The digitisation of companies
The digitisation of companies
The term digitization (from lat. digitus, finger) has been used since the 1970s to describe the conversion of analog values into digital formats and their processing or storage in a digital technical system. The information is initially available in any analogue form and is then converted over several stages into a digital signal consisting only of discrete values. Increasingly, however, digitisation has also been understood to mean the creation of primarily digital representations, for example by digital cameras or digital sound recording systems. The data thus obtained can be processed by information technology, a principle underlying all manifestations of the Digital Revolution and the Digital Transformation in economic, social, working and private life. Originally, digitisation was defined as the treatment of a human or warm-blooded animal with digitalis.
So it ist.
Online Marketing
Online marketing (also known as internet marketing or web marketing) includes all marketing activities that are carried out online to achieve marketing goals, ranging from brand awareness to closing an online deal. Online marketing is usually seen as a conventional marketing strategy and as mandatory, but this has only developed in recent years.
Characteristics and differentiation
Subareas of online marketing are search engine marketing, social media marketing and affiliate marketing in addition to Internet advertising. These marketing services are offered by advertising portals (mostly with costs). A special form of online marketing is video marketing. Due to the growing number of smartphones, the ever increasing internet bandwidths and the continuously growing mobile internet accesses, mobile marketing and the focus on mobile devices in online marketing is becoming increasingly important. One of the main advantages of online marketing compared to traditional marketing measures such as print or TV is the measurability of the advertising effect.
Marketing strategy
The term marketing strategy refers to a long-term, planned approach to the realization of marketing goals within the framework of a marketing plan. Three different perspectives can be distinguished. Firstly, the marketing strategy can be interpreted as one of several functional strategies such as production, research, personnel, or sales strategy. According to the second view, the marketing strategy is equated with the enterprise strategy. The third view describes the marketing strategy as the primary or dominant functional strategy that the other strategies must follow. According to Erich Gutenberg's Equalization Law of Planning, this is particularly the case when marketing is the central bottleneck in the enterprise (usually in saturated markets).
If all companies use the same strategies, known from theory (taught in business schools) and practice, in the competition for customers and market share, they can hardly achieve a competitive advantage. This is why Costas Markides proposes a very simple definition of the term. According to this, a successful marketing strategy consists of five or six creative ideas on how to win this competition
Digital Business Transformation
Digital business transformation
In the long term, the digital business transformation changes the foundation of every company in its strategy, structure, culture and processes through the possibilities and potential of digital media and the Internet. It affects the organization through change management. With Digital Business Transformation, companies meet the changes of the digital age. As a further development of the term, Digital Business Transformation is derived from the English term "business transformation", the development of new business opportunities and the implementation of new business models by a company.
The advancing digital age leads to a change in the existing understanding of customers, business relationships and value chains. An international study conducted by the MIT Center for Digital Business and Capgemini Consulting shows that at the end of 2011, only around a third of companies are successfully transforming their business model into digital business. Challenges lie mainly in the right digital strategy, effective conceptual integration, professional knowledge management, a flexible corporate culture and rapid integration into the IT structure. According to MIT, the success factors are:
- - a clear vision for the future business with regard to the use of IT
- - Investments in modern as well as classic IT in order to exploit its potential
- - Changes must be supported by top management.
To carry out a structured transformation, companies can apply digital transformation strategies and a systematic digital transformation process.
Digital Business Transformation deals with the planning, management, optimization and implementation of a company's value chain in the digital era. The focus is on identifying the effects of digitalization on existing business models, the turnover, revenue streams and differentiation characteristics of a company in the market. Entire value chains are changing. Not only individual functions and corporate divisions are affected.
The sustainable change and reorientation of communication, marketing, sales and service are essential. Digital Business Transformation uses the advantages and potentials of the integration and implementation of new technologies as an opportunity for changing existing business models and generating new business potential from technical and functional benefit-oriented innovations.
The digital transformation process
The changes induced in companies by digitisation are far-reaching. Processes are being renewed, work is changing and the demands on employees are changing in equal measure. The socially acceptable design of this change process will continue to pose major challenges for companies, especially in the SME sector, in the coming years. In this context of digital transformation in companies, the image of digitalization is often presented in two speeds: On the one hand, technological development is advancing rapidly, while on the other hand, the necessary design of organizations requires significantly more time and willingness to change.
This picture can also be applied to the difference between large and small companies. While a high degree of technological maturity and many examples of flanking measures to redefine (cooperation) work can already be found in large corporations, there are many smaller companies that are only gradually getting underway. The fundamental challenges usually lie in the systematic identification of digitisation potential, the formulation of an individual digitisation strategy and the structured implementation of the digital transformation involving all relevant actors in the company.
In order to be able to cope with the manifold changes, a structured approach is advisable to address the emerging and existing challenges. After all, the implementation of digitisation projects not only holds many opportunities and possibilities, but also risks and challenges. They are far-reaching changes in which complex interrelationships between technical, organisational and employee-related aspects must be taken into account in order to enable effective use and exploitation of the full potential.
For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular, digital transformation is associated with financial risks. In order to avoid misinvestments and not to endanger the competitiveness of the company, digital transformation processes must be planned even more carefully here. Digitalisierung im Mittelstand
Digital transformation and digital change 2020
What is the Digital transformation?
