How to Decipher Between 3 Common Industry Terms: Distilling the Digital Trifecta to Inspire Your Contact Center's Lasting Digital Strategy
Raise your hand if you’ve ever mixed up a few popular terms because you didn’t know what they really mean.
We’ve all been there.
In our digital transformation research, we picked up on a few common terms companies often use interchangeably. But they each have distinct meanings.
You’re a manager whose priorities constantly spill over into next week. You don’t have time for confusion or misnomers as you map your contact center strategy. So, we’re pulling a page out of an old playbook. We’re continuing our Definition Series of re-introducing and defining industry terms in 400 words or less for the busy manager.
Today we define the digital trifecta: digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation.
What is digitization?
Digitization is converting something non-digital, like a hand-written letter, into a digital version, like a downloadable PDF.
Here, I think of my personal notebook. I write all my notes in a journal. It helps me absorb info and also jot down reminders on the fly. Later on, I digitize my notes and transfer them to a doc I can email to my team.
There’s no inherent business value that comes with digitizing something. It makes info more shareable and accessible, but it doesn’t go much further than that.
What is digitalization?
Digitalization, on the other hand, is when companies use digital technologies to improve business processes and create more business value.
Digitalization combines all your company’s efforts, processes, and technology to create a customer-centric model for doing businesses.
When I think digitalization, I think about how technology adds more value for customers and revenue-earning potential for companies. Like gathering customer data through intelligent systems, automating tedious or repetitive tasks, and analyzing data to inform business decisions.
What is digital transformation?
Digital transformation is your company’s pathway from tired business processes to digitalization.
To digitalize your contact center, you have to build a strategy to get there. That’s digital transformation. It’s the verb in the mix. It’s the action plan to make your business fully digital so you can capitalize on the added value and revenue-earning potential.
Digital transformation isn’t about bolting new tech on to your old problems. It’s the method companies will invest $2 trillion in by 2020 to ditch tired tactics and innovate.
It sets the foundation for a digital future where your contact center and company can scale successfully while cutting costs and eliminating waste.