Covid-19 has accelerated the pace of digital transformation, including a rapid migration to the cloud, more robust internet/intranet infrastructures, and the ability to support employees working from home.

A McKinsey survey found that the Covid-19 pandemic significantly accelerated the pace of adoption of digital transformation technologies, as well as speeding up other business changes. Organizations started out making crisis-related changes during Covid-19, but also seeked to make long-term changes that would help grow and develop their businesses and continue to incorporate digital technologies.

In this white paper, we share 3 digital transformation trends that organizations should watch for in 2021 and beyond:

Why Digital Transformation Should Be Proactive, Not Reactive

Technology advances have been shaping the workplace for decades, helping us to work faster, smarter, and on-the-go. But oftentimes, companies shy away from technology investments, intimidated by cost or the challenges inherent in implementation and adoption. They invest in new technology solutions only when it’s absolutely necessary, not to stay ahead of the curve. And it’s costing them.

That’s become even more apparent with the landscape Covid-19 created. Most businesses had to go virtual, and employees remote, to remain operational, and many didn’t have adequate infrastructure in place—bringing the devastating gaps in their IT to light. Don’t believe us? Consultancy firm McKinsey reported that Covid-19 has given CIOs the biggest challenge of their careers. Why? Because they were in a race to catch up.

In a recent CNBC segment, Accenture hit on this trend—noting that the top 10% of companies that invested in digital transformation were outperforming the bottom 25% by 2X before the pandemic, and that gap has only widened. To put it another way, those that banked on technology are getting serious returns on those investments and are successfully weathering the current climate, while those that have delayed tech upgrades are being left behind.

Digital transformation might be accelerating as a must-have now, but it shouldn’t take a pandemic to convince business leaders of its value. It should always be an integral part of any company or organization’s strategy to remain competitive, arm employees with information and engage with their audiences. And while each organization has different needs, be it ecommerce sales channels, cloud access, and more, one solution they all need is easy, approachable access to the right information, at the right time.

Particularly as workers have gone remote and are increasingly on-the-go, businesses need to mobilize content for greater knowledge sharing. Overloaded email inboxes, dense PDFs and scattered, outdated resource libraries turn finding a simple answer into a frustrating game of “Where’s Waldo?” For employees who work on-the-fly, they need details fast, and in real-time—and even if your content is centralized, it still requires time employees may not have to dig through it.

At CatalystXL, we know the value of having accurate information at your fingertips, and without complexity. Our digital-flashcard platform simplifies and socializes knowledge transfer, making the right data, content, and people easily accessible at the right time. We activate your information via micro-learning, which is as fun as it is informative, by delivering bite-sized answers and facts that are easy to digest and retain.

With CatalystXL, we support salesforces by giving professionals real-time, updated product or services information to optimize opportunities, and since we centralize teams on one platform, your whole workforce is connected for greater knowledge sharing.

Gartner predicts that by next year, CIOs will have as much influence on workplace culture as HR Chief Officers. That means that tech isn’t just a means for HOW to do work, it’s defining if a business will succeed at all. Do you want to get left behind?

Digital Transformation on a Dime: Why CIOs Must Do A Lot With A Little

As Covid-19 changed the way we live and work, digital transformation is no longer just a priority, it’s mission critical. As we discussed previously, companies that prioritize investments in technology reap the benefits, while those that remain resistant to change are getting left behind—and that gap has only widened with the pandemic.

Things already look different than what they did in March, when lockdowns took effect. Businesses had to adapt to the needs of a socially-distanced society, and pandemic life is becoming (dare we say it) a new normal. But, with this change comes a new set of challenges. Business leaders cite increased difficulty in maintaining employee communication, engagement, and productivity, up by 10% compared to the beginning of the pandemic, according to a recent study by the National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM).

Maintaining customer relationships has also gotten more difficult, with 57% of business leaders ranking this as a top obstacle compared to 48% in March. CIOs can address these issues by swiftly implementing digital tools and strategies that connect a scattered audience and enable greater knowledge sharing among employees, members or customers, but it’s easier said than done.

