The pandemic pushed every company’s digital transformation plans forward, whether they had initiated those plans or not. Even industries that traditionally tend to lag behind on technology investments were forced to embrace cloud technology simply to stay afloat.

Digital transformation is a concept that is hard to pin down, because as technology advances, so do the specific activities related to transformation. It’s also different at every company.

As a result, it can be challenging for companies to know what to prioritize in their strategies. In the initial days of the pandemic, IT teams simply needed to keep business going. Immediately following emergency shifts to remote work, companies shifted their attention to networking and security, making sure that employees had easy access to network resources but hackers did not.

Now, more than two years after the initial months of the pandemic, companies are resuming a more thoughtful approach to digital transformation. The fires are out; it’s time to be strategic in thinking about how to prioritize the adoption of cloud technology. While your business needs are no doubt unique, there are a few key technologies that almost any business could adopt to see major gains in areas like customer experience, productivity, and cost savings:

Unified Communications: When utilizing unified communications as a service (UCaaS), this upgrade moves your company to a subscription-based pay model, removes management responsibilities from your IT staff, and provides a host of rich features designed to improve productivity and collaboration.

For instance, many UCaaS solutions offer smarter technology for videoconferencing. Even if you have a simple video conferencing solution, you may notice that some members of a team in a boardroom often seem distortedly small or fuzzy on screen and microphone issues can be a problem. UCaaS options offer features like the ability to automatically zoom in on a speaker and ensure that every participant in a meeting can be seen and heard.

Customer Relationship Management: Many organizations hobble along with spreadsheets containing contact information from customers and leads. There may be multiple versions floating around any given department, and they are remarkably easy for a former employee to pack along to their next job. At best, it’s a messy way to handle contact information, but at its worst, this is a weakness in terms of security and privacy and could lead to the need for legal action.

A cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) solution allows you to provide access to employees based on their roles so that only those that need the information can access it. A CRM is also able to track the activity on the solution so that any unusual behaviors can be monitored. In addition to robust privacy and security features, many CRM solutions also offer automated marketing tools that allow you to set up if/then scenarios to reach out when leads or customers engage in certain activities. When it’s time to take the next step in your digital transformation plans, contact us at eXemplify. We can help you evaluate which cloud technology will have the biggest impact on your productivity, customer experience, and your bottom line, and then we’ll help you leverage the right solution to make the most of your investment.