There are numerous reasons why small and medium enterprises are increasingly deciding to move to digital in the current climate. While an initial investment is required to integrate digital technology into proceedings, it can significantly help lower overall expenditure on a long-term basis whilst simultaneously boosting your revenue potential.
Simply digitising your current processes may not be enough to see meaningful results, but by undergoing a full digital transformation that adapts your business’ processes to fully utilise your new technology – and up-skilling your staff to boost user adoption and increase productivity, efficiency, and ROI – a move towards digital can be a financial lifeline for SMEs in the modern climate.
Digital transformation broadens your revenue streams, opens the door to a larger potential customer base through online reach and proven digital marketing and sales methods, and gives you the ability to measure thorough engagement analytics and ROI, enabling you to progress with in-depth market research and financial data-driven decisions.
Investing in these digital solutions will provide benefits such as long-term cost saving, and higher adaptability and agility for your business. Creating agile and responsive processes are imperative in a rapidly changing environment, through which technology can aid in developing resilient business ecosystems to help them thrive.
Increased efficiency and productivity are also a winning result of digitalisation. Digital tools can help design systems and processes to enable more intelligent working procedures. Utilising these systems also supports integration and improved resource management – from operations to sales and marketing – which should integrate seamlessly.
In addition, employing digital practices within your business will improve data quality, data accuracy, automation and compliance. Digital technologies and solutions can be leveraged to set a unified, trustworthy source which is accessible by all stakeholders. This results in visibility and responsibility of tracking and success, allowing for better decision-making, more effective business processes, and enhancing ROI throughout the company.
Another significant reason why businesses should invest in digital is to improve customer engagement. With the capability of tracking emerging trends, and the use of personalised customer service, this offers new revenue opportunities such as faster product-to-market campaigns, upselling, and cross-selling.
With most traditional marketing and sales methods completely eradicated at the beginning of the pandemic, many SMEs had to adapt quickly to continue reaching their customers. However, not every business was directly impacted by the pandemic, and with the option of furlough, not everyone decided to transform their business to operate digitally.
The initial investment of digitally transforming your business can sometimes be a costly one. With the state of the current economic climate in the UK, some companies may decide not to proceed with the investment. Other financial decisions that may halt digitising are budget restrictions, or the expense of upskilling and training staff.
Going digital doesn’t only mean buying new technology such as monitors and hard drives, it also involves the instalment of new systems and processes, and investing into employees’ digital skills to boost user adoption and ROI. This may seem time consuming and expensive, however, the result of this is hugely beneficial to your business, allowing you to gain confident staff with new abilities and competencies. In turn, this reduces staff turnover, improves staff morale, and increases productivity and efficiency.
As the world becomes increasingly ingrained in online offerings, a non-digital approach is far more likely to see revenue suffer in the long run. Including or fully changing to a digital approach is a necessary move for all business types to make before they lose their competitive advantage and market share.
If you would like to move your SME towards digital operations, but you don’t currently have the money required to invest in a full digital transformation, there are two routes you can take to instantly inject cash into your digital finance strategy: asset finance and invoice finance.
How can TSF help? Our team of financial experts can help you find the best financing deals for your current situation, allowing you to secure the finances required to get your digital transformation on the move.
If you want to learn more about making the change to digital and how our experts at TSF can help, don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team.
