Digital Transformation Strategy: Focus Your Digital Investments on Customers, Security, and Workforce to Support Revenue Growth

The Covid-19 pandemic shocked the economy, threw demand off kilter, and damaged the supply chain.

In response, many companies accelerated their move to a digital transformation strategy that uses new platforms to connect with customers and suppliers. What would have taken years in a normal business cycle took a few months as digital transformation became a necessity.

One year later, business executives see a clear shift in their companies’ digital transformation strategies, as KPMG’s recent survey shows.

Business leaders are now focusing on increasing revenues and attracting new customers. Though our economy is shaky at the moment, certain sectors are still performing well. Our survey shows that companies are relying on digital transformation strategies to fuel growth. 

Taking a deeper dive, our research showed that businesses can use digital transformation to achieve three primary goals: engaging the customer, building trust around digital security solutions, and using the new technology to reimagine the future of work.

The C-suite knows that connecting to customers is a prime objective and that their operating model depends on it.

Today, there’s a focus on reinventing the front office to direct it toward customer engagement. In our survey, we found that 79 percent of respondents said a customer-centric strategy will be a high priority over the next six to 12 months.

Further, our research discovered that half of the organizations had sped up the digitization of their operations and had built advanced operating models. Another 62 percent of respondents said they had worked on creating a seamless customer experience.

Customer expectations are growing as data analysis creates new opportunities for interaction, personalization, and customization. A new front-office model makes this seamless integration possible.

Focusing on the customer is paramount but organizations should also ensure that they have a robust digital security solution. Cyber security risks are only increasing. Our survey showed that 66 percent of companies plan to increase their data security investments over the next year.

Solid cyber security builds trust, and forward-thinking organizations will look to upgrade their cyber resilience in order to build that trust. Protecting sensitive data and being transparent with data ethics goes a long way toward building customer trust.

The move to remote work now seems permanent. KPMG’s survey found that 59 percent of organizations plan to prioritize the shift toward a remote workforce in the next year. This will allow companies to rethink their office space requirements, which will have an impact on operational costs and the bottom line.

Businesses should also consider further training for their employees. Reskilling and upskilling will allow organizations to launch new channels while investing in their employees’ growth. Organizations should foster an environment in which great employees can drive sales and retain customers.

When companies focus their digital investments on customers, while upgrading their cyber security and workforce, it creates a competitive advantage. KPMG Connected Enterprise is one leading approach that employs diagnostic tools across the company and creates a strong foundation for digital security solutions. Businesses that prioritize digital transformation will win the day.

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This article is based on an article published at KPMG global by Adrian Clamp, Author | Article posted on June 28th 2021