Why Digital Transformation is a Necessity for Small Businesses
Digital transformation has been a major topic in the business world for a number of years now. With more emphasis being placed on collaboration, better connection between customers, colleagues and partners, and more robust security measures, digital transformation is the obvious conclusion for many businesses – especially small businesses – who are asking themselves how they can improve their organisation.
Digital Transformation for Small Business
At it’s core, digital transformation is all about overhauling the practices, processes and protocols that an organisation adheres to, and replacing them with modern, digitalized alternatives that are not only more future-proof, and will help to open up new opportunities for organisations. A great example of digital transformation is how many organisations are migrating to the cloud, replacing their on-premises infrastructures with scalable cloud environments.
Many small businesses may not be aware that they can stand to gain a lot from digital transformation. We discussed this with an Managed IT Services London-based small businesses have been using for over a decade. The company, TechQuarters, confirmed that digital transformation is not only for big businesses, and they described some of the key ways that small businesses can benefit from it.
Benefits of Digital Transformation for Small Business
- Enabling Hybrid Work for All
Hybrid working was the natural evolution of remote working, after it came out that there were almost as many people wanting to continue working from home, as there were people who wanted to return to the office. The challenge was how to support both types of people within the same organisation. The benefit of hybrid working is that everyone has the option to work where they are most productive – whether its at home or in the office.
Digital transformation supports the implementation of hybrid working in small businesses in a number of ways. For example, TechQuarters, who provide IT Support Services London companies trust and depend on, pointed out that file sharing and communications is much faster, more secure, and more flexible when done using cloud technology.
- Stronger Customer Impressions
Consumer behaviour, business marketing, and markets themselves have been irreversibly transformed by technology. Nowadays, customers shop for products and services predominantly online, and they research brands and businesses online, too. One of the biggest benefits of digital transformation for a business is that it demonstrates to consumers that they are a modern brand that keeps up with the changes in markets.
First impressions are very important with customer-brand interactions. If a consumer sees a brand that is clearly still using outdated practices and solutions, they will be less favourable. So, digital transformation can literally improve the reputation of a business in the eyes of the customer.
- More Robust Cyber Security
One of the most important considerations for any business that is digitally transformed is ensuring that their cybersecurity strategy is sufficient for the infrastructure and digital solutions that they are utilizing. Considering how aggressive, how sophisticated, and how common modern cybersecurity threats are, it is of the utmost importance that businesses leverage a multi-faceted, modern approach to security. However, one of the key benefits of digital transformation, is that it makes it much easier for organisations to keep their security strategy inline with the latest developments. This is because digital transformation makes it easier for businesses to integrate modern solutions.
We asked TechQuarters, as Microsoft 365 consultancy experts, what types of solutions they would recommend for small businesses looking to digitally transform. From their experience providing IT support Oxford Circus businesses rely on, they recommended the use of the Microsoft Cloud. Not only is the Microsoft Cloud one of the most suitable cloud platforms for business migrations, and digital transformation in general, but the amount of investment, research and developing that has gone into its cyber security infrastructure is almost unparalleled amongst the top business cloud providers in the world.
