Updated 1/21/2026
Digital transformation continues accelerating across industries. The global digital transformation market, valued at over $730 billion in 2022, is projected to grow at 26.7% annually through 2030. This remarkable growth stems from widespread adoption of cloud computing, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence across businesses of all sizes.
But what exactly is digital transformation and how can it benefit your business? Whether your company is deep into digital innovation efforts or exploring the topic for the first time, this guide breaks down why digital transformation matters and how to implement strategies that improve customer experience and organizational workflow.
Digital Transformation Definition
Digital transformation is the integration of digital technologies into business processes – both new and existing. This transformation leverages cloud computing, AI, big data analytics, and other advanced technologies to create improved customer experiences and optimize internal operations.
To understand digital transformation, we need to understand two foundational concepts:
Digitization is converting data and information into digital format (0's and 1's). This conversion makes it easier to store, access, analyze, and share information at scale. Digitization applies to any content - text files, images, documents, audio, and video..
Digitalization is using digital technologies to enable new or improved products, services, and processes. Digitalization combines digitized data, analytics, and automation to drive decision-making and business operations.
Digital transformation brings these together - integrating digital technologies into existing business processes to improve efficiency and generate new opportunities. Digital transformation applies to any industry, from retail to healthcare, finance to education. Its purpose is always creating a more efficient, customer-centric organization.
What Digital Transformation Actually Means
Digital transformation isn’t technology alone – it’s strategy.
Technology continually evolves to incorporate business process automation, robotic process automation, and artificial intelligence. Focusing on one technology is shortsighted – implementation strategy matters most. Digital transformation can’t just focus online – it needs to bridge the gap between online and offline, incorporating the enterprise, supply chain, partners, customers, and employees in terms of strategy and execution.
Many people hear “digital transformation” and think of merely digitizing paper files or creating social media accounts. True digital transformation involves incorporating multiple forms of digital technology, software, and artificial intelligence into daily business processes.
Digital transformation is about the bigger picture of modernization at every level of the organization. Technology and software are implemented to make processes easier for everyone – from CEO to new hire to customer. These modernization strategies are built to grow with your company as you expand and as new innovations emerge.
Franklin Foods: A Complete Digital Transformation Story
Franklin Foods, a leading food processor, exemplifies what comprehensive digital transformation looks like in practice. Facing manual invoice processing eating into margins, credit memo chaos disrupting cash flow, and paper-based processes creating compliance risks, they embarked on a transformation that extended far beyond simply “going paperless.”
The Transformation Scope
Accounts Payable: Invoice processing time dropped from 45 minutes per invoice to under 8 minutes - an 82% reduction. This efficiency unlocked $180,000 annually in early-pay discounts they'd previously been too slow to capture.
Credit Memo Workflows: Returns and adjustments had been a nightmare - paper forms moving between departments, manual calculations prone to errors, zero visibility into outstanding credits. Automated workflows eliminated the chaos. Digital forms now route automatically through approval chains, calculations happen instantly, and every adjustment creates a complete audit trail.
Sustainability Impact: By eliminating paper invoices, credit memos, and manual filing systems, Franklin Foods reduced document-related paper consumption by an estimated 75,000 sheets annually - equivalent to approximately 9 trees per year.
Compliance Strengthening: Digital workflows strengthened their FSMA compliance posture, providing instant access to transaction histories during audits and enabling rapid traceability for food safety incidents.
The Cultural Shift
Perhaps most impressive was the speed of adoption. Warehouse teams embraced digital BOLs on tablets, AP clerks redirected their time from data entry to vendor relationship management, and finance leadership gained real-time visibility they’d never had before.
The transformation from “this is how we’ve always done it” to “why didn’t we do this sooner?” happened within the first quarter. This cultural shift didn’t happen because of the software – it happened because of strategic implementation focused on people as much as processes.
Discover the complete Franklin Foods transformation including their breakthrough approach to change management.
Why Digital Transformation Matters Now
Digital transformation is transforming how businesses interact with customers, suppliers, and partners. It provides significant competitive advantages to companies willing to harness its potential.
Advancing cloud technology and mobile applications are revolutionizing customer experience while enabling real-time data collection. Long-term consumer behavior changes – widespread acceptance of one-click payments, streaming services, mobile-first interactions – are catalyzing digital transformations across industries.
By embracing digital transformation now, businesses can turbocharge organizational performance and propel themselves into today’s rapidly changing business environment. Your business can no longer ignore this push if you want to stay competitive.
For insights on digital transformation in specific industries, explore our guide on digital transformation in food manufacturing.
The Benefits of Digital Transformation
Strategic Advantages
Beyond operational improvements, digital transformation provides business leaders with unprecedented visibility and insights. Through automation, predictive analytics, and machine learning, teams gain insight into customer behaviors and trends to better serve customers.
Franklin Foods’ transformation delivered tangible benefits:
- Financial: $180,000 in captured early-pay discounts
- Operational: 82% reduction in invoice processing time
- Strategic: Real-time visibility enabling proactive decision-making
- Cultural: Improved employee satisfaction and engagement
- Environmental: 75,000 sheets of paper eliminated annually
Real-World Examples
Take Nike. Nike has long dominated athletic wear, but in recent years has adopted a digital-first strategy. From connected apparel to their Nike app and AI assistant, it’s clear Nike is leveraging digital transformation to stay ahead of competition.