Digital transformation refers to an ongoing process of change based on digital technologies, which in economic terms specifically affects companies In a narrower sense, digital transformation often refers to the change process within a company triggered by digital technologies or customer expectations based on them like Digitale Transformation.
The basis of digital transformation is a digital infrastructure as well as digital technologies - traditionally referred to as information technology - which are being developed in an increasingly rapid sequence and thus pave the way for new digital technologies. Among the main drivers of digital transformation are digital infrastructures (for example: networks, computer hardware) and applications (for example apps on smartphones, web application) as well as the exploitation potentials based on digital technologies, for example digital business models. The expectations of individuals - in particular of many younger innovative members of society vis-à-vis companies, among others - are themselves a strong driving force of digital transformation.
Enabler of the Digital transformation
The digital transformation is an ongoing process of change. The digital technologies and their manifold possibilities and potentials for exploitation and application are the enablers of digital transformation. In particular the following:
New Technologies
Digital technologies are the basis for digital transformation. A multitude of skills is necessary to develop digital technologies. Key competencies and technologies are for example software engineering systems engineering, IT security, data analytics [2] big data [7], cloud computing etc.
Infrastructures
The basis for digital applications is the digital infrastructure. A multitude of access and terminal devices such as smartphones, tablets, desktop computers and an ever increasing number of embedded systems in devices (machines, vehicles, buildings, ...) together with network structures (wireless or wired) and the corresponding protocols form the digital infrastructure. This forms the basis for digital applications and thus creates the possibility to exchange data between these digital applications, to network them.
According to Jeremy Rifkin, every major economic turnaround has three components: new communication media to manage the economic system more efficiently, new energy sources and new means of transport to move energy and goods more effectively ("manage - power - move effectively", as in the triad of telegraph - coal - railroad in the industrial age). Today, the fast Internet forms a basis for the development of digital networks in the fields of industry, logistics and e-mobility, including automated driving. Rifkin emphasises that these networks must be developed in parallel. He criticises the fact that the German policy of shifting towards renewable energies is not accompanied by a sufficiently rapid expansion of data networks to allow for the efficient distribution of energy generated using renewable methods. A digital mobility and logistics network must also be linked to the data and energy networks. Although the German public has predominantly supported the energy turnaround, it rejects, for example, intelligent electricity meters for reasons of data protection. The German government had lost the courage to undertake larger projects due to the courageous energy system transformation policy and the problems resulting from it [8].
Applications
Digital applications are programs (application software) that realize and offer certain functions and services (for example, electronic banking). These functions and services were not previously available in digital form and are now being "digitally transformed". On the basis of the strongly and increasingly widespread digital infrastructure (networks and computer hardware), powerful and innovative digital applications can also be created using software alone (for example, apps on smartphones). By representing these applications in purely digital form, they can be reproduced at will without loss of quality and made accessible worldwide (for example, as web applications). This enables a rapid dissemination of the digital applications on a global scale and, depending on the application, without significant costs for reproduction.
The (digital) infrastructure is also increasingly becoming a digital application, i.e. it is becoming virtual.Cloud providers provide virtual machines (simulated computer hardware) in data centres, for example, (IaaS) that exist purely digitally.[5] For example, several virtual machines (servers) can be operated on a physically existing computer (server). The administration of this purely digital infrastructure is again done by digital applications. These tasks used to be performed by administrators. Thus, maintenance work is controlled via digital applications and is therefore automated.
Exploitation potential
On the basis of digital technologies, a multitude of opportunities arise to use them. [4][6] By exploitation potentials we understand potentials in digital transformation (for example to become successful with digital business models), which arise in the short term, but which also disappear again, for example because they become obsolete again due to new technological developments. For many companies, the entry threshold to the market decreases due to digitalization. However, it is now only possible, for example, to develop an Internet search engine and position it successfully on the market with a very large input of resources.
Digital Business models
Business models describe activities that enable companies to create value, i.e. to convey customer segments and to capture the created values economically [Digital business models in the broadest sense include all business models whose value-creating activities are based on digital technologies. Oliver Gassmann defines them somewhat more narrowly as "Internet-based value promises based on intelligent value chains". Due to the constant progress in digital technologies and/or due to changing expectations, the possible digital business models are also constantly changing.
The analysis of listed companies shows that companies based on digital business models have grown rapidly in recent years, particularly in the USA, and have been able to achieve many times the market capitalization of traditional companies in a short period of time. The analysis of young companies and those preferred by venture capital investors shows that the emergence of disruptive innovators can be expected in many other sectors. The availability of cloud computing accelerates the success of new digital business models, as it supports rapid scalability
Digital Value Networks
The networking of digital applications allows the combination of business models and value chains beyond the borders of companies and also beyond the borders of the state. This creates new networks of value chains that link business models and thus form a value chain. Their initial characteristics have only limited relevance to the following links in the chain (for example, when booking a complete trip with the shares: flight, taxes, hotel, car rental, commissions, credit card fees, and so on). The communication between the organizations connected to the value-added network is largely fully automated, for example, with cognitive systems.
