Article

What is digital transformation?

Digital transformation is an often misunderstood topic. It's not about the tech; it's about the people.

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March 28, 2019 by Bradley Cooper — Editor, ATM Marketplace & Food Truck Operator

Digital technologies are advancing so quickly that many businesses, especially older ones, struggle to keep up. Some businesses even regret the internet ever occurred said Tom Goodwin, executive vice president and head of innovation at Zenith Media during a session at Digital Signage Expo which is taking place March 26 to March 29 in Las Vegas.

One common term for catching up to digital is digital transformation. Goodwin said the term is commonly used but rarely understood.

It's not about the tech

People might commonly view digital transformation as a certain type of technology, such as blockchain, AI, robots or virtual reality.

"It's not about VR or blockchain or bitcoin," said Goodwin. "You can tell how the value of bitcoin is doing by asking people to raise their hands if they have bitcoin."

Goodwin said one mistake is that people think more about the actual technology than about influencing the actual customer.

"Think more about people and how they feel," he advised.

Companies might become paralyzed by the sheer amount of technology and fall under the temptation that they need to do everything. Goodwin said companies should, instead, try to keep it simple and work "around people, not tech."

It's not a patch

Another issue with digital transformation is that many companies simply patch over an old solution with technology.

Goodwin used the example of Amazon's UI, which is mostly based on older catalogues. The website doesn't deliver a truly personalized interconnected solution, he explained.

Other examples of patched technology include:

• Walmart's digital ordering service, which still uses storefront employees to pick out items.
• Digital departure boards which have the same design as older static boards.
• Apps that take pictures of checks and deposit them.

It's about building from scratch

The real purpose of digital transformation is to deliver new experiences from scratch. It should be a holistic experience that looks at various elements.

"Digital transformation looks at modern behaviors, expectations, business model and what technology makes possible and allows you to rethink and build from scratch," Goodwin said.

An example of this in the digital signage side would be to deliver the "right amount of relevance" for customers. Rather than delivering Minority Report level advertisements, which call out customers by name, digital signage can use customer data such as the customer's general age and gender to push out context-sensitive advertisements.

It can also be as simple as an automated Uber display that tells customers how long it will take to get an Uber.

True digital transformation also looks at possibilities, not just older uses cases, according to Goodwin. This can lead you to look at individual tools such as displays rather than the actual system.

We aren't there yet

Even though technology is rapidly advancing, we are still dealing with severe fragmentation, said Goodwin. One example are the restaurants and retailers that have dozens of point-of-sale devices to accept all variety of different payments. Or, on the consumer side, one might have dozens of remote controls for different devices.

"We still need passwords," Goodwin said. "We haven't figured out how to sell rights for digital content."

These are symptoms of still being in the mid-digital age, according to Goodwin, adding we haven't reached the point where we have figured digital out and integrated it seamlessly.

However, we won't be in the middle forever. Goodwin brought up the example of how many innovators argued about electricity in the past and how it would it be used.

In the future, we will move away from front and center technology to technology that is more predictive, personalized and in the background.

"There will be an era where we have made sense of technology. It'll be an abundant, monetizeable layer," Goodwin said. "Be excited about what's possible."

About Bradley Cooper

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Bradley Cooper is the editor of ATM Marketplace and Food Truck Operator. He was previously the editor of Digital Signage Today. His background is in information technology, advertising, and writing.

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