Digitalization in organizations

Digitalization in organizations

The digitalization of the economy and society challenges organisations, in ever shorter intervals, to avoid technological lag in order to capture the opportunities presented by this phenomenon to improve efficiency and generate value. The growing access to digital technologies and the sustained implementation of global digital infrastructure and services are shaping an attractive market that requires companies and organisations to position themselves in a new environment, focused on the customer or user.

Concepts such as "digitization" and "digital transformation" resonate frequently in almost all areas, progressively installing a narrative that suggests that both are fundamental to ensure the growth of organisational productivity, making their implementation an urgent mandate.

But first it is necessary to ask, what do we mean by digitalization and digital transformation? In order to better understand both phenomena, it is necessary to introduce another concept that is frequently found in the English-language literature: digitization.

This term has no translation in English and refers to the digital conversion of physical or analogue information; for example, converting a paper learning material to PDF or a cassette recording to mp3. Another possible case would be the transfer of learners' enrolment forms into a database. This term (digitization) is called in English "digitization of information".

Once the information has been digitised, it is possible to move on to the digitization of processes, known in English as Digitalization. This second concept refers to the incorporation of digital tools to manage information with the aim of improving work processes; having an impact on how they are carried out, on the actions of the people involved and on the interactions between organisations and clients or users. For example, in the case of student records, if the information is recorded electronically and made available to teachers and units such as finance or planning, then the process of creating the records, consulting them and sharing them has been digitised, hence we call it "process digitization".

Finally, we consider the "digital transformation" stage as a mature digitization phase resulting from many digitization projects of information and process digitization. Here, work processes are redefined, profoundly challenging the organisational culture, the know-how of its teams and the construction of value.

In fact, the key point of digital transformation is not the technology itself, but how it enables the implementation of leaner and more flexible processes in the face of changes in the environment. Fundamental to digital transformation will be for organisations to succeed in changing their culture and ways of working in order to leverage technologies to adapt to the digital economy. For example, educational institutions that already had experience in online distance learning (they had partially digitised information and processes) were able to adapt more quickly to the COVID-19 crisis than those that had not made progress in this area.

Transformations to achieve and maintain a digitally mature organisation include systemic changes in the culture of the organisation, developing digital competences in the workforce, recruiting new talent and piloting projects to test these changes. It also requires considering and planning medium and long-term time horizons to implement them.

From a vocational training perspective, the digitization of the economy presents a double challenge. On the one hand, the ability to respond to the demand for skills that the digital economy presents, and on the other hand, the challenge of the digital transformation itself. It is therefore central that the management levels of the organisation develop a thorough understanding of the opportunities, challenges and key elements to address this dual response.

In relation to the key points, specific digital competencies will be needed for both employees and staff of the institution. But the expected systemic changes in enterprises and training institutions require fundamental transversal competences such as: collaboration, communication, problem solving, creativity and critical analysis, indispensable competences for the digital economy.

Although the debate is still open, such a distinction is important: transversal competences for the digital economy should not be confused with specific digital competences, as the latter revolve around the ability to operate and produce with digital tools; but on their own, they do not enable workers to navigate the changes occurring in the economy and society.

Graphic: Defining Digital Transformation | EDUCAUSE

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