As technological innovation and the continued shift toward smartphones worldwide changes the ways in which both companies and customers perform business, the process of digital transformation has become the next step for every company seeking to stay relevant. But it’s not just business strategy that has transformed. The way in which software enables businesses is also evolving. Portal platforms are now becoming digital experience platforms in order to give more power and greater flexibility to companies seeking to embrace transformation.

However, the idea of a digital experience platform is still relatively new to many companies and its ability to enact a digital transformation strategy may be unclear to some. Because true transformation is seen as creating innovation in both how customers are treated and how businesses are run, digital experience platforms are uniquely equipped to address this wide variety of needs.

The following five principles all make up successful digital transformation for businesses, which includes creating better customer experiences and eliminating business process issues. Each of these digital transformation principles is paired with an accompanying aspect of digital experience platforms, which can help execute these principles for the unique needs of a company.

1. Digital Transformation Need: Back-End Integration

As discussed by ORM London, successful digital transformation strategies are focused on both front-end user experience and back-end systems management. While many companies work to provide front-end experiences that are useful and pleasing to customers as well as back-end processes that help teams create needed services, many are not truly integrating these two sides. Real transformation does not just bolt these sides together. It creates a cohesive process where front-end and back-end processes function as one in order to pull detailed analytics from customer interactions and reshape processes to better fit target audiences.

DXP Solution: Innovative Interfaces and Frameworks

Strong digital experience platforms can quickly create workflow tools and business service management processes while also building a front-end experience that can adapt to changing customer needs. These features allow for true back-end integration for a more effective online presence, as the data collected from customer interactions can be analyzed to continually change and improve a company’s online presence.

2. Digital Transformation Need: Legacy System Transitioning

It’s understandable that most long-standing companies have some or most of their processes hosted on long out-of-date software. These legacy systems are frequently pieced together from various programs in order to meet changing internal and external needs, but are never truly updated. Digital transformation is seen as moving past legacy systems and embracing new, all-encompassing software that allows businesses to follow strategies previously limited by legacy systems. If you are in need of transformation, but find that your legacy systems are holding you back, know that you are not alone. According to a recent study by Nimbus Ninety that interviewed 251 senior stakeholders responsible for their company’s transformation, 50% of those surveyed said that legacy systems were a barrier to their transformation.

DXP Solution: Flexible Architecture for Transformation

DXP technology is designed to help businesses transition from out-dated technologies to modern platforms. In addition, the flexible architecture of DXP means that new technologies and modern approaches to software, such as microservices, can be used in order to adapt to changing trends and new customer needs in the future.

3. Digital Transformation Need: Omnichannel Experience

The term “omnichannel experience” is much-discussed in modern business, it is a very real and crucial aspect of reaching today’s target audiences. The modern customer typically connects with a company via mobile, desktop and in-person interactions before completing a purchase. However, companies that do not keep track of their customers’ information and history across these platforms may cause frustrations that discourage further interactions. When a customer can move across these touchpoints fluidly, they have an omnichannel experience that can better push toward purchases. As reported by Forbes, omnichannel experiences reduce the conflict between inter-company channels to create a single, cohesive marketing channel for a united workforce and cohesive image.

DXP Solution: Digital Channel Unification

A digital experience platform allows all digital channels to be built on the same software and to stay better connected to one another. As such, a user can jump from desktop sites to mobile sites to mobile apps without having to start over fresh each time. This allows for a seamless transition that encourages completion of a transaction and can also be carried over to in-store experiences.

4. Digital Transformation Need: Addressing Customer Journey Pain Points

Every customer has a journey, which includes considering, purchasing, using and returning to a company’s services, or failing to do so. As discussed by I-Scoop, digital transformation mandates that companies have systems in place that allow them to see the complete customer journey from start to finish in order to eliminate potential pain points and base their customer personas on measurable data. Customer journeys have always existed, but transformation allows companies to see them by collecting large amounts of data through touchpoints, rather than creating a purely theoretical journey map.

DXP Solution: Customer Touchpoint Management

Through the use of DXP technology, companies can have detailed control and the ability to analyze all ways in which a customer interacts with the brand. Being able to analyze and adjust these touchpoints means that a business can have a more complete and understandable picture of a customer’s journey based on measurable interactions, instead of creating hypothetical customer journey maps based on fragmented information.

5. Digital Transformation Need: Unifying Silos

As discussed in Forbes, one of the biggest hurdles in reaching true transformation is in silo walls that segment departments and complicate internal collaboration. Through breaking down silo walls, a company can improve their own business processes by allowing internal data to be more openly shared for more effective collaboration. In addition, better connections between departments means that customers are less likely to be affected by stall points when their journey crosses company departments.

DXP Solution: Deep Integration of Systems of Record

DXPs can integrate systems of record throughout all aspects of a business, which allows for customers to interact with every level of a company’s business process. The information gathered in these interactions can then be released across the board within a company, allowing for all departments to share crucial data and collaborate in a more organic and effective manner.