Digital Transaction Management has started emerging as a key solution for businesses wanting to stay in the game. We have touched on this topic before in our previous blogs, and the Forrester report highlights the importance of digital transformation in today’s business.
Forrester conducted an online survey taken by 400 people, and 5 qualitative interviews of IT and Line of Business decision makers from North America, Europe and APAC and found that:
- Decision-makers understand the importance of digital technologies and what DTM means
- The need for DTM is evident.
- Lines of business are losing significant revenue due to poor transaction management.
- Operational processes are the DTM sweet spot.
Digital Technologies Transform the Game of Business
Digital technology has fundamentally changed two things: the dynamics of the markets in which you operate and the speed needed to remain competitive.
Forrester projects that by 2017, 74% of the US adult online population will own smartphones, and 46% will own tablets – meaning that your clients are now digital. This means that the way they interact and engage with your products has completely changed, so your business model needs to change, as well.
Enterprises are now trying to connect with their clients digitally and they recognize that digital technologies create opportunities to add new services to physical products.
Digital Transaction Management Offers New Benefits to Businesses
“A new category of cloud services designed to digitally manage document-based transactions. DTM removes the friction inherent in transactions that involve people, documents, and data to create faster, easier, more convenient and secure processes.”
Business leaders are starting to recognise the difference between traditional automation and Digital Transaction Management – the key difference being that DTM is customer facing. One study found the following:
- Decision-makers acknowledge the need for a DTM solution.
- IT decision-makers perceive a higher level of digital adoption than do LOB decision-makers.
So What’s The Big Deal With Digital?
“By taking on DTM, we were able to increase the volume of processing without adding heads. So there’s the DTM value: cost, productivity, and cycle time.”
— Senior director at a US-based computer software, hardware, and consumer electronics organization
Digitization drives efficiency
It eliminates costs, allows for faster changes, and improves your customer experience. Human error has been marked as the top issue clients encountered with their analogue processes, and paper-based document management and lack of security play a large role in customer dissatisfaction.
Poor transaction management contributes directly to revenue loss
Ninety-eight percent of companies reported some revenue impact of poor transaction management. Revenue hits come in the form of lost deals, prospects that abandon on-boarding processes, disjointed experiences that create poor customer satisfaction, and lost business due to the lack of self-service and direct-to-consumer digital platforms.
Costs and lack of skills are primary barriers to digitization
Security, compliance and privacy were ranked by a large majority of the respondents as the leading concerns regarding DTM. But when our respondents were asked about the roadblocks to enabling digital transactions, they said that the real barriers going forward are cost concerns and a lack of digital skill sets.
What Can Your Business Digitize?
“Primary drivers are governance and security, and also safeguarding the revenue of the business.”
— Managing director at a recruitment firm
Sales, HR, finance, order processing, legal, procurement, and field service are all great focal spots for expanding your company’s use of DTM. Note the following considerations when starting an approach to digitization:
- Efficiency, security, and customer experience drive digital transformation.
- Decision-makers are most interested in digitizing operational processes.
- The need for DTM extends across functional roles.
- Almost all roles and departments have room for further digitization.
- DTM benefits consumers.
Key Recommendations
- Act in 2015 to avoid falling behind more digitally savvy competitors.
- Define clear sponsorship and functional leadership of digital transformation.
- Build an iterative road map that moves you toward digital mastery.
- Stay in step with emerging digital trends.
- Plug the skills gap.
Realyst’s Thoughts
Realyst has long been in the industry of digitizing processes. We recognised the need for this when we started our Contract Management software back in 2002. Digital Transaction Management is without a doubt the future of the successful organisations. Organizations that embrace the digital future can speed up their contracting process, lower operating costs, reduce errors, and provide a superior customer experience.
Contact us today to find out how we can help you manage your digital information and take your company to the next digital level!
Resources
March 2015 Forrester Report – Digital Transforms the Game of Business – Digital Transaction Management Emerging As Key Solution