Have you ever stopped to consider just how much digitization is impacting your world? Like most people, you probably spend your days moving from moment to moment. You run personal errands. You check off another “to-do” item from your growing list. But do you stop to think about how the products and services you’re interacting with work?
Probably not, and that’s okay. However, if you just scratched the surface, you’d find that many of the processes you use daily rely on digital innovations. Without a doubt, digitization is impacting your world by making routine tasks so much easier. Below are just a few of the everyday, seemingly mundane (but vitally important) processes making the most of technology.
1. Financial Transactions
You’ve just bought something online to pick up at your leisure from Walmart. The transaction took seconds to set up.
How is the cash flowing from one account to another, though? It’s likely riding on financial rails set up by companies such as FIS. Without a doubt, one of the biggest ways that digitization is impacting your world is by facilitating safe, rapid payment processes.
FIS provides behind-the-scenes digital pathways to move money. That way, you’re able to purchase a last-minute Halloween costume or pay for your Uber. FIS strives to make money move as quickly as possible.
The company’s ultimate goal? Real-time transactions that lower payment friction points even more. Their recent partnership with the Washington Nationals is showcasing what all these tools used at once can do to personalize fan experience, eliminate wait times and activate live in-game betting from the stadium.
Looking toward the future, blockchain seems to be a possible next-gen step for the financial services and transaction industries. With its decentralized structure, blockchain may be a way for digital currency to travel between B2C or B2B parties.
In the meantime, though, the digital developments that have occurred in finance so far fit consumers’ desire to make payments rapidly and, when desired, in a contactless manner.
2. Data Collection
You already know that digital tools help collect and sort data. What you might not realize is how valuable technically-driven data collection can be.
For one, it reduces the need for people to manually transfer data across systems, as in the case of IBML’s use case with the airline industry. IBML’s engineers figured out how to use software to extract data from airport tickets and convert the data into usable knowledge. The company’s experiences led it to become the intelligent document processing provider of choice for many institutions.
The second advantage to being able to rely on data collection comes when you need help from a customer service representative.
Thanks to the sophisticated software used in so many corporations today, your support agent can quickly resolve your issues. How? Your previously collected information is run through AI-fueled algorithms that give the agent suggestions to make things right for you.
A final upshot to advanced data collection is that it allows businesses to spot trends sooner. If you’re a founder, CEO, or CMO, you know the importance of being first to market with evolving concepts.
3. Supply Chain Management
Of course, you realize that when you order food from Chipotle’s app that you’re working within a digital realm.
There’s much more happening from Chipotle’s point of view than from yours. Chipotle is one of several brands working with Semarchy to streamline supply chain snags.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, supply chains have experienced major breakdowns. Semarchy’s data management tool helps businesses such as Chipotle use data wisely. By analyzing data for trends, Semarchy’s tool can tell Chipotle what resources it needs and when it needs them. This enables Chipotle to know exactly where to route supplies so that customers like you are happy.
Supply chain management isn’t limited to the fast-food sector, of course.
Practically every business has some kind of a supply chain. Systems that can relay data in real-time can help companies make wiser buying, transportation, and related choices that take some of the pain out of the supply chain disruptions that are expected to last until at least 2023.
4. Customer Service
The chatbots are having their day—or, rather, the inventors of chatbot technology.
In 2022, the business market for AI-powered chatbots is predicted to reach $7 billion. Though some chatbot interfaces are still a bit halting and clunky, they’re getting better all the time. In fact, you may fall into the category of people who have chatted with a bot and didn’t know it!
Digitization is making chatbot technology adapt more quickly to the needs of humans. Today’s chatbots frequently are embedded with machine learning. This means they increase their ability to respond appropriately with every engagement. Almost like humans, they learn from their interactions.
It’s not hard to spot when you’re chatting with a bot, of course. There are some telltale signs, like an odd use of semantics from time to time.
With that being said, chatbot tech is becoming extremely sophisticated. Some chatbots have learned to add pauses or use colloquialisms. So the next time you want to chat with an online support rep, know that you might be conversing with a bot. (But you can usually ask to speak with a live representative during regular business hours if needed!)
5. Payroll
Do you imagine that your supervisor or the “big boss” signs off on your paycheck? Or that your human resources team calculates all your federal, state, and local taxes by hand?
That might be true if you work for a very small organization or receive handwritten checks. However, in today’s digital age, your employer may never directly see anything but an after-the-fact report regarding payroll.
The truth is that tons of companies of all sizes rely on digitized payroll solutions. Many turn to cloud-based providers. That way, they don’t have to worry about upgrades or IT. Once they (or you) input your information into the payroll management system, your paychecks will come just like clockwork.
It’s fast, convenient, and secure. Plus, you don’t have to worry that someone forgot to initiate a transaction—which could hold up your pay. And your company won’t overspend on payroll tasks.
Let’s put the cost savings of payroll software solutions into perspective.
A quarter of small business owners spend upwards of 60 hours annually on the payroll. That’s time they could put into profit-producing responsibilities and efforts. By leveraging digitized payroll systems, they can reduce their need to be too hands-on. And bosses who still want to give payroll “one last look” can set up automatic sign-up workflows.
The ways that digitization is impacting your world aren’t limited to the obvious. It’s happening all around us and changing the way we interact with the world. With the growth of digital transformations in all sectors, it’s bound to become even more widespread in the coming years.
Image Credit: Jack Sparrow; Pexels.com.
Deanna Ritchie
Managing Editor at ReadWrite
Deanna is the Managing Editor at ReadWrite. Previously she worked as the Editor in Chief for Startup Grind and has over 20+ years of experience in content management and content development.
