The difference between Digitisation, Digitalisation and Digital Transformation.

Digitisation, Digitalisation and Digital Transformation. Three different words, three different meanings. It can be easily assumed that Digitisation, Digitalisation and Digital Transformation all mean the same thing. However, in truth, they represent three completely different meanings.

Digitisation

Digitisation is the process in which information is converted from physical format to digital format. A few examples of digitisation include:

• Scanning a Paper Document and turning it in to PDF format
• Storing customer information on private computers rather than material folders
• Converting an email signature to digital format for use on online documents

Digitalisation

Digitalisation is the process of using digitisation to improve and enhance business practices, making them more productive, efficient and profitable. It’s making the digital data work successfully for a business. Digitalisation always carries positive connotations as it goes hand in hand with some form of improvement, unlike digitisation. A few examples of digitalisation include:

• Using Cloud Computing to store and distribute documents
• Introducing e-commerce for customers to purchase products online
• Creating automated workflows, for example: Website -> Order placed -> Shipping label created -> Customer receives invoice -> Warehouse prepares the shipping.

Digital Transformation

Digital transformation refers to the strategic aim of a business to harness the aspects of their digitalisation to impact the overall approach of the business. Through the integration of multiple processes and workstreams, the business is enabled to optimise its digital activity. A few examples of digital transformation include:

• Introducing ecommerce or Web Ordering to allow your customers to place and pay for orders digitally
• Advertising, communicating and having a general presence on social media.
• Introducing a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM), technology for managing all your company’s relationships and interactions, with customers and prospective customers.
  
  So, in summary. Digitisation is the creation of digital representations of physical objects and attribute such as email and payslips. Digitalisation is using digital enhancements to improve and enhance business practices. Digital transformation is the use of multiple enhancements to create a technological shift in how a business operates.