Ideally, the answer would have to be “No.” However, practically, the answer is: “Only when it’s not organized.”

Unstructured data is a real trigger for data scientists – or anyone required to work with data for that matter – because unstructured data puts companies at risk of losing Big Data and resources. Also, as companies keep receiving data, these bulks of unstructured data keep expanding, causing chaos when not organized.

Therefore, in the fight against data overkill, our weapon of choice would be Intalio’s Data Integration Solution.

What is Data Integration?

Data integration is the process of retracting information from specific sources and turning data from unstructured to structured by integrating them into specific predefined categories.

The process starts by extracting information using tools – such as Intalio Data Capture Software – where information is extracted from different sources or media. This collected data is then automatically checked for inconsistencies and goes through a set of predefined rules. It is searched for duplications, blank inputs, and so on. From there, it gets converted and transformed into any source format that can be integrated, stored, analyzed, and used for later purposes. Finally, the information or data gets loaded onto the end location while adhering to the proper format needed.

Data integration solutions help integrate data from multiple sources to be gathered across an organization and can then be found on one platform instead of having information silos or duplicating work to extract specific information or insight. Simply, it’s retracting data from multiple sources and transforming them into meaningful information that can easily be found.

The Top 5 Benefits of Data Integration

Corporate cooperation:

When systems containing various sets of data are unified in one location, it can benefit the entire corporation. By allowing the information to be available to anyone in the company, each department can gather its proper insight without undergoing extensive – and sometimes duplicated – work.

Eliminating errors:

By going through the cleansing step of data integration and forcing information to go through specific protocols, the final results will then be properly integrated and ready to be accessed and used in real-time. This process steers away from irrelevant or missing information and duplications.

Saving time:

When data is scattered across multiple systems or locations, it becomes very consuming and prone to error to gather all of the required data from these different sources. This is especially trivial if the answer or decision needed from the data is time-sensitive. When the data is already integrated, this search process becomes quick and easy.

More accurate business decisions:

When data is still unstructured and scattered, it risks being left behind when gathered or when needed. This causes decisions and opinions to be less informed which could cause corporate loss both in finance and in opportunities. However, when data is integrated, the accuracy of retraction allows for decision-making accuracy and leaves no data left behind.

Customer insight:

The ease of access to the once scattered data allows for better results and clearer customer insight. Customer data integration provides a complete picture of key performance indicators (KPIs), financial risks, customer profiles, and so on.

The Cure to Data OCD

Our Data Integration Platform can help a major retailer integrate data from multiple stores they own, allowing them to understand their customers’ behavior and payment preferences, making way for a new strategy to tackle these findings and lead to financial gains. These solutions are essential in other industries as well, such as healthcare, finance, telecommunications, and marketing, to name a few.

As you’ve seen, data integration tools are the heroes fighting against scattered data outbreaks and overkill, which makes them our weapon of choice in the fight against Data OCD.

If you still haven’t found a way to organize your scattered data and are considering data integration solutions, let us know so we can partner and help you win that fight.

The post Enterprise Data Integration: A Fight Against Data OCD appeared first on intalio.

Digital transformation experts recognize that these are alarming numbers, knowing that the other side of investments is actually to pay the price.

While companies and corporations may think that investing in digital transformation strategies is costly, the financial losses cost by not going digital can cost even more, especially considering how the world is now shifting towards remote work. Corporations need to look beyond imminent results and focus more on long-term gain and company sustainability as today’s digital transformation is no longer an option but a necessity.

Top 10 Reasons Why Not Investing in Digital Transformation Strategies Costs More Than Investing.

Lower Corporate Productivity:

Digitalization is known to boost workplace efficiency as employees finish their work up to 5 times faster than in traditional workplaces. Using software and digital solutions help employees finish administrative tasks faster and attend to different and more creative duties. If a company doesn’t invest in digital tools, productivity levels across the company will drop.

Cost Increase:

Digital campaigns or increasing the reach of a business by using digital solutions that foster insightful analytics can be done with ease and can get tailored according to the company’s needs and budget. Even advertising a company can be more easily done with all the data gathered. Not to mention the increased cost of papers, offices, archiving, and so on.

