Digital Transformation Examples: Three Industries Dominating Digital Transformation

Digital transformation examples can be found almost anywhere, in almost any industry. Its past successes – and future potential – are well documented, chronicled in the billion-dollar valuations of the frontrunners in the practice.

Amazon began as a disruptor to brick-and-mortar bookstores, eventually becoming one of the most obvious digital transformation examples as it went on to revolutionize online shopping.

Netflix’s origins were similar – annihilating its former rival Blockbuster and the entire DVD rental market to become a dominant streaming platform and media publisher.

Disruption is the common theme. Netflix decimated the DVD rental market while Amazon continues to play a role in “high-street” shopping’s decline.

As technology continues to disrupt markets, digital transformation is do or die.

According to IDC’s digital transformation predictions report for 2019, these types of initiatives are going to flood the enterprise during the next five years.

The following three examples highlight the extent to which digital transformation is reshaping the nature of business and government and how we – as a society – interact with the world.

Digital Transformation in Retail

The inherently competitive nature of retail has made the sector a leader in adopting data-driven strategy.

From loyalty cards to targeted online ads, retail has always had to adapt to stay relevant.

Four main areas in retail demonstrate digital transformation, with a healthy data governance initiative driving them all.

With accurate, relevant and accessible data, organizations can address the following:

• Customer experience: If your data shows a lot of abandoned carts from mobile app users, then that’s an area to investigate, and good data will identify it.
• Competitive differentiation: Are personalized offers increasing sales and creating customer loyalty? This is an important data point for marketing strategy.
• Supply chain:Can a problem with quality be related to items shipping from a certain warehouse? Data will zero in on the location of the problem.
• Partnerships:Are your partnerships helping grow other parts of your business and creating new customers? Or are your existing customers using partners in place of visiting your store? Data can tell you.

This article further explores digital transformation and data governance in retail.

Digital Transformation in Hospitality

Hospitality is another industry awash in digital transformation examples. Brick-and-mortar travel agencies are ceding ground to mobile-first (and mobile-only) businesses.

Their offerings range from purchasing vacation packages to the ability to check in and order room service via mobile devices.

With augmented and virtual reality, it even may be possible to one day “test drive” holiday plans from the comfort of the sofa – say before swimming with sharks or going on safari.

The extent of digitization now possible in the hospitality industry means these businesses have to account for and manage an abundance of data types and sources to glean insights to fuel the best customer experiences.

Unsurprisingly, this is yet another area where a healthy data governance initiative can be the difference between industry-disrupting success and abject failure.

This piece further discusses how data is transforming the hospitality industry and the role of data governance in it.

Digital Transformation in Municipal Government

Historically, municipal government isn’t seen as an area at the forefront of adopting emerging technology.

But the emergence of “smart cities” is a prominent example of digital transformation.

Even the concept of a smart city is a response to existing digital transformation in the private sector, as governments have been coerced into updating infrastructure to reflect the modern world.

Today, municipal governments around the world are using digital transformation to improve residents’ quality of life, from improving transportation and public safety to making it convenient to pay bills or request services online.

Of course, when going “smart,” municipal governments will need an understanding of data governance best practices.

This article analyzes how municipal governments can be “smart” about their transformation efforts.

Mitigating Digital Transformation Risks

Risks come with any investment. But in the context of digital transformation, taking risks is both a necessity and an inevitability.

Organizations also will need to consult their data to ensure they transform themselves the right way – and not just for transformation’s sake.

A recent PwC study found that successful digital transformation risk-takers “find the right fit for emerging technologies.”

Doing so points to the need for both effective data governance to find, understand and socialize the most relevant data assets and healthy enterprise architecture to learn what systems and applications create, store and use those data assets.

With application portfolio management and impact analysis, organizations can identify immediate opportunities for digital transformation and areas where more consideration and planning may be necessary before making changes.

As the data governance company, we provide data governance as well as enterprise architecture software, plus tools for business process and data modeling, data cataloging and data literacy. As an integrated software platform, organizations ensure IT and business collaboration to drive risk management, innovation and transformation efforts.