Domino’s invested heavily in digital technologies to enhance customer experience. Their website features an interactive map showing delivery location, real-time order tracking, and an AI-powered virtual assistant. These strategies help them compete with delivery apps like DoorDash and UberEats.
The Acceleration of Innovation
Innovations in technology have accelerated at an all-time high. Businesses and society have imagined new ways of connecting, solving problems, and speeding up procedures. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital adoption as the world reimagined ways of living, working, and connecting.
These trends in digital innovation will only continue. A 2019 study showed 70% of organizations had a digital transformation strategy or were working on one. Post-pandemic, those numbers are higher. The reality is that businesses not leaning into digital initiatives will be left behind.
Your organization needs to adapt to new technology and the evolving digital landscape or risk losing consumers who have outgrown aged business models. But this is a situation all business owners face – you aren’t alone.
For guidance on overcoming resistance to automation, read our guide on overcoming automation resistance.
Opportunities Across Industries
Digital transformation is about getting creative and imagining innovations in your business capabilities with technology. This is the time to brainstorm improvements to your business processes.
Take a deep dive into what is and isn’t working in your various business models and processes. What can you do to speed up operations or deliveries? How can you give customers better personalized experiences? What technologies can be utilized in your business?
Top benefits of adopting a digital model include improving operational efficiency, meeting customer expectations, and improving product quality. Consider these areas while analyzing your business models, products, and workflows.
Industry-Specific Opportunities
Healthcare
- Telehealth services
- Automated medical data tracking and analysis
- AI-driven clinical decision support
Retail
- Automated inventory management
- Customer experience personalization through AI
- Virtual reality shopping experiences
Finance
- Automated KYC processes
- Digital identity verification systems
- Risk scoring and fraud prevention
Manufacturing & Food Production
- Robotics and 3D printing
- Inventory tracking and management
- Compliance automation and traceability
Utility and Energy
- Smart grid systems
- Real-time energy usage tracking
- Predictive analytics for maintenance needs
No matter your industry, digital transformation is essential for staying competitive.
Setting Digital Transformation Goals
Once you have a vision of your company’s digital future, you can begin to set goals. Transformation doesn’t happen in a day, but planning can start right now.
What do you want your company to look like in a year? Break up your digital transformation goals by department. Once you have that vision for faster procedures or more personalized customer experiences, you can set goals for each department and your company as a whole.
Remember that digital transformation isn’t merely one step – it’s the collection of new technologies and software working together across your business to improve overall efficiency.
Franklin Foods’ Phased Approach
Franklin Foods started with AP automation but quickly expanded when they tackled credit memo workflows. Their phased approach:
Phase 1: AP automation (immediate ROI) Phase 2: Credit memo workflows (solving biggest pain point) Phase 3: Sustainability and compliance improvements (broader benefits) Phase 4: Cultural transformation (lasting change)
This phased approach delivered value at each stage while allowing the team to absorb changes gradually.
In 2018, studies showed 39% of executives expected to benefit from digital transformation initiatives in 3-5 years. Companies benefiting today set goals for this week and goals for years from now. Thinking ahead prepares you for the future as innovation accelerates.
For insights on successful implementation, explore our guide on successful AP automation implementation.
Develop a Digital Transformation Strategy
Developing a digital transformation strategy is a team effort. This is where research, collaboration, and partnerships come in. You may have imagined a vision and set goals, but tackling digital transformation comes with challenges on all fronts.
Many companies fall short for common reasons: they lack direction and they try to do everything themselves.
The digital transformation market is booming because experts partner with businesses to help them modernize procedures and practices. To be successful, your company must take guidance and support from digital transformation leaders.
Franklin Foods’ success came from expert-led change management that didn’t just install software – it redesigned workflows with team input. The cultural shift from “this is how we’ve always done it” to “why didn’t we do this sooner?” happened within the first quarter because of strategic implementation approach.
Talk to your IT department, shop around for automation partners, appoint staff to transformation-specific roles, and look into AI and automation companies.
Digital Transformation Success Stories
When we think of success stories in digital transformation, several companies come to mind. Netflix could have died along with Blockbuster, but instead imagined new possibilities and successfully developed a digital platform with user experience in mind.
Companies with the most successful transformations hone in on digital experience and remain quick to adapt to consumer needs. Netflix adapted to market demands and created a new status quo in streaming services. Amazon made huge strides in customer experience optimization with modernization strategies that changed how we shop.
Franklin Foods joins these success stories – not as a household name, but as a food processor that transformed operations, captured $180,000 in annual value, and achieved cultural adoption within one quarter. Their story proves digital transformation isn’t just for tech giants or retailers – it’s for any organization willing to reimagine how work gets done.
We Can Help
At Mosaic, we help organizations begin their digital transformation journey and lay building blocks for true transformation. As you modernize operations, you’ll need core functions like accounts payable operating with speed and accuracy.
Contact us today to meet with a digital transformation consultant and discover how organizations like Franklin Foods achieved comprehensive transformation – not over years, but within the first quarter of implementation.
