Go Digital or Go Home - 7 Successful Cases of Digital Transformation (DX)

Welcome to industry 5.0. If you’re already not making moves to go digital, you’ve fallen behind. In this new era, you have all the technology at your fingertips to create a smarter, streamlined, and evermore efficient business structure. Ideally, the customer is always the focal point of strategy-planning and guides the direction in which your business grows. By utilizing new digital capabilities, you can optimize the customer experience, whether that means using data to personalize communication, or integrating AI chatbots to provide support 24/7.

 

A 2018 study by IDG Communications found that 55% of startups have already formed a digital transformation strategy, whereas only 33% of traditional corporations did. Will your company be an early adopter or part of the late majority? Read on for a few case studies of companies that have taken risks to experience real success with DX, and get inspired to become a mover-and-shaker in your own organization!

 

 

 

 

 

1. 24 Hour Fitness’s Personal Trainer App

24 Hour Fitness is a gym franchise in the US with over 4 million members which also offers a personal trainer service. However, in reality only 3% of the total clientele were using this service, and a mere 17% were attending their studio classes, making it hard for the gym trainers to communicate with members, much less form actual relationships.

 

To solve this issue, 24 Hour Fitness developed an app called “24GO.” With the concept of a virtual personal trainer who fits in your pocket, this app creates customized workouts for you daily, helps you visualize your workout plan in a calendar, and lets you track your progress all in one place. They were even able to improve studio class participation by moving reservations to the app. Moreover, this new investment into a digital service for the sake of the customers’ convenience has improved their overall satisfaction and loyalty to the gym.

 

 

 

2. Smart Construction by Komatsu Ltd

Komatsu, a Japanese company that manufactures machinery for construction and mining, has been making big leaps in DX to realize their vision of “smart construction.” With the integration of IT tools, smart construction aims to tackle central issues in the construction industry, such as chronic labor shortages and the risk of injury while working at a job site.

 

Specifically, Komatsu has developed an original IoT (internet of things) platform, which allows for the seamless operation of unmanned machines and to survey the production between multiple factories. In addition, with the incorporation of drones, they have made it possible to survey land on a construction site in a single day, with improved accuracy, when it would have taken almost a week when done manually.

 

 

 

3. AB Inbev’s Stock Replenishment App “B2B”

The Belgian brewery Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev has created an app for distributors that sell their products, called B2B, that makes customized recommendations for stock refills and new products based on a built-in algorithm. They have even built a tech innovation lab, Beer Garage, to research how AI, machine learning, and IoT could be used to improve retail and customer experience. For example, they have introduced “connected breweries” which allow for the monitoring of quantity, quality, temperature, and other factors of production online.

 

 

 

4. The Augmented Store by Natuzzi

Natuzzi, an Italian furniture producer and retailer, has experimented with CX by launching an “augmented store” in New York City. This is a new kind of retail environment that combines virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), holographic displays, and 3D modelling. Natuzzi used Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 to allow customers to view miniature 3D versions of each furniture piece, and an immersive VR headset that lets you interact with all the furniture in the showroom, by changing their colors and finishes. What’s more, in the augmented store, customers can use these digital tools to plan custom projects, transform into an interior designer for a moment, and imagine a home that perfectly expresses them. While raising the bar and redefining the experience of shopping for furniture, Natuzzi’s augmented store went viral on social media and as an extra plus, received a ton of attention and exposure to new potential customers.

 

 

 

5. DBS Bank’s 100% Virtual Branch “Digibank”

The Singapore-based corporation DBS, the largest bank in Southeast Asia, has long been regarded as a frontrunner in the digitization of banking services. In an interview with DBS’s CFO Chng Sok Hui, he shared how the move towards a digital transformation began when the company realized they were more than a bank - they were a technology company. And they wanted to be valued as such by the market. So, they first launched Digibank in India, which is a net banking service, with zero physical branches. The mobile app for Digibank is optimized for a seamless user experience that uses intuitive AI and a “digibot” as customer service.

 

DBS also recognizes the importance of DX from the inside out. In other words, that DX is driven not by executives, but by each and every individual in your company, and has to come from a shared mindset and common goals. This is why they introduced “human-centered design thinking,” and held initiatives like one where every employee was challenged to create an app. DBS also threw out the linear, hierarchical decision making process - in which you have to get permission from the person above you, then their boss, and the next boss, etc. Instead, they replaced this with quick meetings in person, that involve all stakeholders, to efficiently exchange ideas and make decisions together. By making reforms that affect the very structure of the organization, they were able to make the process of adopting new practices and technology quicker and inclusive to employees of all statuses.

 

 

 

6. Indonesian Uber “GoJek” and its Super App

Gojek, Indonesia’s first unicorn company, created a ride-sharing service to connect commuters with motorbikes (called “Ojek”). Essentially, Gojek is a pimped out version of Uber - they turned their mobile app into a “Super App.” Modelling the Chinese platform WeChat, Gojeck was designed to serve as a single portal to a variety of services. To name a few, it includes GoFood for food delivery, GoSend for package delivery, GoBills for bill payments, and even GoMassage to order a massage on demand. Gojeck’s major competitor in ride-sharing, the Singaporean startup Grab, later adopted the same exact SuperApp method to provide the utmost convenience to their customers.

 

 

 

7. SK Telecom, LG, and Samsung’s Smart Houses

Three Korean tech giants, SK Telecom, LG, and Samsung have put their minds together to design smart home services. SK Telecom had actually already created a smart home platform, but through this partnership, Samsung and LG home products were able to be monitored and controlled from SK Telecom’s smart home app. This means consumer electronics such as refrigerators, washing machines, ovens, vacuum cleaners, and more will be partially “remote-controlled.” This is a truly user-centric initiative, as it prioritizes the consumer’s experience, ease of use, and overall convenience.