Lack of Company Growth:

While over 70% of companies are setting digital transformation strategies and investing in their growth, companies opting not to invest in these strategies will surely fall behind. Corporations who adopt solutions early on have a growth advantage compared to their more traditional competitors.

Loss of Competitive Advantage:

Digitalization helps corporations cater to their customers’ needs and desired experiences. When companies do not digitalize and personalize their interfaces, clients and customers may search for better services and become loyal to their competitors.

Loss of Sales and Revenue:

Digital transformation transforms businesses and operations. By digitalizing and turning to workflow automation, companies can increase their outputs and performance while simplifying processes. That goes to say that when companies do not undertake digital transformations, they decrease their work output or results. This decrease, in turn, affects their sales reach and eventually their revenue.

Loss of Relevance and Market Share:

If companies are not winning, they are losing; similarly, if companies are not growing, they shrink in market shares. Digitalization has become a need for both corporations and clients. When companies choose not to adapt to customer needs and invest in digital transformations, it costs them market shares; when companies lose market shares, they become less relevant to both customers and their industries.

Lack of Valuable Data and Key-Analytics:

Brand loyalty has changed over the years. Companies now need to double-down on their efforts to understand their consumers and rebuild their brand loyalty. Data generated through digitalized tools allow corporations to tailor content and learn about their customers’ needs. Most importantly, it guides companies on what works and what doesn’t, saving them from costly errors.

Lack of Employee Retention:

The workforce is now widely composed of millennials – a generation that has grown around technology and digitalized services. Digitalized platforms have become an expectation, both for them as users and as employees choosing where to invest their skills and talents. Millennials search for companies that resemble them, and they come with a surplus of digital skills that would be a loss if not used for the development of a corporation.

Lack of Ability to Social Sell:

When corporations undertake digitalization initiatives, they gain relevant and insightful analytical data and information concerning their clients and prospects. One of the sources for such data is through social selling. Social selling is when a corporation uses its social network presence to get insight, find prospects, strengthen its relationship with the community, and so on.

Impersonalized Customer Experience:

Over 80% of companies compete solemnly on the basis of customer experience. This is defined by how much customers feel involved with the company, how much they feel that it represents them. The more the company speaks the customers’ language, the more it is able to create a better customer experience for them and retain them.

The Real Cost of Not Investing

So, what is the real cost of investing in digital transformations? Priceless.

What is the real cost of not investing in digital transformations? Paying the price.

Investing in digital transformation strategies may cost companies at first, but the revenue will slowly start to roll when digitalization becomes a part of the company culture, which is only attainable when done right.

A company not investing in such transformations will pay the price by falling behind competitors, losing market shares and relevance, and failing to adapt and grow.

Undergoing a proper digital transformation strategy requires a knowledgeable partner to really help the investment come to profit.

If your corporation wants to undergo such transformations, contact us, or check our many services and solutions that are at your disposal.

Remember, cutting on digital transformation budgets means cutting down on opportunities.

The post Digital Transformation: Why ‘Not Investing’ Means ‘Paying the Price’ appeared first on intalio.

The tradition of new years’ resolutions had started with the Babylonians, who made promises to their gods at the start of each year that they would return borrowed items and pay debts. In the middle ages, knights renewed their vows of chivalry. The aim behind it is to introspect in the past year or years and make promises to stick to new commitments that will drive individuals forward and help them thrive.

Why are resolutions important?

Though widely spread and a lasting tradition that has expanded over thousands of years – despite being expressed so differently over time – the importance of new year resolutions remains the same. These resolutions are a great way to:

• Keep you focused on goals: Resolutions allow us to concentrate on what we want, our purposes, and help us strategize on how to achieve them, moving in a positive direction.
• Have small stepping stones: Resolutions set up in tiny steps or divided into smaller goals have the highest percentage of success. Committing to these small steps make way to more success.
• Be more self-aware: Thinking back at the past and looking into the future allows us to introspect on what we need to thrive and do better.
• Prioritize: Resolutions usually focus on what’s essential for us, the most notable changes that we need to start making, thus helping us prioritize where we need to invest our energy.

Corporate resolutions

Just as resolutions are essential for individuals, they are equally crucial for corporations for the same reasons. They help corporations analyze where they’re at and where they want to be by the end of the year. They help them compare themselves to others in terms of goals and market trends. Resolutions help corporations prioritize what matters to stay relevant in their industries and preserve their loyalty and loyalty.

