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What fundamentally motivates an SME to transform itself, to move into the digital age? Discover what essentially justifies digital transformation in small and medium-sized businesses.
In this post, we therefore explore the main reason which leads SMEs to undertake a digital shift.
We will also see the different advantages that it gives him.
Digital: Above all to support the SME strategy
Moving into the digital age to support SME strategy
Let’s get straight to the point.
Implementing digital technology in SMEs is not a question of being competitive or having flexibility.
This is done first and foremost to support and facilitate the execution of the organization’s strategy.
In this sense, digital technologies are means for the company to implement its strategic plan.
Concrete examples of digital technology in SMEs
Here are some examples of the use of digital technology to support the company’s strategy.
A B2C SME wants to capitalize on the fact that consumers are increasingly moving to the web to educate themselves, research new products and compare them?
Various digital technologies such as online stores, marketplaces and digital marketing must be considered.
A manufacturer-distributor wants to have better visibility on the efficiency of its logistics operations?
Dashboards can be considered to provide relevant information in real time.
A professional services company wants to reduce the impact of labor shortages on its activities?
Automating some of its business processes will significantly reduce repetitive tasks and reduce its staffing needs.
In addition to being able to support strategy execution, digital also brings several other benefits.
5 advantages for SMEs to go digital
The list of benefits of implementing digital technologies is long. Here we focus on what we consider to be the five (5) biggest.
1 – Increased flexibility
Flexibility is one of the undeniable capabilities that digital technology gives to SMEs.
By deploying its technologies in clouds, the company can easily increase its volume, even if only temporarily.
It can also relocate some of its activities easily because its data is hosted somewhere in a cloud.
The high degree of openness of these technologies also allows changes to be made very quickly, without being tied to a heavy and difficult to change infrastructure.
2 – Integration of SME processes and visibility on their performance thanks to the digital transition
Implementing an integrated digital solution such as ERP facilitates the integration of processes.
In addition to automating certain operations, it will eliminate situations of double, triple or quadruple entry of information.
This translates directly into efficiency gains.
On the other hand, using an integrated system facilitates the compilation of key performance indicators.
It is an undeniable advantage for SMEs to go digital.
3 – Competitive advantage
Gaining a competitive advantage by going digital
In some cases, digital can bring a competitive advantage to a company.
A competitive advantage or competitive advantage is anything that allows a company to surpass its competitors. It is different from the key success factor which is common to all companies present on the market.
Source: Wikipedia
A concrete example of this situation is the technology used par the insurance company Lemonade in the United States. A mobile application integrating artificial intelligence technologies allows it to be excessively efficient in opening files, but also in processing claims requests.
This allows him to be able to settle claims files in just a few minutes!
I encourage you to watch this demonstration on YouTube .
4 – To minimize the impact of labor shortages
The digital shift also allows SMEs to minimize the impact of labor shortages in certain sectors of activity.
In the manufacturing environment, robots and automatons can be used on production lines to replace certain repetitive tasks carried out par employees.
In other companies, the use of RPA-type technologies allows for the reduction of manual tasks performed par administrative staff. It therefore gives the SME the opportunity to focus its efforts on high-value-added tasks.
5 – To assert its leadership in an increasingly competitive market
SME leader in its market thanks to digital technology
Finally, the last advantage that deserves to be raised here is the market leadership position that can be confirmed or strengthened when the SME moves into the digital era.
More concretely, a company that firmly commits to a digital transformation sends the signal that it is giving itself the tools to increase or strengthen its share.
This is a clear message that is sent to its customers, its suppliers, its competitors but also to its employees and potential employees.
Conclusion: The strategy or why the SME will go digital
We should not approach digital as a way to reduce costs or to find new customers.
The foundation of the digital transformation of the SME is to enable and support the execution of the strategic plan.
A successful digital transformation will manifest itself in direct and indirect benefits for the business. We have seen five of these.