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From letters to fax machines and social media, communication channels are continually advancing.

It’s been a huge journey for communication channels over the years – from letters, fax machines, to radio, email, SMS and instant messaging through social media platforms – the world’s preferred way to communicate has changed drastically from the 80s to the 21st century due to the continuous advancements of technology and innovations in the communications industry.  

Although this has had a huge impact on consumer behavior and preferred communications methods between friends and family, businesses have been majorly affected with the requirement to ‘keep up with the times’ in order to meet consumer demands around customer experiences and expectations when interacting with a business.

COVID-19 and the acceleration of a digital-first strategy

We’ve seen COVID-19 accelerate the need for a digital-first adoption for millions of businesses around the world. Not only are we dealing with remote working environments (that brings with it an entirely new set of data security challenges, which is another topic in itself), businesses are being forced to adopt new technologies in order to continue operating at a level expected by not just employees, but also customers.

I read an article recently about how the fax machine in particular is hampering the fight against COVID-19, and how it caused major problems in the healthcare sector due to the legacy technology being unable to handle the capacity of data being transmitted.

Although many businesses are keen to invest in digital technology, some are still stuck in the past, continuing to use obsolete systems and software that are manual, cause unnecessary security risks and, frankly, can’t ever really advance in today’s world.  

In saying this, I believe that digital transformation is vital in business to meet, and exceed, consumer demands due to a few reasons: improved customer experiences, more efficient business processes and encouraging innovation and streamlining business operations. Let me explain.  

Improved customer experiences through streamlined communication workflows

My role here as CTO at GoLogic is primarily customer-focused, to ensure the customer experience with our products and services is seamless. As a business that is continuing to build and develop new and innovative products to empower other businesses to securely and confidently manage messaging and data exchange, we know exactly how important the implementation of new digital technologies is to improve the customer experience.  

As Amit Zavery, VP and Head of Platform at Google Cloud says, you need to “think of digital transformation less as a technology project to be finished than a state of perpetual agility, always ready to evolve for whatever customers want next, and you’ll be pointed down the right path.”

In today’s technological world, our customers are expecting more and more from the businesses they transact with every day. They want an easy, consistent process – whether that’s to visit a medical practice for a health checkup or speak with a real estate agency to purchase a house – the communication workflows between both the client and the business need to be efficient, or else you risk losing the customer to completely.

Let me give you an example. A patient books a telehealth appointment for a health concern. They require a blood test. The customer experience begins as soon as they book their appointment. As a business, you need to think of:

• Ease of use: what communications channels are available for the patient to book an appointment?
• Security: how are you going to ensure that the patient’s data remains secure, and that your general practice remains compliant?
• Efficiency: how are you going to ensure the patient receives their test results in a timely manner?
• Patient follow-up: If the patient requires any further follow-up tests or bookings, what communications tools do you have available to ensure a smooth process?

This entire process, and how smooth is may be, is built around the type of technology a business uses. Still use a legacy fax machine? The patient may receive their test results in days, instead of hours. Still use email? The patient’s data may be compromised due to the security and compliance issues around sending protected health information via an insecure channel.

So how do we avoid inefficient processes, ensure that the patient‘s data remains secure and create the experience our customers expect with our business? Through digital transformation and innovative communications technologies.  

Innovative communications channels paving the way to digital transformation in business

There are so many new and innovative tools on the market today to help businesses grow and make the move towards a digital-first strategy. Thousands of organisations around the world are looking at the challenges they’re facing and are developing solutions to improve their business workflows and make business as simple as possible through cloud products, AI and blockchain technologies.  

Communications, in particular, is a field that is vital to the success of a business. At GoLogic we’ve moved thousands of businesses away from legacy fax machines to the cloud with GoFax, we’re working on helping businesses transition to more secure and interoperable technologies through Notifyre and are currently developing blockchain-based messaging tools to provide everyone with a way to transact data securely and freely, on whatever messaging channel they want.

If you’re not implementing a digital strategy in your business (or at least looking to invest in doing so in the near future), then it’s time to take a step back and ask yourself why. Is it because of:

• The cost of technology?
• Disruptions you may face to existing processes?
• Staff training on how to use the new technology?
• The fear of letting go of the old and hanging onto existing processes that ‘work’?

Although these are understandable reasons as to why you may not want to embrace digital transformation in your business, our suite of secure and reliable cloud communications products and solutions makes adopting new technologies easy and gives your business the technology it needs to scale in the 21st century. There is absolutely no reason not to retire your costly, unreliable and error prone legacy messaging systems and move to more streamlined, secure and compliant solutions.  

Now that you’ve read this far, it’s time to take action. I suggest to:

1. Start writing a list of the inefficiencies you’re currently facing in your business

2. Write down the types of solutions you’re looking for: are you looking to tighten security? Need a solution to automate your business processes? No matter what it is, write it down. These are your goals.

3. Research digital technologies that can help you achieve these goals to bring your business into the 21st century.  

On that note, I’ll leave you with a quote from Charles Darwin, that although is centuries old, pertains to digital transformation in an astounding way: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”  

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