The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 41: Feb/March 2019 | Page 23

TECHNOLOGY REVVED UP DIGITALLY ENABLING YOUR BUSINESS For more than 10 years, OJO Solutions has been creating, designing and developing digital solutions that enable businesses to improve their operations for customers and stakeholders alike. Small and medium-sized enterprises are often led to believe that innovation is inaccessible to them and tend to keep digital development at arm’s length. We caught up with Nathan Baranowski, Managing Director at OJO Solutions, to discuss what steps can be taken to ensure your business stays at the top of its game. Why is digital such an important consideration for SMEs? Everything is online these days and the need to digitally enable your business is key to operating in the modern world. Smaller organisations can often find themselves in direct competition with large, multi- national firms, and falling behind with your technological approach adds another unnecessary hurdle. Digital transformation provides a great opportunity to engage with and reach out to customers and markets in ways that only large corporations have been able to previously. For SMEs, digital offers the added benefit of amplifying their agility, giving them access to enterprise technologies at affordable prices. Making sure you have a structured and well-thought-out digital strategy, that supports and enables your goals is key to enabling your business success. If an SME is looking to make the initial steps towards digital implementation, what should they do? It’s important not to get lost in the overwhelming choice of technology that is available. All technology exists for a purpose and it is important to ensure that it matches your needs. A website, for example, doesn’t exist just to be a website, it’s an online advert that enables your business to reach and sell to a wider audience. The first step in any digital transformation is simply to understand and define what your business challenges or goals are – too often technology is used without understanding why. What’s the purpose? Once you have defined your challenges and goals, you can then explore how technology might help you. This is not about identifying specific technologies; rather discover how technology might help you solve your challenges and meet your business goals. What do SMEs need to consider when developing a digital strategy? Digital offers a different way to engage with customers, employees and stakeholders. The opportunity that digital transformation presents enables your business to change and continually evolve. Digital transformation is not just about the technology. The technology is an enabler to wider changes and any transformation will impact on. This includes evolving your culture, your people’s skills, their roles and of course your processes. It is vital to the success of your digital strategy that all these elements are being considered. Whether you are just setting out on your digital journey or aiming to leverage Nathan Baranowski the latest innovations, it is important to understand how digitally mature your business is and to ensure your strategy reflects the capability of it, as well as your customers’ needs. The starting point for your strategy to succeed is everyone who is impacted by the business needs to believe in it. Setting the right pace and delivering where the most impact will be first through a well thought out and planned strategy is key to building success. Transforming is a continual process and becoming a digital organisation is a way of operating, a culture that matures with understanding, rather than a destination to reach. @ojosolutions For more info: www.ojosolutions.com Transforming organisations through technology We work with you to create, design and develop digital solutions that enable you to improve the way your business operates, as well as adding value to your customer experience. From beautifully designed and functionally rich websites and apps to technology strategies that automate and streamline your business, get in touch to find out how we can digitally enable your organisation. 01225 220 155 CONSULTANCY [email protected] DESIGN DEVELOPMENT ojosolutions.com THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2019 23