Digital transformation is a growing trend for businesses across the globe. With more companies and organisations looking at the advantages of digital technology in business and ways in which they can stay relevant and competitive, it’s vital to begin the journey towards digital transformation.
What is digital transformation?
The term digital transformation can mean different things to different people. Salesforce defines it as the process behind digital technologies to create or modify existing business culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements. Essentially the reimagining of business in the digital age is digital transformation.
We see digital transformation as a way of partnering with different companies and organisations to develop and improve digital adoption to make them more efficient and productive through IT.
What are the benefits? How can it help?
The purpose of digital transformation is to improve efficiency and can be broken down into several benefits around data-driven insights, improved resource management, and an overall better customer experience. Digital transformation also creates and encourages a digital company culture within each business and can improve productivity and increase agility to achieve better results through the benefits of digital solutions. In trying to pinpoint what the benefits are when you implement digital transformation, there are five key areas to look at.
- Operating your business in a joined-up way – We become the glue between different systems to help you become more converged or integrated. This means there can be an efficient end-to-end journey for your products and services or customer experience
- Being able to run efficiently with better insights – We can ensure you are using the right technology and solutions and have the right insights into analytics and key performance indicators. Realising the benefits of greater efficiency allows us to help you increase your competitive advantage and stay ahead of the curve
- Becoming more adaptable and scalable – Having robust, well-designed, and well-maintained digital platforms mean that your company has the ability to grow and adapt, for example responding to external factors. A prime example of this is how organisations have adapted to the global pandemic and hybrid working
- Lower costs – By undergoing digital transformation, the journey can lead to greater improvements around efficiency and competitive edge, which ultimately leads to greater profitability. In a report by the SAP Center for Business Insights and Oxford Economics, it found that 80% of organisations that completed digital transformation reported increased profits
- Relevancy – Taking a long-term view of a company’s strategic objectives, digital transformation allows businesses to stay relevant, adapt to changes, and deliver value to their customers and end-users
How we can help
Cloud migration
Over the last few years, cloud migration has become the all-enticing option when embarking on the digital transformation journey as it provides multiple benefits of digital migration. Examples of cloud migration are:
- Migration to Microsoft 365 – Including moving some, or all of the below areas of IT to the Cloud:
- Migrating to Microsoft 365 Email
- Moving to SharePoint for online document collaboration
- Switch to using Microsoft 365 user authentication and device
- Migration to Azure – moving away from onsite server infrastructure to the cloud
- Migration to Hosted VoIP – moving from an on-premise phone system to one hosted in the cloud
- Migration to new cloud-based software (SaaS) – Moving away from old software or even spreadsheets to:
- Bespoke cloud software application
- Established cloud software such as a large CRM or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) platform
Cyber security
Working with Sophos, a global leader in IT security, we deliver synchronized security – a cyber security system that enables your defences to work smarter and be more coordinated than cybercriminals.
With cybercriminals becoming smarter, particularly with the Covid-19 global pandemic forcing more and more people to work remotely or as part of a hybrid working model, your security needs to be stronger. Ensuring your business is secure is a priority as security breaches in your IT cause you to lose valuable time, money, and customers.
By implementing the right security solutions to protect all areas of your infrastructure, you can relax knowing your business is secure.
Endpoint & Mobile
Ensuring you have strong security for your employees’ endpoints and devices is critical for protecting your data as employees can be the number one cause for security breaches. We partner with world-leading cyber security providers to offer the greatest protection and most sophisticated solutions.
Sophos Intercept X
For Endpoint Security we would always recommend Sophos Intercept X. As the world’s best endpoint protection, it stops the latest cybersecurity threats with a combination of deep learning artificial intelligence (AI), anti-ransomware capabilities, exploit prevention, and other techniques.
Key features:
- Stop unknown threats
- Block ransomware
- Prevent exploits
- Layered Defenses
- Synchronized Security
Mobile Device Management (MDM)
An increase in remote and hybrid working practices means that more than ever people are using their mobiles as a device for work. Just like your IT infrastructure these devices need to be managed and secured to ensure your business remains protected.
Sophos Mobile
Sophos Mobile is a Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) and Mobile Threat Defense (MTD) solution helping businesses spend less time and effort managing and securing iOS and Android smartphones and tablets.
Microsoft Endpoint Manager
Part of Microsoft 365, Microsoft Endpoint Manager delivers endpoint security, device management, and intelligent cloud actions in a unified management platform using Microsoft Intune and Configuration Manager.
Network Security – Firewalls
Firewalls are the perimeter defence for your infrastructure and provide an electronic security barrier that monitors incoming and outgoing traffic based on security parameters.
Sophos XG Firewall
We recommend Sophos XG Firewall to all of our customers. Sophos XG Firewall is the world’s best visibility, protection, and response, providing comprehensive next-generation firewall protection that exposes hidden risks, blocks unknown threats, and automatically responds to incidents.
Key features:
- Exposes hidden risks
- Blocks unknown threats
- Automatically responds to incidents
Email Security
Now more than ever, email security is crucial to businesses as emails are one of the most common methods of cyber-attack with 75% of organisations around the world experiencing a phishing attack in 2020.
Phishing is a form of social engineering where targets are contacted via email by someone posing as a legitimate source to lure people into revealing sensitive data.
Sophos Email Scanning
We recommend Sophos for Email Security; their email scanning uses AI to block threats in emails and ‘quarantines’ them before they land in your inbox.
Key features:
- Predictive email security is able to block known and unknown threats
- Stop ransomware, spam, and phishing attacks
- Supports Office 365 and all major platforms
System integration – 365 set-up
For businesses looking to start their journey to the cloud we always recommend migrating to Microsoft 365.
Microsoft 365 is a cloud solution that provides users with productivity apps to get work done as part of digital transformation. Includes Office 365 email, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Windows 10, and more. Migrating to Microsoft 365 is the first step in modernising your IT and the move can be done with little disruption to your business.
Office 365
Many of you will be familiar with Office 365, this houses all of your productivity tools to enable your business to work effectively.
In Office 365 you get:
- Word, Powerpoint, Publisher, Excel
- Outlook Email
- Sharepoint
- OneDrive
These applications enable businesses to work collaboratively and productively from any device, anywhere, at any time.
Power Platform
The Microsoft Power Platform uses 4 core solutions: Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents to enable businesses to work smarter. Using Power Automate and Power Apps we’ve helped businesses unlock the potential of their data and improve their current processes. The Power Platform delivers an alternative solution to complex software development.
Fully consultative approach with a holistic view: Why a Managed Service Provider?
As part of the digital transformation journey, we can commit time and resources to bespoke development of a fully consultative approach. We have an agile team with the flexibility to create bespoke solutions adapted to specific requirements.
With a broad range of specialists in areas that are required for a complete solution, we incorporate platform management and a service desk as a full-service approach. Experienced at delivering and collaborating on complex cloud solutions, we provide service optimisation to support productivity, efficiency, and improved customer engagement.
The benefits of a digital transformation journey are significant but require the right solutions at the right time. As digital transformation specialists, we achieve the required outcomes for our customers but also help them improve through innovation and collaboration.
We will work closely with you to understand how your business operates, what you want to achieve, and then we’ll create a solution that works for you. Whether you have an idea of the services you require or just know the problems you want to solve, we’ll guide you every step of the way.