So, what’s the hold up? Money, as usual. According to an earlier study by the NCMM, cost was already the most significant obstacle to digital transformation. As pandemic shutdowns increase the need for companies to digitally transform, they also negatively impact revenue and access to capital, tightening budgets across the board. And very often, the CIOs leading the charge on digital transformation are not in charge of their own budgets. A recent TCS survey found that CIOs develop digital transformation strategy at a whopping 75% of companies. But, that same survey found CIOs set digital transformation budgets at only 18% of those companies, with CEOs being the most common budget-makers. What does this mean? CIOs have to figure out how to do more with less—pushing for solutions that will have an outsized impact on their companies, on limited funds.

And it’s imperative now, with no end of remote working in sight. Aside from government mandates, many companies are adopting long-term, relaxed working policies. For example, Google announced last week it would be keeping its workforce home until at least summer 2021. You read that right. 2021. Many big tech companies are expected to follow. With the acceptance of long-term remote work, the need for tech tools that keep workforces efficient and remote operations running smoothly will only intensify.

So how can CIOs digitize their companies on a dime? One cost-effective tool is no-code apps. These apps quickly and easily connect people and information in a customizable way, without the lead time or hefty cost associated with traditional apps. Think: one mobile hub where a sales team can flip through the latest new product features, employees can access the right resources right when they need it, wherever they are, and companies can notify customers of updates in real-time. Highly-effective, cost-conscious resources like no-code apps are a quick way to optimize your business and embrace remote conditions.

Digital Transformation and No-Code App Markets are Linked and on the Rise

After nearly six months of operating during a pandemic, some universal truths are surfacing for businesses. The most important? The need to accelerate digital transformation to meet the new needs of remote work—and how to do that cost-effectively. And the second? That no-code apps are an ideal candidate to satiate this need. We’ve been hinting at this for a while now, which you can read about in more detail here and here. But what started as a few, thoughtful hunches, are now emerging as realities we can’t ignore. New reports now indicate exponential growth in both the digital transformation and no-code app spaces, highlighting just how significant – and how connected – these trends really are.

Let’s look at digital transformation first. Organizations across the globe have made upgrading their tech a top priority to support and engage a newly-remote audience, with easy access to the content, peers, and information their end users need. According to a new report by Reportlinker, the global digital transformation market is expected to grow from $469.8B in 2020 to $1.0098 trillion by 2025, with adoption of cloud services and IoT tech as common line items. Having effective solutions with strong ROI that cater to a widespread user base has moved from the peripheral to front and center, and can no longer be treated as an afterthought as organizations fight to stay not just functional, but competitive as well. It’s clear that industry leaders are prioritizing tech and finding ways to throttle up knowledge sharing, workflow, and operations.

These leaders are also looking to get the greatest bang for their buck, because another reality of the pandemic is that budgets are tight, and new, albeit necessary, tech can be expensive. In fact, Gartner predicts worldwide IT spending will decline 7.3% this year. That may sound counter-intuitive, but it shows just how much of a premium organizations are putting on doing more with less. To solve this, businesses have been turning to cost-effective options that deliver big impact, and one such low-cost, heavy-hitting solution is no-code apps. This trend is gaining so much traction, the global no-code/low-code development platform market is predicted to grow to $187B by 2030, from $10.3B in 2019—a more than 1,700% increase—according to P&S Intelligence. These apps save organizations time and money by eliminating exorbitant spend on armies of IT consultants and lengthy integration times. Plus, their systems often come pre-built, and are easily customizable, so teams can modify their app’s capabilities on-the-fly as needs change. Using no-code apps, businesses on a budget can greatly optimize their resources and improve productivity without breaking the bank.

At CatalystXL, we understand the link between these two markets—and you could argue that we built our business at the intersection of them. People need budget-friendly digital solutions now more than ever, and our no-code platform lets any organization implement and scale the most powerful and intuitive content system on the market today, in under 48 hours, across any device and system. We make valuable information instantly available to anyone, anywhere, in whatever the format you choose.

Book a demo today, and see for yourself how CatalystXL provides the digital tools necessary to support your rapidly-changing business and your bottom line.