3 Persuasive Examples of Successful Digital Transformation

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Digital Transformation and how companies are adopting a digital-first strategy and leveraging new technologies to improve processes, operations, and service. As technology evolves, it becomes important for organizations to plan their future as a digital business. Today I’m going to write about three companies in different industries that have successfully embarked on digital transformation efforts that have sometimes proved elusive to many brands and companies.

Microsoft – despite being one of the most well-known technology brands through its ubiquitous flagship products Windows and Office the company was lagging behind its competitors such as Apple, Google and Amazon. With the appointment of new CEO Satya Nadella in 2014, Microsoft embraced the power and promise of Artificial Intelligence to drive digital transformation. It aims to bring AI into every application, business process and employee to radically transform the organization.

To help developers build the next generation of intelligent applications, Microsoft provides a variety of tools and services on its Azure AI platform that can embed AI capabilities into apps quickly and easily, thus enabling developers to create AI solutions. Similarly, Microsoft offers solutions that can infuse every business process with intelligence to enhance customer engagement, improve products and services and make employees more efficient. For example, Microsoft’s enterprise product, Dynamics 365, is equipped with AI intelligence to give customers powerful out-of-the-box experiences. For example, Dynamics 365 for Field Sales uses AI to detect and troubleshoot equipment problems remotely. Similarly, Dynamics AI for Sales and Customer Service uses AI to provide agents with automated customer insights to drive engagement and personalized service. Microsoft has also added these AI features to its own internal processes, creating a conversational virtual agent, for example, to field customer questions on a variety of Microsoft products.

Finally, Microsoft has made it its mission to empower employees and enrich their experience by making the vast knowledge across a variety of products at Microsoft available to them. With Microsoft Search, which uses AI to index content across data sources, employees can use intelligent search to provide relevant answers. Popular products such as Outlook, Word, Excel and Bing have intelligent search embedded in them.

Disney Parks – in 2011 Disney embarked on a $1 billion digital transformation upgrade to radically enhance the customer experience. Even though Disney was perhaps one of the most well-recognized brands in the world, some of the magic was eroding from the brand; customer satisfaction levels dropped as the experience became tired, predictable and less fun. So Disney launched a project to reinvent the vacation experience. At the core of Disney’s digital upgrade lay MagicBands, a wristband equipped with RFID chips, which gave customers a seamless way to interact with the brand and park infrastructure throughout their trip to Disney. Customers could use the MagicBands to make reservations, access hotel rooms, book rides, make restaurant reservations and payments. What’s more, guests could order the MagicBands ahead of their visit to make reservations and payments. In turn, Disney staff used the data from the MagicBand to identify each guest which helped to provide a highly personalized and customized experience to customers. For Disney such a transformation meant not only a cultural and technological shift but also a complete revamp of its website to accommodate this shift, creating custom RFID wristbands for users, expanding Wi-Fi coverage in the park, and training its 70,000 employees on the new technology. The results were incredible – a 20% increase in profits by 2014 and more than 10 million visitors who used the bands with 90% approval.

Domino’s Pizza – in 2008 Domino’s Pizza was down and out. With nowhere to go but up, Domino’s launched a bold strategy to differentiate itself from its peers and deliver its pizza in fresh, smart and innovative ways. In quick succession, Domino’s launched the “Pizza Tracker” in 2008 and a new iPhone application that was widely praised for further enabling and simplifying customer purchases. The “Pizza Tracker” allowed customers to track the progress on their online orders through the Domino’s website. In 2017, keeping up the pace of innovation, Domino’s became the first company to deliver pizza by drone, leaving competitors like Pizza Hut, Papa John’s and others in the dust. Then Domino’s introduced AI-enabled virtual ordering assistant to take order by phone. Domino’s leadership not only focused on digitized ordering and delivery to simplify the process and improve the customer experience, they also made smart changes to the menu and recipe that were coupled with the digital investments in supply chain and IT systems. As a result of these decisive actions and digital investments, Domino’s stock price has outperformed most of its competitors rising over 200% since March 2014.

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