The challenge of the digital age is that technology is constantly evolving and growing. This is a key variable that drives business operators to adapt and transform their business to move forward, by creating opportunities with digital technology instead of sticking to the old style and becoming the one who has been disrupted.

Before talking about Digital Transformation, we would like to take you back to look at 3 main causes of business challenges that most SMEs are encountering before adopting digital technology:

1. Insufficient Information to Make Decisions - Businesses with less various information in hand or with unsystematically data collection will make the business grow and develop more slowly than it should. As well as selling products or services, if we don't collect customer information, it can be difficult to run a promotion or follow up with repeat customers.

2. Lack of Information Accuracy and Lack of Security – When our data is insufficient or improperly collected for business, it can be misleading for business planning, and also that some information can be leaked to competitors. As in a restaurant or retail business, having a POS (point of sale) system lets us know how many items are selling well, especially if the product has an expiration date, this will allow us to manage our inventory and help us manage information more accurately.

3. Workflows That Rely on Human Expertise Rather Than Systems - Businesses can stumble if one of their employees or teammates quits because it relies solely on individual expertise, such as customer service and support, that need to know the details of their customer’s needs and what has already been provided.

Is Digital Transformation the way to survive the business?

It is certain that, as technology has evolved by leaps and bounds from the current world situation, many businesses and also government agencies are turning their attention and choosing the Digital Transformation strategy to adapt in a timely manner, by applying digital technology to adapt and transform the business, from the beginning until the products and services are delivered to the customer’s hand.

The coming of digital technology helps strengthening, optimizing, and extending the business further than the traditional business operation.This can help to reduce costs, working time and errors by at least 40%.

Repair and Change ≠ Transformation

Another thing that many people misunderstand or confuse about Digital Transformation is that it is a modern terminology that can be a difficult process to adjust, therefore they turned to choose a “Repair / Change” strategy to deal with problems that occur with the business rather than the Transformation.

- Repair / Change = A Temporary Solution
The word “Repair / Change” is the same as maintenance. When any broken parts are taken out for repair or replacement, but eventually, we still need to monitor and control them so that the problem doesn't repeat itself.

- Transformation = A Permanent Solution
If to compare clearly, it is a reform, to change the way of doing business, such as restaurants that change the format from storefront to Cloud Kitchen, accepting orders through online channels instead, without having to have a storefront anymore.

4 Key Elements in Digital Transformation for business growth

1.Mindset - Have an open mind but be confident in your decision, not leaning back and forth, as well as be able to analyze where our business is in the market and what are the needs, to develop the business to be in the desired location and not thinking of copying all of those who have already succeed.

2.Process - Clearly define objectives to modify various business processes to exactly meet the needs of customers. Methods and processes must be designed to suit the organization, size of the business and team.

3. Incentive – Consider the benefits that will be generated for each party involved, both the operator & the employee’s side, as well as the customer's side using the service.

4. Tools - Tools don't need to be high-tech or state-of-the-art. Just starting to adapt to a simple tool that can help collect data for analysis and fit our business is considered to have adopted the Digital Transformation already.

If your business has started doing Digital Transformation and you want to enhance the efficiency of the organization to be better than before. You can apply to be part of the AIS The StartUp project today! Let's create the right direction for your business to go further with digital tools, business partners and expert advisors.

Make your business sustainable easily. Just submit your work to join the selection. Click http://www.ais.th/thestartup/connect.html All content in the article is based on information from AIS SME Growth Webinar dated 4 August 2022 - How should SMEs do digital transformation? to grow sustainably