Digital Transformation: How do you make your business more competitive? It’s a question that many waste management and recycling businesses are asking themselves – particularly as we experience more economic challenges and regulations become tighter and there is a need for greater operational efficiency.
For most organisations, digital transformation is the key to long-term success. It might feel like a big step – in fact, it often is a big step – but starting to move to digital ways of working is the only way forward if you want to retain your current market share and achieve any level of growth.
What does this mean for you?
Digital transformation is about more than converting documents from paper to computer. It involves re-thinking how your organisation operates, updating business models, refining processes and looking for more efficient ways to operate.
A survey carried out by McKinsey Digital in 2021 found that the pandemic had focused leaders’ minds on the importance of adopting and embracing technologies – and doing It faster. In fact, the survey showed that overall adoption of technologies had sped up by three to seven years – quite a change.
McKinsey Digital found that companies with superior technical capabilities were ahead of the game and more likely to succeed, and that organisations will need to invest in digital-first businesses in order to stay competitive.
This might seem daunting, but there are lots of good reasons to seriously consider digital transformation for your business:
It streamlines your processes – while the processes you’ve had for many years may have served you well, they’re probably not as efficient as they need to be. And they may not be fit-for-purpose for the business that you want to have. Looking at introducing better technology to your business can help you to re-evaluate and redesign your processes to meet new demands and produce new efficiencies.
It releases talent in your business – people who are currently managing a lot of manual or semi-digital processes could be doing much more valuable work for you. A good digital transformation will look at the talent and skill across your business to see where technology can release your people to deliver more value added tasks.
It improves reporting – reporting and compliance are becoming ever-more important in the waste and recycling industry. It’s particularly important as the world moves away from the linear economy to the circular economy, sending less to landfill, and re-using our valuable materials. Your customers are also demanding accurate data for their Scope, 1,2 and 3 emissions requirements as well as their ESG reporting. Without access to integrated operational and financial data, you won’t be able to report in the detail needed, and customers will look for alternatives.
It gives you a competitive edge – when clients are choosing to work with a waste and recycling organisation, they are looking for the ability to do the job reliably, cost-effectively and efficiently. If your business is based on a good digital strategy, you will inspire more confidence from your customers and put yourself in a stronger place to win new business.
It allows you to expand – as we move into a circular economy, you want to exploit the secondary income streams available to you. That means having the ability to resell materials to selected suppliers, and to manage a range of revenues coming into the business. Having a good digital solution in place allows you to take advantage of new market opportunities.
An easy way to bring digital transformation into your business is to talk to us about Waste & Recycling One. This unique software for waste management & recycling works across your business to collect all your data into a single source. From there, you can improve everything from route planning to compliance reporting, using up-to-date data to give you visibility over all your processes.
To find out more, contact our team today or visit our showcase below.
