For many experts, the digital age is already a reality, after all, more than half the world’s population is connected to the Internet – and the prospect is for even faster growth in this number. The greater the popularization of the Internet, the stronger its influence on social, political and economic relations among individuals, becoming part of people’s daily lives.
In the midst of these relationships are commercial transactions and other negotiations involving goods and services, requiring companies to undergo a digital transformation. What are the areas and sectors that have already arrived in the new era? How to prepare your company to implant the most current technologies?
Although it seems a big leap for a short time, this forecast is far from being just optimistic. It represents a reality in which consumers and business partners are becoming demanding about technology, giving more and more preference to companies that have already gone through a transformation.
What advantages does the digital era offer to companies and clients?
The fourth industrial revolution – as the digital age is also being called – is not only introducing new automation technologies and artificial intelligence. It is characterized by more significant changes, such as the integration of various devices and software, among themselves and with the users themselves.
In other words, the digital era has as its principle the active participation of people, working together with the new technologies through individual devices connected to the Internet. This interaction generates an enormous amount of information capable of, among other things:
- personalize users’ experiences;
- make processes more agile, dividing responsibilities between machines and people;
- “teach” machines to act and react to external stimuli on their own;
- reduce human failures with the help of logical computational capacity;
- minimize costs and deadlines, in addition to increasing employee autonomy and improving the experience of their business partners through corporate mobility;
- improve relations between companies, society and the environment based on constant data collection, both of their processes and of the impacts of productive activities.
This integration is only possible because of the ability acquired by machines and devices to connect and exchange information automatically, without the need for constant human monitoring.
What is the Internet of Things and what is its role in the future of business?
The Internet of Things, or IoT, is a concept used to designate the autonomous connections between objects, and between them and the Internet in general, in order to make people’s daily lives more comfortable and productive.
IoT does not only refer to personal devices (microcomputers, smartphones, tablets and smart TVs, for example) and commercial devices (industrial machinery, agricultural tractors and automation equipment). Its application is practically unlimited, being able to integrate vehicles, locks, household appliances and even clothes, furniture and other non-electronic objects.
In addition, it can be used by governments and, especially, by companies to better understand their audience and provide more appropriate goods and services. In this scenario, consumers, customers of all types and business partners are becoming increasingly demanding in terms of speed, personalization and rationalization of their personal and business relationships.
How does the digital era influence the different segments?
As we could see, the phenomenon that is being known as the digital era is something extremely comprehensive, which is changing our ways of acting, thinking and living together. The relations between individuals, companies and governments are becoming more dynamic and practical.
In addition, intelligence based on the constant collection of information allows us to personalize and rationalize productive processes, services, offers, inspections and all kinds of human interaction. With the advancement of the Internet of Things, the capacity to generate and store data is unlimited.
This means that vehicles, appliances, machines and other numerous devices and objects of our daily lives will be integrated, exchanging information. Thus, all economic sectors will be affected in their production models and the way negotiations take place. Below are some examples of segments that are already undergoing significant changes.
Agribusiness
Agribusiness is an extremely competitive sector of activity, in which international players dispute major consumer markets. Therefore, rural entrepreneurs and distributors need to make their processes efficient, reducing costs and increasing productivity per hectare, without losing safety as to contamination and quality.
In addition, they interact in groups and forums, exchanging experiences and indications with other farmers and specialists in the sector, but it is not only among producers that the digital age is present.
Communication
The communications sector is one of the most affected – and it couldn’t be any different! The digital age is basically a paradigm shift in how people communicate. In addition to being more automated, information exchanges have become faster and unbureaucratic.
In this way, customers and business partners expect companies to offer technological solutions to speed up commercial and legal transactions. In the digital age, it is no longer necessary to wait days to send a contract to sign it and to send it back, for example.
Industry
The digital age is also recognized as being the fourth industrial revolution, as it is impacting the means of production in general. We are moving out of automated manufacturing, based on pre-established algorithms and parameters, to enter the era of intelligent industry.
This means more integration between employees and machines to make manufacturing more efficient, reduce human error and optimize working time. With new technologies like IoT, virtual reality, 3D printers and artificial intelligence.
Health
In the health area, development has been accelerated, driven mainly by nanotechnology and synthetic biology. Thus, doors have been opened to the discovery of new treatments for diseases previously considered incurable and to more efficient repairs of damage caused by accidents, such as burns and amputations.
Thus, the production and application of synthetic fabrics is already a reality. Skins, blood and cartilage, for example, are being created with materials of low rejection by the human body. Also contributes for a bigger advance in the sector the use of 3D printers for the manufacture of prosthesis and artificial organs.
Therefore, the digital age is already a reality and is advancing with a speed never seen for a technological development. Because of this, managers from all over the world are focusing on these changes to decide on the best ways to act.
What is the role of a manager in the digital age?
The digital age is forcing a renewal in companies that improves their production processes, generates more integration with partners, employees and consumers, reduces costs and improves product quality. On the other hand, the advance of technologies among the population is changing the way people interact and changing consumption habits.
Thus, companies that don’t adapt to the changes and don’t start following what’s new in their sectors will fatally lose their market shares to the more economic and efficient competition. Besides, the own consumers are inserted in a digital culture, which demands, from the chosen suppliers, agility and personalization of their experiences.
For all that has been exposed so far, the role of a manager is, above all, to be attuned to technological innovations and understand the importance of the company to update itself. With this, he will be able to make available the necessary funds for investments, as well as organize and lead the various departments in projects that enable the digital transformation in your company.