By Anim Zalina Azizan & Misharthiini Manikam

In today’s highly competitive marketplace, companies are trying to leverage digitisation to stay competitive, increase production and efficiency, and increase profit margins. Digitisation has taken the corporate world by storm as it can significantly change the way companies operate by optimising internal business processes. New companies are able to quickly adapt to changing market conditions and establish themselves as dominant players in their respective industries. This means that traditional companies are rushing to digitise.

As a result, the changing business environment is impacting the management structure, consumers, and stakeholders of traditional companies. Without proper preparation, comprehensive cooperation and adaptability, local enterprises are struggling. Therefore, the right digitalisation consulting agency that understands the interests of the business and acts in its best interest must be selected and deployed as comprehensively as possible. A business has the opportunity to evaluate its operations as it goes through the digitalisation process, as it will be able to adopt innovative digital processes and tools. Unfortunately, there are problems and challenges that a company must face at every stage of the digitisation process.

Insufficient budget

The first problem a company faces due to digitalisation is an insufficient budget for implementing digital transformation. The world knows that the pandemic has caused significant losses to every company. Companies that suffered major losses during the pandemic may have halted their digital transformation initiatives due to financial constraints. A capital strategy for the digital transformation process is one of the biggest obstacles that can derail the project. For most business leaders, setting a budget for building successful digital transformation processes is a challenge. This lack of financial clarity hinders decision-making and causes leaders to take a step backward in digital transformation.

The second problem a company faces due to digitalisation is the lack of specific IT skills. It is mentioned that 77 per cent of companies consider the lack of digital skills as the main obstacle to their digital transformation. In addition, the Harvey Nash recent survey found that 54 per cent of companies said that a lack of available skilled workers was preventing them from achieving their digitisation goals. They lacked expertise in areas such as cybersecurity, technical architecture, enterprise architecture and advanced data analytics. Every successful digitisation company has a dedicated team of IT experts.

However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to build this team. The workforce shortage is increasing as more companies invest in cutting-edge technologies. The shortage of IT professionals is a critical challenge related to digitisation. An insufficient number of IT workers and a competitive labour market are two factors that slow down digital transformation. Consequently, the difficulties of the digitisation process cannot be overcome without a digital workforce. Therefore, it is important to remove this obstacle before embarking on the path of digitisation.

In addition, understanding and assessing cybersecurity risks is the next digitisation problem an organisation must face. Cybersecurity is difficult, dynamic, and rapidly changing, which is a concern for most business owners. The success of a company’s digitisation depends on its ability to protect its digital activities. The concern of businesses is, therefore, justified as cybercrime costs businesses a lot of money, and with the post-pandemic acceleration of digital transformation, cyberthreats have increased. Successful integration of digital technologies, therefore, requires a transformation of security, which is a major challenge for many companies embarking on the digitalisation journey.

Changing customer needs

The next problem is the failure to adapt to changing customer needs. We live in a knowledge-based economy. Customers care more about how they interact with brands than anything else. Anticipating customer needs and transforming the customer journey are key to creating engaging digital experiences. Research shows that 47 per cent of consumers believe they will continue to engage with digital brands. Customers are willing to engage with companies across a variety of channels, expect higher levels of personalisation and faster response times from companies. Brands will not be able to satisfy their customers with one big digital transformation as customer preferences continue to evolve and become more important.

The mentality that digitisation is a one-time endeavour, not an ongoing activity, is a challenge for companies because of how they approach it. Since the dawn of digitisation, companies have had to remain flexible in how they can further leverage digital capabilities to achieve customer satisfaction across all touchpoints.

In summary, digitisation in companies is a challenge. Therefore, to effectively implement change, companies need to build a strong ecosystem. They should be aware that investing in new digital technologies does not guarantee a successful digital transformation. Planning digitisation initiatives is critical, so people, processes and technology must work together to create the foundational components. Companies that make smart decisions at IT can reap significant benefits.

-- BERNAMA