10 Trends that Will Cast Digital Transformation in 2022

Digital transformation improves business processes and continuity amidst disruptions. Learn how to be more customer-centric and resilient with these 2022 trends.

Digital transformation has been a buzzword in the IT industry and relevant sectors for years, but what does it mean?

A company’s digital transformation is the adoption of digital technology that increases the company’s efficiency of service or innovation.

While digital transformation is imperative for any company to succeed past its competitors, we are to see some new trends this 2022 past beyond the normal digital innovations that telemarketing outsourcing and SMS marketing have provided us.

Nowadays, outsourcing companies are expected to play a larger role in enterprise planning than ever before.

It’s easy to see why: enterprises embarking on a digital transformation journey thoroughly benefit from its implementation, citing increased efficiency, increased productivity, and lower operating costs, among other business goals.

The trends that are expected to emerge in 2022 do not necessitate a rethinking of enterprises’ strategies. Instead, these trends represent an understanding of the upcoming challenges and opportunities.

Most of them have long been on the horizon, but recent supply chain, security, and other business priorities have spurred significant growth that will shift digital transformation perspectives in the coming year.

Here are 10 recent trends that will shape the digital transformation in 2022:

1.  Hybrid workplace. The workplace has rapidly evolved, as have employee expectations and environmental conditions. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations had to provide alternative work functions that still provide the same level of service to their customers while keeping in mind the needs of their employees to drive productivity and retain talent.

2.  The rise of the composable business architecture. With the pressure to innovate faster, organizations will need to be more agile. This is where composable and event-driven architectures come in. This innovation gathers various API iterations from multiple vendors in a platform where companies can choose a specific application to help them build the very exact experience they want to offer their customers.

3. The critical role of the business technologist. With the digital imperative putting increasing pressure on organizations, business technologists will emerge as an essential partner in IT departments’ efforts to accelerate innovation.
   
4. Hyperautomation. Hyperautomation takes automation to greater heights, increasing employee productivity, reducing time to market, and enhancing customer experiences and overall business processes.
   
5. Security by default. Applications and automation systems are only as secure as the composable blocks on which they are built, so companies will need to implement security-by-default across the organization.
   
6. Analytics by automation. Much of the last decade’s innovation has been powered by analytics. It describes what occurred, explains why it occurred, and forecasts what will occur in the future. Using automation, companies can move beyond descriptive and predictive analytics to prescriptive guidance.
   
7. Business agility as a priority. Business agility—or the ability to adapt to new situations, environments, and new risks—ensures that companies have a dynamic infrastructure designed with a variety of routes to ensure business continuity in the event of any downtime of service due to ransomware attacks or data breaches, even if more and more data is transferred to cloud-based structures.
   
8. Low-code tools will become the norm. Low-code or no-code software adoption will also be seen in more enterprises. Many developers are not totally welcoming to the idea, fearing that if companies could operate solely on low-code software, their jobs would become unnecessary. Despite such concerns, this category of tools has proven to be beneficial to developers.

Because of low-code and no-code software, developers can focus on innovation and business growth rather than building tools that address common problems for day-to-day operations.

Low-code solutions also allow professionals in other parts of the organization to be part of the learning curve, empowering them to make better decisions.

9. Data analytics will resolve supply-chain crises. Another issue that most businesses have faced in the last couple of years is supply chain breakdowns. Significant supply chain challenges have sent organizations of all sizes and industries scrambling, whether it’s inventory shortages or shipping delays. Many experts believe that data analytics will be the answer.
   
   
10. Data-driven approach to customer service. Another aspect of digital transformation that has been accelerated by the pandemic is a data-driven brand of customer experience. When the virus broke out and shut down the world, many businesses looked for new ways to reach customers without risking exposure.
    
    During the pandemic, social media, e-commerce, and other digital marketing channels emerged as champions of staying connected. However, having these channels alone was insufficient. Consumers want the same personalized customer experiences, whether it’s face-to-face interactions or virtual connections—which big data analytics can address.

Wrapping Up

Many companies that are caught off guard by external and internal business disruptions are those that fail to innovate along with the changing times.

With all these trends knocking on the door of digital transformation in 2022, businesses should consider how these technological advancements can help them meet their broader goals.

When implemented strategically, digital transformation enables businesses to become more agile, productive, and profitable.