Digitization is the process of converting information into a digital one and when this process is leveraged to improve business processes called Digitalization. Digital technologies have changed the way business-to-business firms act in business markets in terms of what they sell (their value propositions). The term digitization and the digitalization of business are the trends affecting many aspects of business-to-business marketing. The Internet revolution triggered a new economy, often referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it enables more than half the human population to harness creativity, entrepreneurship and energy to change their lives.
Digital platforms offer consumers and small businesses the ability to connect to financial and other service providers through an online or mobile channel as an integrated part of their day-to-day activities. India is marking its presence on the Internet with platforms and products that digitally empower a billion citizens. In the past six years, about 500 million Indians have in some manner adapted to a digital way of life. Smartphones are the epicenter of this revolution, and apps are their gateway to the digital world. Cheap Chinese-origin smartphones account for nearly 60 percent of the Indian market, and many of the banned apps come pre-embedded.
The platform economy is emerging as one of the most powerful manifestations of the digital revolution, which we also refer to as the “fourth industrial revolution. It’s a fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing, and other technologies and brings the focus to be on the transitioning from a product orientation to a customer orientation, with a focus on delivering a differentiated customer experience to target markets. Thanks to rapid advances in cloud, mobile and analytics, and the falling cost of these new technologies, digital platforms are creating the next wave of disruption, growth and breakthrough innovation. Digital platforms bring together vast communities of customers and partners, including developers. They create markets of enormous scale and efficiency. And they enable new levels of collaboration between companies from different industry sectors that can result in the conception of entirely new products and services.
However, the opportunity for digital platforms is perhaps most exciting for the small businesses that most countries rely on for economic and employment growth. Secondly, out of various other segments, the most adopted industry we can talk about is the auto industry that uses the Business Platforms, where we can see the Future, which reflects on how a platform approach can generate exponential value and customer loyalty in an industry faced with evolving expectations, data explosion and rapid innovation. It outlines the value of platforms to OEMs and its various partners that will work together to meet customer needs across discovery, purchase and ownership. At the same time, Small enterprises are well placed to benefit from the large-scale marketplaces that platforms offer. But they are also well positioned to establish platforms of their own.
