Digital transformation began with the computerization of processes in the early 1990s. Today it is a full-scale strategy as every industry and product now use digital technologies to provide better outcomes and experiences regarding:
- Products and services
- Customers and customer satisfaction
- Operations and operating expenses
- Employee performance
“Digital spillover” is the total impact of digital technologies rather than just the amount of technological manufacturing. A 2017 report by Huawei Telecommunications and Oxford Economics reported that the digital economy, including digital spillover, was 15.5% and $11.5T of the global economy. From 2002 to 2016, the digital economy had grown 2.5 times faster than the global GDP.
Today, projections of digital transformation’s future are often qualified as being conservative. The COVID-19 experience has given ample reason for underestimations. The rush to stay-at-home, work-from-home drove upsurge in usage of digital hardware, services, storage, communications, analytics, decision-making and more. While the Huawei reported growth to 24.3% of the global economy by 2025, KPMG earlier this year commented that the rate of digital expansion can now be spoken of in months rather than years.
For the 3 decades that digital transformation has had an identity, its accompanying disruptions have become familiar if not common knowledge. These disruptions occur in technology, data, security, analytics, storage, integration, collaboration, competition, workplace and workforce. Rather than separate disruptions in each of those areas and more, the disruptions are now taking on an integrated, sweeping effect.