Companies may focus on being more social, have better crisis management strategies, fine-tune their customer service, or become more involved with the community. But considering the pandemic and the remote-working trends, perhaps the most important thing for companies to evaluate right now is their digital transformation efforts.

Companies may start by asking themselves about their objectives, compare themselves to their competitors’ digital efforts, strategize on who’s following up on these efforts internally, who the corporation will be partnering with to guide its actions, and so on.

For example, Brambles, a supply-chain logistics company operating in more than 60 countries, set a resolution back in 2015 about increasing the number of women in management by the year 2020. They have achieved this goal in 2020 by ensuring that 30% of leadership positions are held by women including 30% at the board level and 30% at the management level by 2020. Telefonica, an international communications company, had set the same goal for 2020 concerning women in management, as well as for deciding to hire 25,000 new young employees by the year 2021. Acciona, a sustainable infrastructure solutions company, however, was able to reach a digital milestone this year after completing a digital twin of one of the largest desalination plants in the Middle East – an exact digital reproduction of the project that allows productivity to be analyzed, optimized and improved, reducing development times and detecting faults early.

An efficient new year

It’s always a good idea to re-assess, decide on a goal, strategize on how to get to it, and start with small stepping stones. And what better time to start than with the new year. Digital Transformation is imminent and crucial for the upcoming year; if it’s not on your corporate list of resolutions, it should be. If your organization is worried about where to start or don’t know how to start, we can help. Intalio offers a range of services and solutions to help with your corporate new years’ resolutions, turning a critical year into a year full of success from strategizing to training employees.

The post New Year…New Transformations appeared first on intalio.

1. 70% of companies have a set digital transformation strategy set and in motion. (ZDNet)
2. Remote work has become a norm and is predicted to rise by 300%. (Forrester)
3. 91% of businesses are now involved in digital transformation, with 87% of management prioritizing digitalization. (Gartner)
4. 97% of IT leaders and decision-makers are involved in digitalization. (Mulesoft)
5. 65% of businesses are now encouraging data science teams, analytics teams, and business teams to collaborate. (Forrester)
6. Companies increase digitalization efforts by 200% when collaboration between senior leaders, strategists, and the organization (Gartner)
7. Marketing departments are now increasing their focus on brand loyalty by 30%, as the main focus has switched from sales to customer experience. (Forrester)
8. 4% of companies claim to have a dedicated digital transformation team. (FinancesOnline)
9. 55% of employees who feel overwhelmed by digital transformation feel it’s due to a lack of key digital skills. (PwC)
10. 90% of jobs now require digital skills, yet, 44% of European workers do not have the necessary digital skills. (Europa)
11. 84% of executives agree that new business opportunities are emerging as their corporations are digitally transforming. (DZone)
12. The number of companies undergoing digital transformation is very significant in some industries, such as services (95%), financial services (93%), and healthcare (92%). (FinancesOnline)
13. 68% of business leaders believe that businesses’ future resides in the collaboration between people and Artificial Intelligence technology. (FinancesOnline)
14. According to Executives, the top benefits of digital transformation are the ability to meet customer expectations (35%), accelerated time to reach the market (36%), and Increased efficiency in operations (40%). (DZone)
15. The top implemented technologies are big data and analytics (58%), mobile technology (59%), APIs, and Embedded technology (35%). (Thales Group)
16. 25% of management believe digitalization efforts will reflect internally and create better employee experiences. (SparkWork)
17. 40% of all investments spent on technology are going towards Digital Transformation. (FinancesOnline)
18. 9% of companies planning to cut investments because of the pandemic (52%) plan to make those cuts in digital transformation. (PwC)
19. 56% of businesses evaluate the impact of their digitalization efforts concerning their customer experience. (SparkWork)
20. Less than 30% of technology providers actively help in organizational initiatives for digitization. (FinancesOnline)

Intalio Digital Transformation Statistics 2020

These numbers go to show several different things or trends to expect for the new upcoming year. They show that the world is opting for remote work. Most companies are now involved in digital transformation, either with or without a strategy, with management leading these initiatives. We can also see how much collaboration occurs and the focus on the synergy between different departments, employees, and the technology itself, to redefine customer experiences and brand loyalty. Even employees are now aware of the importance of developing their digital skills and positively affecting their experience at work. And finally, management recognizes the importance of investing in digital solutions as it opens new doors for innovation, increases efficiency, and helps meet customer expectations.

