Every company is a technology company today, whether they know it or not. That is why most companies are undertaking a digital transformation process to modernize their outdated legacy technologies and achieve their forward-looking business objectives. Digital transformation means optimizing business outcomes by combining people, processes and technologies to digitize operations and make a business more accessible from anywhere in the world through the internet. Undergoing a digital transformation allows a company to utilize the best available tools to streamline and optimize workflows. In this way, companies are leveraging new technologies to automate many simple, repetitive tasks and thus free up staff time to pursue more complex projects. When we think about digital transformation from the channel perspective, we need to identify the business reasons driving the underlying need for technology to change, not the other way around. A successful transformation can help slash costs and increase sales in new markets. Another benefit is providing wider access to critical data, which allows machines and IoT devices to respond milliseconds faster to increase manufacturing productivity and accelerate the time to market. Digital transformation holds limitless possibilities for businesses, but there is no one way to get it right because each company has unique needs. Also, employees are creatures of habit who have been engrained in certain patterns and routines, which makes it hard for the workforce to suddenly embrace whole new ways of working. For all these reasons, digital transformation initiatives are challenging. Midmarket companies can be especially hard hit by this shift because they lack the technical sophistication and financial resources of large enterprises. Midsized businesses also do not have the staff time to research and implement new digital solutions. Nor do they have the flexibility to try out different solutions until they can find the best one for their needs. Outcomes over Objects Traditionally, IT groups were considered cost centers that helped make a business function, but now they are seen as key contributors to bottom-line profitability. As a result, the problems that IT departments face today are much different from the past. The focus for midmarket CIOs today should be less about processor speeds and feeds, or other specs for hardware and software solutions. Now their attention should focus on solving critical business problems through technology enablement. Some solutions may involve a new customer relationship management application to make the sales organization more effective or using analytics to drive a better call center experience or increasing the ROI of a demand generation campaign. Yet call center managers and sales leaders are not technologists, which means the business side of the house and the technology side will need to work together more closely. Driving Digital Transformation Success in the Midmarket Prioritize business objectives, not shiny new tech objects By Paul Kozak BUYERS SIDE 44 CHANNELV ISION | JULY - AUGUST 2022
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