen when digital mechanisms are in place that allow you to scale and/or pivot in response to market forces.

Efficiency That Makes Work Better

For most companies, efficiency is one of the most significant benefits of digital transformation. But too many see digital transformation like going to the doctor: They put it off because it's painful. But much like that long-delayed check-up, business after business is glad they did it in the end.

What is efficiency in this context? It's digitization and automation, both of which can save time, allow teams to reallocate people to higher-value tasks, and underpin that revenue growth I previously discussed. What's more: In a pandemic era, it also supports business continuity because having those systems in place can ensure you don't skip a beat.

How does this look practically? Here's a personal example: Our Digital Mailroom service is something we developed using scanning and capture technology and artificial intelligence so companies could turn piles of mail into data they can use immediately. But digital transformation really does span the industry spectrum. According to the World Economic Foundation, for instance, Tesla now automatically and remotely updates safety, performance and infotainment of its cars through over-the-air firmware updates. GE connects turbines with digital infrastructure to potentially improve efficiency by 20%, which could add "$50 billion of value for the energy industry."

If you're convinced that digital transformation is the path for your company — and you should be — how do you get started? Look for the low-hanging fruit; those easy wins are what build internal credibility and commitment to take digital transformation further.

What are your company's most heavily manual processes — and could they be transformed with machine learning, digitization or even a simple app? Review your productivity and collaboration software — what percentage is in the cloud right now? Are you using SaaS platforms yourself — and building them for customers? Can you adjust your talent strategy to prioritize candidates that exemplify the qualities that best support digital transformation (e.G., flexibility, a growth mindset, interest in technology applications and high creativity)?

No matter the organization, there's inevitably a substantial amount of work that falls into this "can we digitize it?" bucket. The answer is very nearly always yes. Almost every process can be digitized and automated in some way, which makes it possible to do so much more for so much less in time and money. That's absolutely critical at a time when every dollar must be accounted for and the creativity of every human staff member must be maximally engaged.

Ultimately, if your question is, "How can I afford to drive digital transformation during a pandemic?" I believe the answer is, "You can't afford not to."

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