Meaning that in 2021, if a corporation wants to stay in the game, it needs to have a robust digital transformation strategy to retain its customers and even attract new strong talent. It even needs to partner with digital solutions providers to help guide it through its transformation and help its employees get up to speed.

The post The 20 Digital Transformation Stats of 2020 appeared first on intalio.

Kids around the world wrote letters, hoping Santa would visit this year.

But there weren’t enough mailmen due to COVID, oh dear!

So, the children sent emails instead; Santa laughed, and they cheered…

How the times have changed. Even Santa had to digitally transform. It’s hard to imagine the large amount of mail Santa’s Factory would receive each year. But perhaps the North Pole’s digital transformation came as a blessing, saving elf-power and reducing the margin of error.

But this wasn’t only the case in the North pole, as there is no doubt that this year has been incredibly challenging around the globe. Change came without warning, forcing all of us to rethink our ways and adapt.

A New Dawn

Companies who spent efforts strategizing on how to smoothly integrate technology and digitally transform were left with no choice but to jump into an overnight digital transformation and switch to remote work.

Companies could no longer wait for clients to get to them, they now had to go to where their clients are… safe at home. Companies had to become a reliable part of every family, but without intruding and without making a sound.

Businesses that had long-term plans to take their markets online were suddenly obliged to get on the world wide web without diving into their customers’ needs first. “Do first, think later, learn as you go”. They got online and lent an open ear trying to see how they can make their customers’ experiences even better.

Many started with temporary solutions that have now become long-term plans. Many allocated special budgets for digital solutions so they could secure their transactions and correspondences and ease workflows. Many focused on how to make their clients’ lives easier. Many succeeded.

And we were there to witness it…

Witnessing the Future

We witnessed companies stand up to the challenges and thrive.

We witnessed personnel trying to make the most out of the tools they were given.

We witnessed management transforming their markets and influencing their industries.

And we witnessed customers adapting and sharing their concerns with businesses who focused on catering to their needs.

We witnessed, because we were there, next to our partners, next to their customers, every step of the way; innovating solutions to make every corporate process easier, smoother, and more effective.

The entire corporate world has changed, and change seems to be the new norm. Yet here we are, learning how to adapt, using resources, investing in digital solutions, and becoming pioneers of this new era: the post-COVID era.

But don’t get discouraged, the pandemic will disappear,

but your efforts will not, and we’ll still be here,

Curses will turn into blessings and better days are coming,

From our Intalio Family to yours… Happy Holidays…and Happy new year.

The post A 2020 Tale appeared first on intalio.

It is not unusual to find a general expectation among corporations to see results as soon as they migrate towards digital solutions when the truth couldn’t be far from it; digital solutions cannot work as a stand-alone product, but rather need a top-down synergetic digital strategy.

In a nutshell, Digital Solutions don’t always fix the problem.

We have previously seen how cybersecurity can affect digital transformation, and we now understand how digital solutions, backed with a company-wide strategy, can protect a corporation and save it millions of dollars. However, let us imagine the case of a hypothetical company and imagine that this company wants to digitally transform. They purchase a cutting-edge solution and implement it across the company, and then wait for a sign. The solution does not generate the expected results. The solution gets dropped or no longer gets supported. This scenario occurs more often than one might think since 73% of companies failed to receive value from their digital transformation efforts. This could be due to numerous reasons that were left in hindsight by management or implementation teams.

Here are the main reasons digital solutions don’t end up solving the problem

Top-down Contagion & Lack of Commitment

Sometimes the problem starts from the top-down. Often, we find that the problem resides in the lack of management belief in the transformation that the company is about to undergo or a disagreement or lack of alignment concerning budgeting and prioritization among board members. And a lack of management commitment most definitely means a lack of commitment on the part of the employees. For solutions to help corporations, they need the commitment of the entire enterprise, top-down. Employees at every level need to understand that the effect of the solution goes as far as their effort to commit to it. If employees feel a lack of commitment on behalf of management, they are more likely to stick to their traditional ways and hinder the transformation process.

