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Understanding and challenges of digital transformation

Digital transformation, sometimes called digital transformation, refers to the process for an organization to fully integrate digital technologies into all of its activities.

Transformaton digitale

Digital transformation a technological revolution.

The full adverb is of major importance in this definition. Indeed, companies have been using "new information and communication technologies" for a long time, starting with email, which has become part of the daily lives of all employees. Digital transformation is a concept that goes much further, and that interferes with the economic model of societies and our relationship to work. It aims to take advantage of the new situation brought about by the generalization of the Internet, and in particular.

  • The notion of real time, which breaks down time barriers.
  • Mobility: now everyone can connect from anywhere.
  • The Internet of Things, which now allows digital to enter the physical materiality of our lives.
  • The universal side of the Internet that will soon connect all of humanity on the same network.

This transformation also involves different development methods, inspired by web giants. This is for example the case of the concept of Lean Startup, which consists in continuously testing, measuring and improving products taking into account the feedback from users, which consists, in short, in knowing how to exploit data from big data. The impact of digital transformation is also felt in the area of human resources. It profoundly changes the relationship with work, making possible different modes of collaboration than secular wage earners. Two examples:

  • Remote working is now easier, with video conferencing tools and other collaborative platforms.
  • Self-employment is favored by the emergence of platforms for connecting “mission providers” with those who can or wish to respond to them. This is notably the economic model of the famous company Uber (to whom we owe the term uberisation), which connects people who need to move with independent drivers who indicate their availability on the platform.

Digital is driving deep behavioral changes in the sense that new technologies give rise to new uses, innovative ways of trading and communicating. So the digital transformation of companies turns out to be more a cultural subject than a technological one and, as such, it imposes on organizations a real problem of managing the change of their collaborators. With the massive arrival of digital, companies are indeed having to rethink their processes, their modes of operation, their managerial practices, and finally their corporate culture.

Faced with this digital revolution which imposes new challenges, many employees feel disoriented and overwhelmed. They perceive digital as a risk and not an opportunity. So that they do not undergo the digital transformation but that they appropriate it to become the actors, it is essential that the company supports its employees and gives them the means to transform themselves.

However, to accompany change is to face worries, fears and ultimately "human" resistance that Elisabeth Kubler-Ross has perfectly described in her curve of change. To rally employees to a digital transformation project, you must know these resistances to change and address the right speech and good managerial practice at each stage of the digital transformation change curve.

Of course, the digital transformation attracts all lusts. Specialist consultants, trainers and service companies of all kinds have understood the business potential of this movement, and do not hesitate to put digital transformation at all sauces. Listening to them, in 10 years, there will be no more shops, more offices, more working hours and everyone will work in flip-flops from the beach. To feed your personal reflection and take a step back, tell yourself that today, web giants are looking to open physical points of sale in cities (web to store), and that people will always be needed to work there, at fixed hours. In 50 years, to build a power plant, it will undoubtedly always require people on a building site, perhaps even to pilot robots. No one knows what the future will hold, and consultants are no exception. The digital transformation is an opportunity that will deeply impact our habits, it is up to us to decide what to do with it.