Digitalisation: 10 Amazing Tools To Help Support Your Business’s Digital Transformation

Insights / Business

With the constant rise of new technologies every day, it’s easy to get lost in this vast ocean of innovation. This then begs the question - What tools should my business be using for its digital transformation?

1. Communication

One of the most important business processes is to establish a centralized platform for all employees to easily and quickly communicate with each other. This not only ensures each individual and department is able to function smoothly and effectively during normal times but also prevents confusion and disorder in crises and emergencies. ‍

In this situation, having a digital tool dedicated to private messaging and team chats can help solve such issues, such as Chanty.

Some features included are: 

  • Individual / Group Messaging (Includes file sharing & emoji support) 
  • Private & Public Channels 
  • Audio & Video Chats (Includes Screen Sharing)  
  • History Search for Messages 
  • Several Security Features (E2E encryption, custom user permission and more)
  • Open-Source (Perfect for internal IT teams to integrate custom features based on your needs)   

 

Other Alternatives:

2. Cloud Storage

Next, businesses need to have an infrastructure for storing vast amounts of files while easily accessing them at a moment’s notice regardless of their location. This means utilizing cloud storage, in which teams can easily upload or retrieve said files whenever necessary to continue business operations without relying on servers located in physical offices. One common example is Google Drive as most have gotten used to the application in their everyday lives, which creates a reluctance to move away and try other alternatives. 

However, another solution is Box:

Some of their features include:

  • Seamless File Access Across Multiple Devices (web, desktop or mobile) 
  • Built-in Security Features (i.e. automated threat and malware detection) 
  • Process & Workflow Automation (i.e. contracts auto-routed for review) 
  • 3rd Party App Integrations (i.e. Office 365)  
  • IT Administration & Controls (i.e. custom permissions)   

Other Alternatives: 

3. Project Management

Another important part of a business’s digitalisation or digital transformation journey involves creating a ‘digital workspace’, which helps employees manage their tasks and stay on track with project timelines regardless of their work arrangements. 

 

The most common features offered within these tools are: 

  • Planning - Easily plan, assign and delegate tasks to individuals or teams. 
  • Time Management - Tracking completion time and scheduling deadlines that are either one-off or recurring.
  • Communication & Collaboration - Messaging, task approvals and file-sharing between all individuals and teams.
  • Documentation - File storing backed up with different versions of it and keeping records of all user actions (i.e. file access) and conversations.

One popular choice is Clickup

Other Alternatives: 

4. Collaboration

Also known as collaborative suites, in which a set of web tools are integrated together on one platform to provide a wide range of solutions such as messaging, video conferencing, file sharing, project management, employee on-boarding and more. Put simply, it’s several tools combined in one application to meet various business needs, which eliminates the need to use multiple software at one time to carry out various tasks by relying on a single tool to get everything done instead.

One example is Google Workspace

 

It provides teams with various features such as:

  • Instant messaging (individual, group, private & public channels) 
  • Audio and Video Call 
  • Project management (i.e. assigning tasks)  
  • 3rd Party App Integrations (i.e. Google Drive)

Other Alternatives:

5. Customer Service

While client acquisition and retention are often associated with sales & marketing, customer service teams play a crucial role in ensuring businesses are able to meet such objectives. This is done so by utilizing customer relationship management (CRM) strategies, which combine data collected from sales, marketing and customer service to skyrocket profits, decrease cost and build long-lasting customer loyalty. 

One of the solutions preferred by most is JivoChat:

 

Some of its features also include: 

  • Chatbots, Auto-complete & Language Translation
  • Call Recording & Routing
  • Visitor Analytics 
  • Client Record Storage   
  • Chat Carry-overs (i.e. Continue previous WhatsApp chats in Facebook messenger)
  • 3rd Party App Integrations (i.e. Gmail, Wix & Shopify) 

Other Alternatives: 

6. Human Resources (HR)

To create a pleasant employee experience, HR teams will require tools that assist them with certain processes such as recruitment, onboarding, payroll and other relevant tasks.

One example is Collage:

Some features include:    

  • Automated Job Postings & Candidate Management 
  • Automated Leave Approval & Management 
  • Digital Onboarding (i.e. getting required documents entirely online) 
  • Employee Record Integrations (i.e. Storing & updating data from anywhere)

Other Alternatives: 

7. Finance

Managing the financial health of a business is no easy task, which means individuals and teams in this department require software that helps them with tasks related to accounting, budgeting and forecasting to name a few.  

A suitable tool to consider would be Quickbooks:

Some features include: 

  • Financial Reporting (i.e. Profit/Loss Statement & Balance Sheet)   
  • Sales Forecasting & Projections
  • Billing & Invoicing
  • Bookkeeping & Inventory Management

Other Alternatives: 

8. Information Technology (IT)

With the world becoming increasingly reliant on technology, the role of IT will grow to be evermore important as they require innovative tools to manage various hardware and software within a business while ensuring proper governance, infrastructure and functionality. 

One solution would be Solarwinds:

Some features include:    

  • Network & Systems Management
  • Application & Database Management
  • Security & Service Management
  • IT Automation Software
  • Integrations with Various Licensed Managed Service Providers  

Other Alternatives: 

9. Sales

In a ‘digital-first’ world, it’s common for sales teams to deal with large amounts of customer datasets as they have to track the ‘closing’ progress of each business deal while servicing existing customers on their purchased products and services. Thus, it becomes impossible for any individual to carry out prospect outreach, lead selection, deal-closing and other sales-related tasks all at the same time.   

A tool with the potential to meet such needs is Pipedrive:

Some other features include: 

  • Lead Generation, Nurturing & Management
  • Sales Report Forecasting
  • Customer Analytics & Engagement Functionalities
  • 3rd Party App Integrations (i.e. Website Analytics)

Other Alternatives: 

10. Marketing

While sales heavily focus their attention on closing customers, marketing is tasked with acquiring prospects or potential clients in order to boost the overall revenue of a company. Thus, they require tools such as content creation and lead generation (often associated with digital marketing) to assist with customer acquisition and if possible, client retention.

To meet such needs in a digital-first globe, Marketers will require several tools to help with: 

a) Email Marketing - To track interests from leads and prospects through your email channels.

Considerations: MailChimp, Omnisend & Sender 

 

b) Social Media Marketing - Similarly to email marketing, but tracking the interests in various social media platforms instead. 

Considerations: Buffer, Later & Loomly

 

c) Search Engine Marketing - To track the performance of your ads in search engines (and sometimes social media as well)

Consideration: Google Ads & Facebook Ads 

 

d) Search Engine Optimization - To monitor your website’s traffic and the behavior of your users when they’re within your site. 

Consideration: Google Analytics

To summarize, these 10 tools can act as a good starting point for most companies when thinking about which applications and software to adopt within their digital transformation journey. While each of them is innovative in its own respect, it’s important to bear in mind that the technology used should not be the ‘end-all, be-all’ solution to solving the various challenges businesses face today. Instead, real change begins with a deep understanding of one’s business needs and how technology can be integrated into one's overall digital transformation efforts to support the company in both the ‘now’ and its future’. 

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