Need for Speed, Undefined Strategies

Often the problem isn’t a lack of commitment but rather a lack of strategy and vision. More often than not, we can find companies free-falling into digital transformation rather than taking baby-steps into the process. Pressured by the speed of things and how customer expectations are changing especially post-pandemic, companies are reimagining customer journeys more than ever, reducing friction, and accelerating the shift to digital channels with a dependency on data. The more significant the investment, the faster investors want to see results, which is a recipe for failure as receiving the ROI of digital transformation is a long and steady process. The key to a healthy transformation resides in setting small, reachable goals on the way to realizing the grand scheme.

Expert Tech, Loose Expertise

Knowing the urgency of investing in the right assets and expertise to find results, companies throw all their investments on digital solutions and forget to invest in its most crucial component: the people operating these solutions. Transformation doesn’t start and end with the technology and solutions; it’s the people factor determining the success factor. As corporations invest in solutions, they need to equally invest in the education, training, acquisition, and retention of the employees running the solutions, implementing it across departments, services, and functionalities.

Silos and Culture-shock

Perhaps the biggest enemy of a company’s digital transformation process is its silos. The silos of a company are the departments or employees who isolate themselves from the company’s culture and direction. Some silos in a company are already established; however, as a company introduces new technologies and upgraded strategies, it needs to provide a smooth process for all employees to accommodate the shift. Suppose the importance of this step was neglected by the company’s management as part of the process. In that case, it may create a culture-shock, risking to turn dynamic entities into uncomfortable silos, focusing on delivering expected outcomes and the fear of navigating through the challenges of this new digital strategy overruling the company’s culture. Even if companies want to accelerate the competitive space’s pace, they should never go faster than their core without guaranteeing that their real assets, their employees, are onboard.

Customer Experience, Who?

Another mistake that stands in the way of solutions fixing the problem is the lack of focus on the customer experience and needs. Corporations forget that the transformation’s main drive is the customer experience. The transformation pace should also be dictated according to the clients’ needs and their comfort-for-change level at every step. If the transformation happens too fast and out of the blues, corporations risk losing customers who will turn and search for something that resembles them and their comfort zones better.

Compromising on Quality

“Something’s got to give,” and unfortunately for some corporations, that’s the quality of their services for the sake of transformation to get with the times. Compromising on standards and quality affects the overall ROI of the corporation and risks losing clientele and consumer loyalty. In this case, it is not a reason that hinders the effect of digital transformation solutions. Instead, it is caused by mismanagement that creates more significant problems than the ones this transformation was trying to fix.

Half-way and Back

Every runner knows that it’s the second half of the track that counts in a sprint race. All these reasons mentioned before may cause management to give up mid-way and ask for a U-turn to how things were, leaving all the company’s milestones reduced to a null value. When corporations face issues or the process of digitalization feels too long, they need to re-evaluate their strategies and create smaller milestones to accomplish and reach to evaluate the success or failure of their transformations.

Automation Autonomy

Another crime against the transformation strategy is the corporations’ perception of their ability to transform their own or completely automate their processes from the first steps. A company that is maintaining a competitive edge while working on a digital transformation strategy internally on its own is challenging, as designated employees who will lead this transformation will be learning-as-they-go while technologies are changing and accelerating faster than ever. The partner a company will choose to onboard on such a journey will be the “make or break” point of such an investment.

Successful solutions depend on successful partnerships.

As we’ve seen, sometimes it’s not the wrong product that fails digital solutions, but rather the application behind it. And while this entire process may seem overwhelming to companies, key partnerships can reduce the stress behind transformations and guarantee success. Professional digital solutions providers, such as Intalio, bring a range of services that ease a pre-and post-sale transformation process. They accompany corporations across their digital journey. From solutions consultancy and Digital transformation strategy implementation to post-sales services that include professional training and ongoing solution maintenance to help employees and departments getting on board with the new systems until the transformation eases itself to become a part of the overall corporate culture.

If you are curious to learn more about the unique services Intalio teams can offer or know you are in dire need of help to transform and don’t know where to start, make sure to contact us or check out our wide range of digital transformation solutions.

The post Digital Transformation Strategy: What Can Go Wrong? appeared first on intalio.