Towards digital enterprise

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In 2020, the Internet is everywhere, you can log on from wherever you like, you can buy things with a single click of the mouse, make a bank transfer thanks to face recognition, and send an email just by talking to your phone. Today, the connected user can fill up their fridge without going anywhere, control their TV but also their energy consumption, or do their shopping merely by using their smartphone. For years, digital has been making its presence felt in our daily lives; today, it is making its presence felt in the world of business.

From the desire to streamline procedures to the complete transformation of operations, why and how can you support businesses as they move towards digitalization?

In the context of digital communication becoming ever more present, businesses must opt for a mode of operation that gives them the flexibility and agility they need to survive.

For too long, and all too often, digital has been seen as a tool that gets added to an organisation to improve its performance and so that it can communicate through new media, to follow the trend towards which this new hyper-connected world is leading us. However, digitalization is a far more important change to bring about. Some businesses understand that today, and are attacking this turning-point – one that is vital to the growth of their activity – in a more serious way.

Transforming your business through digital is not just about optimising or accelerating things, it is a matter of affecting every stratum of its operation, of incorporating a new vision and new ways of thinking in each of the business’s employees. The buzzwords in this transformation are optimisation, efficiency, agility and responsibility. It is an evolution for the good of everyone, from the employees to the end customer.

The evolution and impact of digital is something that none of the businesses will have anticipated. Unfortunately, for most of them it will often be too late…

Julien Roose – Head of Strategy @ La niche

Each business and each sector will follow the path of digitalization in their own way, in accordance with special criteria and specific needs. There is no sense in digitalising everything just for the sake of it: a business does not necessarily have to be 100% digital. On the contrary, the approach is to identify the user cases that are going to have a significant ROI, because that’s where what’s really at stake in digitalization is to be found. You have to identify the priorities and the areas of work that will provide a real return on investment.

Digitalization is based on a number of axes of transformation within the company, and in its mindset. If one were to simplify the process, we could explain it as follows:

In the first instance, you have the digitization phase; this is when a physical medium is transformed into digital information. Some straightforward examples? Scanning an invoice; sending an email as opposed to a letter.

The second phase is that of digitalization. At this stage, we are aiming to optimise the internal processes, to support them with digital technologies.

Finally, the third phase is that of digital transformation. It emerges when the business finally develops new services / products, or indeed transforms its business model, thanks to digitalization.

A concrete example of the benefits of digital transformation in 2020 within a business?

The onboarding of new staff. When a new employee arrives at the company, they have to be given a badge, a fuel card, a temporary vehicle; their GSM subscription has to be adapted, they have to be given a computer, and the right access rights, relevant to their role. Thanks to digitalization, all this can be coordinated before the employee arrives. The result? The employee is up and running more quickly, and is immediately efficient. What’s more, this enables you to show a more human side: the company and its staff can then concentrate on the welcome they give the employee, and on their wellbeing, rather than having to run around all over the place trying to get everything they need in record time.

It is a new mindset and a new way of organising your work, in accordance with 5 main areas:

  • User Centricity
  • Modern Communication
  • Data Centricity
  • Digital Workplace
  • Agility

The biggest brake on this digitalization is the human being.

Julien Bonsangue – Digitalization Leader @ John Cockerill

In this transformation, the business is getting to grips with new tools in order to digitalize itself. Change management therefore comes into play, for it is important, not to say essential, to support the business in this apprenticeship, so that it understands things correctly and uses them correctly, and therefore achieves real change.

Today’s companies owe it to themselves to listen to their customers and prospects. With the help of a digital environment that is ever more deeply anchored in their organisations, the services being proposed to users are becoming more customized, precise and qualitative. It is a matter of a competitive advantage that is necessary today.

François – Business Analyst @ La niche

For François, the other brake that is slowing down digitalization is the siloing of skills and knowledge within the business. Businesses are often structured in multiple departments, with specific teams. Very often, when this is the case, the departments are confronted with a poor level of understanding of their company, whereby a department isn’t aware of what’s being developed behind the door next to them. The idea is therefore to put the customer back at the centre of their thinking and their performance. The first, and crucial, stage is to become aware of these internal “barriers” and thus to propose digital mechanisms and tools between these services, so as to facilitate discussion and, therefore, the sharing of knowledge about their own internal strengths.

Covid-19 is a catalyst for the digital transformation of businesses

Julien Bonsangue – Digitalization Leader @ John Cockerill

Following the Covid-19 crisis, plenty of businesses realised how important it was to digitalize themselves: working from home had become the norm, and holding meetings on Teams was the new normal for professionals. The latest news stories have forced companies to venture into the digital world. The time has come to continue with this endeavour…

…and to help you with these efforts at digitalization, La niche, an agency composed solely of digital natives, is a reliable digital player and a good partner for the task of making you become a 4.0 business and setting yourself the challenge of transformation. Identifying the first and most relevant pathways for evolution, triggering them incrementally, and adapting these solutions to suit your aims and your structure – these will be the first stages of your collaboration with La niche.

Our approach for your evolution:

  • Form a team to steer this digitalization
  • Analyse your current customer pathway
  • Identify the internal, structural and organisational brakes
  • Identify the tools that provide structure for your teams, to ensure you have a direct impact on turnover
  • Ensure that tailor-made tools are put in place
  • Redefine your web ecosystem: communication, lead, conversion, etc.
  • Communicate with your targets
  • Measure and improve
  • Measure and improve
  • Measure and improve!

Being more customer-centric is the key word.

François – Business Analyst @ La niche

Looking to improve your staff’s wellbeing together with the company’s profits? Digital constitutes the perfect response to this issue. Today, employees want more responsibilities, more recognition, more autonomy. Thanks to good technological tools, such as Hubspot, an external digitalization tool that allows you to control communication and marketing within a single tool, you and your staff will evolve in this area, for better wellbeing across the board.

Your first steps with La niche will enable you to take part in workshops, study and validate the models and tools, and be given support that will set you off on the right track.

At the heart of the support we provide is: relevance! Working in partnership with you and in full transparency, flexibly and proactively.

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