Buying in a new system can be drastic in terms of the impact on people and processes, not to mention the cost. The advance of cloud based digital transformation solutions is giving companies a third option – to complement and enhance core business systems with edge technologies.

The custom digital solutions include low-code mobile and desktop apps, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) ‘bots’, and custom forms and workflows as well as Business Intelligence and reporting layers. These bespoke solutions don’t require significant up-front capital investment, and can be implemented incrementally, meaning they are lower risk and faster to implement than off-the-shelf business applications.

If you’ve already bought Microsoft 365, then you have access to the Power Platform, a technology stack that you can use to streamline processes, improve efficiency, transform operating models and enable new digital products, services and channels. If you’re not a Microsoft house then a range of digital transformation products are available which do the same job, and compete well on functionality and price.

For many businesses digital transformation enablement is about the right blend of old and new technologies.

Lots of companies remain reliant on spreadsheets to manage and execute processes. It’s common to see lots of paper forms and manual re-keying of data into systems. There’s generally a lack of systems integration and lots of manual interfaces between customers and suppliers.

Many businesses have looked at adapting their core systems but they either can’t be modified, or it would bend them too far out of shape. They’ve looked at off the shelf solutions but they either don’t meet the requirements or are too expensive.