Digital Industries
What does ‘digital’ refer to?
Digital refers to the changes associated with the application of cyber technology in all aspects of business and society. Computerisation and modernisation are not that new concepts. However, because the globe is rapidly evolving a new technological era is being established, and with any advancement, new problems arise. The intersection of digitisation and business has resulted in transformations in work behaviours, information transmission, and sales methods. The economy has become much more creative, consumer-oriented, and is focused on maximising capacity.
‘Digital’ consists of four primary sectors, the ‘SMAC’: Stack / Social (S), Mobile (M), Analytics (A) and Cloud (C) technologies. Companies have to adopt these new generation technology platforms as a package because when used together, the pinnacle of benefit is attained. Consumer demands are fulfilled, and services are heightened with finesse in the SMAC sub-fields.
The Four Sectors of Digital Industry
- Social: Social media has become a staple for companies to target their audience. Every 60 seconds, 5 million videos are viewed on YouTube, 433k tweets are sent out on Twitter, and 293,000 statuses are posted on Facebook. The need for a cohesive social strategy is imperative for every company to be successful. The world is interconnected through social networking, and hence, to hallmark a firm, usage of multiple platforms is vital to customer acquisition, consolidating a trademark, and improving a company’s prestige – in both start-ups and multinationals. Social media is crucial to increased reaction time on customer service issues, hence, improving profits due to quick error resolution and modification.
- Mobile: 91% of adults have their phones within arm’s reach 24/7. Ten years ago, cell phones were only used for phone calls and the occasional game of solitaire. Now your mobile device and relevant apps are an all-purpose utility that is an essential part of the day-to-day living. Hence, integrating your megacorp into cellular phones will significantly improve revenue and spread of your enterprise, especially as more people have handheld phones than computers/laptops. People use them everywhere they go, connecting them with the rest of the world. Since a higher percentage of the global population has a mobile phone, the chance of sales is greater than with other internet-connecting devices, resulting in the priority of mobile-based business commodities.
- Analytics: This is about making the best use of the collected data that a business has on their customers. When Amazon recommends a purchase to you, it is based on the evidence they have collected about your preferences. Putting analytics to best use will help connect the right suppliers with the right consumers. The digital universe of data will grow from 3.2 zettabytes today to 40 zettabytes in only six years (1 ZB = 10^21 bytes). Companies need to leverage analytics. Logic provides insight to better target campaigns across various media channels.
- Cloud: The cloud is the glue that brings the rest of the pieces of the SMAC stack together. Traditionally, IT Infrastructures consume a chunk of capital and hosting applications, be it web or mobile, demanding more dedicated technical resources, time and concentration to keep them up and available 24/7. Moving to the cloud will not only reduce the cost but also ditch out the security and technical complexities related to it. For small businesses, the cloud will be the best way to cut down costs, enhance productivity and improve customer experience. It gives the flexibility, scalability and cost-saving benefits of computing infrastructure. Your Gmail and Hotmail account are great examples of the cloud. Your email is stored not on your device but in the cloud and accessible to you anywhere, anytime and on any instrument.
SMAC will provide the start-ups, small business, and medium firms a chance to challenge the big players and set up open competition in the IT industry by lowering the barrier to entry.
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