Anyone in a corporate environment has heard of the famous jargon of digital transformation. To understand the complexity of this transformation, it is necessary to clarify its definition, the impact it has on civil society, the myths that surround it, the challenges it poses and the trends that emerge day after day.

To fully define the digital transformation, it is necessary to go back in time a little and put into context that companies founded before the internet suffer from processes grown obsolete today and therefore need major changes to their business models. However, these more mature organizations can evolve towards a more digital register. Digital transformation is essentially a process whereby organizations use technology to improve performance, processes, and results, investing in a radical change to their structure in which technology plays a central role. The challenge lies in the management of human and financial resources that can result from a process of this scale.

These changes not only affect organizations, but civil society as a whole. This impact is synonymous with opportunities for institutions that can now operate in a global market. By optimizing processes, employees can be more autonomous, gain greater relevance within their institution and contribute to sustained personal and corporate growth. The volume of transactions, the speed of information and the transition from a once analog process to a digital one are the pillars that underpin digital transformation. It’s important to note that there are many challenges! An organization that is unprepared for this evolution and that embraces it without recognizing the consequences that can arise from this transformation runs serious organizational risks.

Due to the general ignorance of the population, myths are being created that circumscribe digital transformation. In order to clarify the most persistent ones, we have listed the most relevant ones: digital transformation is not just for technology organizations, any organization can benefit from this new approach; it’s not all about the consumer experience, it’s important to take users’ demands into account, but always bear in mind that the process has to be integrated throughout the organization; it’s often said that you can start with a smaller project and over time make it bigger, however, a paradigm shift as profound as this has to have the commitment of all the parties involved (go big or go home); it’s not the information systems department that’s going to carry out the process, you have to keep in mind that it’s the entire structure of the organization, its directors and its operatives that have this ownership; you can’t wait for a more propitious phase because we determine the moment and not the market (although there are various nuances that we don’t control and that we have to take into account) and finally, don’t confuse a digital transformation process with small glimpses of initiatives that come from digital strategies – campaigns, for example.

The very challenges that the process encounters can be divided into several domains: in the customer domain we have segmentation and quantitative analysis of the initiatives; in the experience domain we have the user experience; in the innovation domain we have two distinct levels, the first being disruption in relation to what is already being done in the market, and a second the evaluation of what current competitors are already doing and the last domain concerns the value proposition itself that we are committed to delivering.

It can be said that the digital transformation comes from the fourth era of the industrial revolution, which according to the World Economic Forum, an international organization founded in 1971 and committed to improving the world, is: “a fusion of our physical, digital and biological worlds”. It is therefore not surprising that new trends are proliferating around this transformation. It is essential that organizations put new forms of business into their DNA. These trends include Big Data, the

Internet of Things, augmented and virtual reality, machine learning, artificial intelligence and marketing automation. This article is about digital transformation, so a detailed description of each of these trends will be left for another article.

All these new predispositions can lead to disruptive practices that boost each organization’s brand awareness. It’s important to reflect on the receptiveness of each brand and whether or not it makes sense to use these trends, whether it fits in with the strategy and whether there are sufficient resources, both internal and external, to couple them.

What can be concluded from the digital transformation is that it will not slow down and its rate of growth will continue to increase, changing the corporate dimension forever. It’s important to focus on leadership, change and resilience, as it’s an ongoing journey, which, like all others, is made by walking!