3 Misconceptions About Digitization
As humans, we tend to fear the unknown and as organizations, this fear increases manifold. For every new change that has come in, there has always been resistance. And for something as pervasive as digitization, which transcends the boundaries of an organization and becomes a part of life, this fear grows to enormous proportions. Here are some misconceptions that people have about digitization, thereby opposing it with their might.
Misconception 1: Digitization means a complete change in the business, driven by IT.
Fact Check: The term digitization does have a technological connotation, but it need not be the only aspect. Rather, digitization is about looking at your business model and evolving it by reducing the repetitive tasks with the help of technology. Thus, the primary stakeholder and champions of the cause, still remain the business owners. Only after this critical first step should the expansion opportunities be looked into with the help of technological tools.
Misconception 2: Digitization leads to removal of human presence, thereby causing job loss.
Fact Check: This is another huge misconception. Digitization is not about getting rid of human resources and replacing them with smart machines. Rather, it is about empowering these humans to be creative and take better decisions by avoiding the routine and non-value adding tasks.
Misconception 3: Digitization is all about storing huge amounts of information.
Fact Check: Digitization does help in capturing larger than ever data about every event and every transaction. However, this data on its own is useless. It is the information that is extracted out of this data and the business insights that are unleashed, which constitute the actual benefits of Digitization. Hence, not data storage but processing of huge data amounts to derive meaningful insights, is the actual goal of digitization anywhere.
Digitization is an inevitability in the coming era of computers and smart cities. However, we need to embrace and go along with it, adapting to the different avenues it opens and the luxuries it offers. A crucial step in knowing and disseminating knowledge about the concept is removing misconceptions and getting more people invested in the idea.
