Digital has already changed the way most of us do business. Yet the real implications of embracing digital, not just to allow access to an audience, but in all other business processes, is only just being glimpsed

Back in 1994 I was faced with a problem; I had a burning idea to create a magazine and I had a team of potential people who were all enthusiastic as I was and wanted to contribute, but unfortunately, I had neither the money nor the experience in magazine publishing to create a print publication. However, there was this thing called the internet, and as far as I could see it was going to do for business what punk did for the music industry. 

With the internet I no longer needed to print a magazine, I didn’t need to do distribution deals to get the magazine into WH Smith and I didn’t need to buy paper or ink, so that was £100,000 saved from my start-up costs immediately. I also didn’t need any servers as someone else was handling the hosting for me, and I didn’t need to have an office as all my writers could send me copy via email and I could simply edit and publish the copy via the internet from anywhere in the world. So I launched the magazine on the internet and instead of wasting my £5k start-up money on a roll of paper, I instead spent it on some advertising and a salesperson to sell ads, and I spent as much time as I could out on the road promoting the business. Essentially what I did then was create a digital business, and that one-off event is now a way of life for many businesses.
For a long time people have seen the advantage of an internet-distributed business. It gives you a huge potential audience that you can switch on instantly – and off if you need to – and it gives you the room to scale, as well as the ability to experiment with things you wouldn’t normally be able to do.

What has taken significantly longer is the time it has taken for businesses and investors to grasp the move to getting digital throughout the business. It’s only in the last two or so years that businesses have come to understand that there are other parts of the business and the business processes that the internet can change, and that you can not only use digital to distribute your message, but can use the digital infrastructure as part of your business’ DNA.

This new  “digital DNA” encompasses all the main parts of a business, from project management to accounts, from stock control through to fulfilment, from recruitment to HR, and from sales to marketing.

Taking the digital option has a multitude of benefits, the most obvious of which is the removal of capital expenditure for any type of business growth. By substituting digital services such as an online accounts service, or a CRM service like SalesForce, you no longer need to spend money on buying in new equipment, you don’t have the overheads you have with a conventional solution, and all those uncertain long term costs and unexpected costs are also removed.

In a nutshell the benefits of this new digital DNA are:

  1. Enterprise-class services at a budget cost
  2. Secure and infinitely scalable solutions
  3. You only pay for what you use
  4. Affordable monthly payments
  5. Zero maintenance costs
  6. No unexpected future costs
  7. You are always on the latest version
  8. Guaranteed uptime
  9. Complete business compliance with built-in disaster recovery
  10. The best and most expensive staff work for you