Digital transformation is a concept that has invaded the vocabulary of the business world. A basic competence to survive over time, to not become obsolete and to be relevant. Business gurus fill their speeches with digital transformation and warn of its importance, a mandatory journey for any company. Also for small businesses? Yes, the digital transformation also affects it, if not it will disappear for not adapting to the new natural environment. Not only is it essential to survive in the jungle of competition, but it also democratizes services that were previously reserved for large corporations and is a competitive advantage that even allows you to rub shoulders with the big ones.
However, what exactly is digital transformation? A very useful concept, which many have made their own, but they do not visualize it in the daily reality of a small business. In simple terms, it is about taking advantage of digital tools (such as computers, internet and software) to make a company more efficient, competitive and able to adapt to change quickly. This involves things like having a website, using apps to manage tasks and data, and adopting new technologies like artificial intelligence and automation. Digital transformation seeks to simplify processes, reach more customers online and make more informed decisions with data.
The vice dean of EAE Business School Barcelona, Carles Cascante, explains how a small South African insurance company, Discovery, managed to increase its sales and position itself in the competitive insurance sector thanks to digitalization.
“They decided to give an Apple Watch to their new clients with which they managed to collect a series of data that allowed them to offer an ad hoc service to their needs, simplifying and making processes cheaper and saving time and effort,” Cascante points out as a success story.
The professor in digital transformation at EAE Business School Barcelona, Noemi Freixas, gives an example that she herself executed as a professional. The teacher and consultant was hired by an SME in the events sector to make better decisions. “The sales closing conversion was low and they were not clear why. We created an analysis that collected their data on requests, times, budgets and defined several metrics that made it possible to find the main reason for the low conversion and thus increase their sales,” she explains.
In the face of unstoppable digitalization, the European Union and, by extension, the different territorial governments are placing special emphasis on the digital transformation of SMEs, which make up 98% of the business fabric of our society. For this reason, Next Generation funds are intended to provide quality training to small business managers and workers to adapt to the current reality, reinvent themselves, reduce costs and enhance efficiency to create competitive companies without limitations of time, space or resources. EAE Business School Barcelona offers courses 100% financed by Next Generation funds so that digital transformation is a reality in companies and not an abstract concept within the reach of large corporations.