The world is in the midst of a digital gold-rush, with 89% of all companies having adopted a digital-first business strategy, or planning to do so. An interesting angle to look at this phenomenon is to understand the specific factors that are driving this change.

The State of Digital Transformation Report by Altimeter studies just this causality, and throws up some interesting insights. So here are the top five drivers motivating digital transformation.

1. Harnessing new growth opportunities

Over the past couple of years organizations have shifted from trying to simply modernize their existing processes and business models, to now making use of their digital transformation to pursue entirely new business opportunities.

This indicates a growing maturity of companies in the new digital world, as they move beyond incremental improvements to embracing technology as a key business growth driver.

2. Addressing evolving customer behavior

This has always been one of the key focus areas for businesses in their quest to go digital. Customer experience does drive revenue, retention and reputation, after all. 

The adoption of digital technologies to streamline customer-to-business touchpoints, deliver services faster and more accurately, and to apply a better understanding of a customer’s needs to more meaningful interactions – all play a major role in CX today.

3. Overcoming competitive pressure

As with all revolutionary change, there is an element of FOMO at play with digital transformation too. There’s tangible value being created in the market that everyone wants a piece of. And for companies who have not yet started their journey, there is pressure to avoid getting left behind.

As digital transformation becomes increasingly common across businesses, however, this has become less critical a factor than before.

4. Keeping up with regulatory & compliance standards

Statutory regulations, like the EU’s GDPR, have been becoming increasingly strict in recent years. Ensuring compliance plays an important role in keeping companies on the right side of the authorities, and ensuring the organization’s reputation and revenues are not disrupted.

This is therefore an important motivating factor for businesses to undergo a digital transformation, and to manage and secure their data more effectively than before.

5. Delivering on evolving employee expectations

Internal to organizations too, expectations, behavior and preferences among employees have changed considerably in recent years. Given that employee experience (EX) plays a major role in business success today, this is an area that deserves its place under the sun.

From productivity to collaboration, communication to training, and everything in between, EX is often a major consideration while planning a digital transformation.

As a digital transformation partner to over 600 businesses, at CloudNow we encounter each of these factors (and many more) in the course of our work. Read just a few case studies of our work here, and talk to us today to see how we can help streamline your digital transformation too.