Digital Transformation Vs Digitalization

Using digital solutions to transform your business.

Every enterprise is going through a massive digital transformation. In the past few years, the term digital transformation has taken over the entire world. Every company is trying to make its mark in the digital space using technologies and solutions to fulfill the needs of its customers, partners, and suppliers.

Enterprises also must reimagine their existing business model to reap digital benefits. Customer expectation is changing rapidly due to the availability of a vast amount of information and dynamic demands. There is a value gap created between what the customers want and what the enterprises can fulfill.

Companies must work hard to close this value gap or it creates risk for the entire business. The born-digital players are already disrupting the traditional business approach. Every enterprise must start to think like them to stay relevant or competitive. If you look at the reason behind the underlying success of these born-digital players, they can imagine their business on a platform business model.

A platform business model is a radical shift from the traditional pipe business model where the operation was linear. Here the platform business engages the larger ecosystem of the customer, partners, and suppliers and can leverage the underlying value of data through digital technologies.

The old ways are coming to an end and, it is paving the way to the new ways of doing business. Traditional enterprises must start to think like technology companies. Part of that has to be the imagination of the business by itself. It needs some critical questions to be answered such as:

• What changes and improvements in the business process must be done?
• How can value be created with help of the ecosystem by involving customers, suppliers, and partners?
• What are the current technology gaps that need to be addressed to accelerate the digital processes?

Companies must be able to distinguish between digitalization and digital transformation. The two terms are often used interchangeably but they carry a different meaning when comes to shaping your digital enterprise.

Digitalization is a silo approach of using digital technologies to increase productivity and efficiency of the business process without changing the existing one. While digital transformation is changing the business completely using digitalization.

At Sonata, we help customers reimagine their business with the help of Platformation™ and help them in their digital transformation journey. Platformation™ is Sonata’s unique approach to help enterprises to think like born-digital companies with help of our proprietary 16-point technology framework, digital maturity studies, and digital consulting. This helps enterprises to become Open, Connected, Scalable, and Intelligent. It embodies the platform development intricacy with its proven framework that helps enterprises accelerate the digital agenda.

It is quite evident that digital is here to stay and, if your enterprise needs to stay competitive and have an edge over the competition, they must start to think like platform companies.