3 Real-World Examples of Digital Transformation

August 16, 2016

Enterprise applications will grow to $201 billion in 2019, according to the forecast from Gartner, and that long-term growth in spending will be driven primarily by modernization, functional expansion and digital transformation projects.

That being said, digital transformation is a business imperative. With the right tools and strategies, it can provide high returns on investment. However, some things are easier said than done. According to a separate report, Gartner expects that only 30% of digital transformations will succeed. To be part of the 30%, Julie Short, research director at Gartner, recommends business and IT leaders to be ready and willing to innovate rapidly from a business model, business process, and technology perspective.

So what does digital transformation look like in actual practice? Here are some real-world examples to get you started.

1. Cutting Processing Time by 75%

The Challenge: Back in 2011, American Management Association (AMA) offered a variety of webcasts, seminars, conferences, and resources to enhance the professional development and business success of its clients. There were multiple product lines designed for corporations, government agencies, and the public sector. Roman Godzich, Director of e-Marketing, realized their outdated system was inhibiting response time and accurate follow-up. “We were in an awkward position. The Lotus solutions weren’t working, and they didn’t have the scalability and growth potential we needed,” he explained.

The Solution: AMA set out to find an innovative, leading edge solution to generate, manage, and deliver leads. With a small technical team, AMA needed a quick and easy solution. “We wanted to spend our time following up on the leads not managing them,” Godzich says. AMA selected Caspio as a tool to automate and qualify their lead generation, and alleviate pressure on their modest IT department.

The Future: Caspio’s wizard-driven framework enables AMA to seamlessly design, integrate, and deploy applications on its website. Upon using Caspio, AMA saves hundreds of hours of manual operations. “By switching to Caspio, we doubled our leads and cut our processing time by close to 75%,” Godzich affirms. “It’s impossible not to be happy with statistics like these.”

2. Saving $100,000 with Cloud Computing

The Challenge: Five years ago, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) planned to make state data publicly available on the web. Scott Davis, Senior Web master, was hampered by limited resources, combined with the cost of hiring programmers and hosting services. “As with any government agency these days, money, time, and resources are tight. So we really have to think carefully about the best use of taxpayer dollars,” he explained.

The Solution: The new solution had to be cost-effective. With Caspio’s cloud computing service, DNR could take advantage of an online database without programming or complex database integration. Caspio’s low-code-platform has a visual application builder for designing databases, forms, and reports that requires little to no coding. The platform makes deploying applications as easy as copy-and-pasting a snippet of deploy code to any web page.

The Future: The Caspio applications deployed to date include a searchable database of oil and gas drilling records, a listing of proposed rule changes, several searchable databases for the Fish and Wildlife division, and a form for reporting sightings of invasive plants and animals. Scott Munoz, Business Systems Consultant Manager for DNR’s IT Department, estimates the department is annually saving roughly $96,000 in data center storage and web hosting fees alone by using Caspio.

3. Streamlining Business Processes with a Sophisticated PaaS Solution

The Challenge: Serving over 5 million students and faculty, Barnes & Noble College strives to continually deliver superior products and a world-class customer experience. For years, the Operational Finance Department utilized Microsoft Excel and Access as their primary internal database systems. Inevitably, the system was prone to delays and errors. For Daisia Lewin, Senior Inventory Analyst, the communication of critical information could be improved and streamlined.

The Solution: Following an intensive selection process, Barnes & Noble College opted to go with Caspio, kicking off a custom application that exceeded the company’s initial requirements and expectations. Without a programming background, Lewin was able to create an online database application that helped streamline critical tasks within the Inventory Control Department. Lewin’s success spread across the organization. Other areas began looking to Caspio as a solution that would reduce dependency and workload placed upon the project management and IT teams.

The Future: Looking forward, the team at Barnes & Noble College sees no limits to Caspio’s potential and plans to take their respective applications to transform other departmental processes even further. “We have many more projects we will be bringing online because the whole company is talking about using Caspio,” Lewin says.

How do I structure digital transformation for my organization?

Digital transformation affects every industry, be it global corporations and government agencies, to universities, nonprofits, and small businesses. Take a look at our case studies to see how different organizations achieved digital transformation using Caspio. They were able to: