It is basically the process of moving to a digital business. The increasing convergence of the physical and virtual worlds offers boundless digitalization opportunities in almost all areas of society. This convergence implies the need for enterprises to identify new business models and adapt processes in response to a world that increasingly does business digital and online.
Gartner also calls the digitalization of businesses a “third era of enterprise IT”. Traditionally IT strived to standardize processes and deliver services efficiently. Currently we progress toward a world in which IT innovation, business model transformation and IT leadership increases not only the productivity but also the competitiveness of enterprises. For a successful digitalization an enterprise IT requires software, communication and security solutions for end-to-end processes throughout the organization. Corporate messaging is a core component of the digitalization of businesses:
Mobile Office
In the digital age a large part of the workforce uses smartphones and tablets. Mobility is a very important driver of the digitalization of the enterprise in order to increase productivity on mobile devices and to connect the entire workforce. Businesses often define a “mobile office” for smartphones and tablets. The “mobile office” generally includes email, PIM, document editing, file sharing and mobile enterprise messaging. A corporate messaging app is very important to improve the internal team communication of an increasingly mobile workforce. Many employees are nowadays on the road, traveling, in production facilities, in meetings or even in the home office. A corporate messaging app instantly connects mobile, tablet and desktop workers, wherever they are and whatever they do.
WhatsApp alternative for Business
Currently there is a transition away from email towards messaging apps for the internal communication of businesses. Corporate messaging is faster, easier, less formal and more efficient than email. This trend is accelerated by the use of WhatsApp and other consumer messaging apps as part of a shadow IT in the enterprise. The use of WhatsApp and similar consumer messaging apps in the enterprise has various disadvantages and can cause substantial damages. Businesses require a professional corporate messaging app like Teamwire to ensure optimal productivity, communication, security and compliance. The communication and productivity benefits of a dedicated “WhatsApp for business” are huge, and in addition some businesses manage to reduce internal email overload by 70-80% by using a corporate messaging app.
Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 is a German digitalization term for the fourth industrial revolution. Basically Industry 4.0 drives the vision and execution of a “Smart Factory” and refers to a complete digital representation of the entire value chain of a business. Industry 4.0 is the key to increased productivity, efficiency and flexibility. Two fundamental design principles of Industry 4.0 are the interoperability and information transparency. Enterprise messaging can enable, advance and support these digitalization principles: On the on hand enterprise messaging can connect and update employees in real-time, in order to quickly solve issues, make prompt decisions and instantly align production teams and the whole organization. On the other hand enterprise messaging apps can connect to and communicate with other systems, machines, services and tools, which are part of the digitalization efforts. A corporate messaging messaging app can receive real-time alerts and reports from these 3rd parties for employees and teams, and thereby automize and accelerate processes and workflows, and ensure timely and up-to-date information exchange.
Connected IT Ecosystem
Integrated solutions can improve productivity along the entire value chain. The digitalization of the factory goes hand in hand with new powerful communications infrastructures, which are able to exchange information not only hierarchical, but also directly via networked, distributed systems. Businesses are in need of a corporate messaging app that enables efficient and effective collaboration and information sharing across systems, machines, services and people within the organization. corporate messaging app can be connected to the entire IT ecosystem of a business and become the central information hub across systems, machines, services and tools. Thereby multiple components of the IT ecosystem and the value chain can communicate with each other and exchange real-time data, alerts and reports. It also helps employees and teams to automatically access, collect and distribute all relevant information across the value chain. Thus, an intelligently networked enterprise messaging app is a key aspect for every digitalization project.
Performance Improvements
For the digitalization it is critical for businesses to leverage advanced systems, innovative software and user know-how. On the one side enterprises need to reinvent business models for data-driven products and services. On the other side businesses need to develop a digital technology platform that can generate performance improvements and flexibility across the entire value chain. As noted above, a corporate messaging app can accelerate the information exchange, speed up processes, simplify workflows, improve coordination, automize updates, increase flexibility, engage employees and boost the team collaboration. These kind of changes to accelerated workflows, automized processes, improved communication and flexible collaboration are part of the transformation into a digital enterprise. It is precisely the result of this transformation of a business that can create a significant competitive advantage.
Cyber Security
Cyber security is an increasingly important topic for businesses and everybody involved in digitalization projects. Needless to say, the digitalization of processes and workflows as well as the disclosure of data to certain service providers entail many security questions and data protection concerns. Corporate messaging apps like Teamwire provide comprehensive cyber security mechanisms combining strong encryption during transit and at rest, physical security with private cloud and on-premise deployment options, advanced network and system security, as well as high data protection standards based on German laws. Corporate messaging can protect confidential business information, corporate data and intellectual property and ensure cyber security required in the digital age.
The digitalization is unstoppable. If you would like to find out, how the digitalization of your business can benefit from a corporate messaging app and what results Teamwire can achieve for your organization, please contact us.
