CONTACT Magazine (Vol.18 No.2 – September 2018)

THE DIGITAL IMPERATIVE
Digital 101
It’s all very well to be told to “go digital”,
but what about the mechanics of it, the
costs and methods and pitfalls? Contact
asked technology journalist Mark
Lyndersay to go over some of the basics.
Kalifa Clyne asked the questions
photo courtesy: mark lyndersay
We are in the era of information, and
businesses are being told to embrace
and incorporate digital tools. But
does digitalisation really benefit every
business model?
I can’t think of many business processes that aren’t going
to be touched eventually by digital tools or processes. If a
business isn’t thinking about how digital technologies impact
its existing business model, it can rest assured that someone
else is busy doing that thinking, and will apply the benefits and
advantages ruthlessly.
Can you give some examples of the benefits which can be
realised? Does digitisation of a business lead to increased
sales or market share?
courtesy mark lyndersay
The singular, critical benefit that any business will reap is
a lubrication of its relationship with the customer. Every
digital transformation process should begin with a sober
consideration of what the customer expects from the business
now, and what they are most likely to expect in the immediate
future.
Engaging in these costly, often extremely disruptive
processes without a clear end goal is pointless at best, and
quite likely to be fatal to a business if it doesn’t, by happy
chance, reap a reward. Plan, then plan again.
Every business should start by considering what should
make the migration from analogue to digital, which is the
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Trinidad
and Tobago Chamber
of Industry and Commerce
www.chamber.org.tt/contact-magazine