By Sean Chatterjee –  VP Partner Sales Acumatica

Achieving business success is possible if SMBs implement a digital transformation strategy—right away. To get started, IDC has a new and complimentary infographic that acts as a digital roadmap.

Fifty percent of SMBs will see digital transformation as a vital feature of their company’s growth strategy by 2019. So says IDC. The premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information and technology industry has released a new infographic, Achieve Digital Transformation for Future Business Success. It offers a succinct picture of what that strategy should look like, including how cloud ERP plays a role and how it helps jumpstart business innovation and growth.

A look at digital transformation

Though they may not be ready to admit it, many SMBs with legacy ERP systems are hanging on by a thread. Their unintegrated, on-premise system is slow and immobile. Their system requires manual input and lacks sophisticated data analyzation capabilities. And forget interoperability, achieving real-time updates for the entire team (including those in the field), and customizing it for unique business needs. Legacy systems cannot be anything but what they are: archaic.

According to IDC’s free infographic, SMBs with legacy systems need to experience the peace of mind cloud ERP brings. This means they—like the 50% planning to do so in the next year—must embrace digital transformation. In the infographic, you’ll learn how:

  • “Technical debt” accumulates
  • ERP has advanced
  • Digital technology and a digital platform (providing an intelligent core connecting internal and external processes) are a requirement for success
  • Digital transformation provides four major benefits
  • Intelligent-ERP (i-ERP) systems equal timely and accurate decisions
  • ERP systems should be differentiated and selected

IDC’s infographic presents SMBs with a strategic digital roadmap and makes it clear that digital transformation isn’t a one-step endeavor but an ongoing journey. And the journey to digital transformation is not brought about by a single entity within a company. While the driving force should come from the top, there must be company-wide understanding what will take place during digital transformation.  SMBs that foster a company culture embracing digital transformation increase their chances of success immensely.

From the c-suite to the ground-floor employees, every team member should understand why adopting digital technologies, cloud ERP software and emerging technologies (e.g. IoT, AI, robotics, next gen security), is absolutely necessary for being able to exchange data across the organization (and using that information to make strategic, effective decisions), meeting customers’ modern expectations, and innovation. They need to know that disruptions caused by cloud and SaaS implementations will ultimately bring growth in the digital economy, or as IDC calls it, the DX economy.

A solid technology foundation and a clear digital strategy—which includes asking the right questions, setting clear goals and the steps to achieving them, getting input from people throughout the organization, and providing ongoing informational and training sessions—will keep the transformation moving forward. Every business in every industry will have different requirements and perhaps different methods throughout the process, but they all desire the same outcome: DX success.

Download IDC’s digital transformation infographic, kickstart business success

IDC points out that “47% of businesses globally want more agility and speed from their technology systems.” If you’re one of these businesses (and you should be), then you need to begin the digital transformation process, and you need to do it now. The rate at which technology changes is only going to increase. Waiting puts your business behind those that have already adopted agile technology, technology such as cloud, mobile, social, big data/analytics, cognitive, AR/VR, and IoT.

Download IDC’s infographic today and get the digital roadmap that will help guide you to your future business success.

Please contact Udexx Technology for Digital Transformation Insights.