Digital transformation for small businesses: A guide

With artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies powering productivity across many industries, digital transformation has become a requirement for businesses to thrive in the AI era. Digital transformation for small businesses does more than help growing companies survive in a quickly evolving market — it equips teams with tools to stay ahead of the competition.

Before kicking off your digital transformation, you’ll want to follow a few key guidelines that’ll help keep you on track as you build your strategy for long-term growth.

Key highlights:

• The term digital transformation for small businesses means integrating technology to enhance customer experiences, improve productivity, and support scalability as your company grows
• Digital transformation for small business empowers you to work smarter — whether it’s enhancing customer service with AI chatbots, boosting productivity through automation, or scaling processes with flexible cloud solutions
• With Box, you power small business digitalization with automated workflows, secure collaboration, and insights from your content — all with strong security and compliance controls to keep your business data protected

What is small business digital transformation?

Small business digital transformation is the process of integrating technologies — such as cloud computing, software applications, and other digital systems — into your business, streamlining operations and delivering more value to customers.

Digital transformation applies to companies of any size, but in small businesses it typically focuses on cost-effective solutions and core functions, including:

• Customer support: Implementing AI chatbots and CRM systems makes it easier to handle inquiries and improve service without adding extra overhead
• Finance and accounting: Use cloud collaboration tools to enhance team communication and automate tasks to streamline contract approvals
• Remote work enablement: Platforms for video conferencing and cloud storage keep your team productive, no matter where they work
• Marketing and sales: AI-powered content creation tools and sales automation platforms help optimize campaign strategies and personalize customer outreach
• Data governance and regulatory compliance: Investing in software to better manage files and folder permissions and automate retention schedules helps protect sensitive information and avoid costly penalties

Explore the four types of digital transformation your company can undergo.

Real-world small business digital transformation examples

Whether you’re a small e-commerce platform personalizing experiences or a marketing agency strengthening your business process automation strategy, digital transformation provides the infrastructure to do more with less.

For instance, you can fast-track projects by adopting online project management software that centralizes documentation, visual timelines, and CRM data in a single location, reducing costs with extra tools and minimizing delays in the execution.

Want to stay agile and build better customer relationships? Here’s how new technologies can work for you.

Advantages of digital transformation in small businesses

Technology is a valuable enabler of business growth — when implemented strategically, it helps maximize resources and eliminate bottlenecks in critical processes. Take a closer look at how digital transformation in small businesses benefits your operations, no matter your current stage.

• Improved customer experiences: Imagine boosting your customer service support with AI agents that never sleep, assisting staff during peak hours and freeing teams to handle complex inquiries. Conversational AI chatbots are just one way to deliver better experiences to your clients. You can also personalize content to match your audience’s needs and use e-signature to speed up contract approvals.
• Enhanced productivity: The leading reason for implementing AI technology is the potential for productivity gains. A Small Business Majority survey shows that 52% of small business leaders expect AI will streamline operations, automate tasks, and reduce manual efforts — allowing companies to operate at their full potential.
• Scalability and growth opportunities: The digital transformation of small-scale businesses also involves adopting tools and technologies that support your growth strategies. For example, by relying on flexible, cloud-based data storage instead of physical infrastructure, you can adjust capacity for increasing content demands while facilitating file recovery in case of disasters and system failures.

Discover other benefits of digital transformation for businesses.

Digital transformation strategy for small businesses: What you need to know

Investing in digital transformation services for small businesses should be on your to-do list, but don’t rush into it. To understand where to start with digital transformation, use these three insights to guide your next steps.

1. A digital transformation strategy for small businesses begins in the here and now

According to a World Economic Forum report, one in four small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) see technology implementation and innovation as a top business challenge, while two-thirds of the respondents believe their biggest obstacle is surviving and expanding their businesses to new markets. These concerns might not always be directly related, but you should consider both when creating a digital transformation strategy for small businesses.

To future-proof your strategy, start with the most pressing bottlenecks. Map out current tools, processes, and gaps that hinder your business maintenance and growth. Then help prioritize investments that align with your company goals, such as reinforcing information security or improving small business collaboration.

Check out the top benefits of collaborative workspaces.

2. AI plays a critical role in small business digitalization

Small business digitalization is the subset of digital transformation focused on eliminating paper-based and manual processes. For instance, you can use an Intelligent Content Management platform to find documents faster based on their metadata, saving time spent searching for contracts and policies.

AI is a powerful engine behind digital workflow automation, enabling intelligent document processing, content generation, and summarization, reducing the hours spent on these time-consuming activities. Case in point: Salesforce’s Small & Medium Business Trends Report shows that 85% of small and midsize businesses that adopt AI expect to get a return on investment, making this technology a critical component of digital transformation for small businesses.

Remember: Responsible AI implementation requires a strategic roadmap, which involves training your team on clear governance practices and ensuring your AI solutions follow transparent guidelines around data privacy and user consent.

See the importance of employee training and upskilling in digital transformation.

3. Adopting digital transformation in small business operations calls for strong data security measures

Data is the key to understanding your customers and the source of many business decisions. Relying on solutions to manage sensitive information (like platforms for client document sharing) requires robust security controls and practices to prevent situations like:

• Data breaches or leaks of personally identifiable information (PII)
• Important files getting deleted or corrupted
• Cyberattacks like phishing or ransomware
• Vulnerable third party integrations opening security gaps

With cloud-based solutions, you manage files securely using cloud app integration, encryption, threat detection, and online backup — enhancing data security and compliance without impacting your productivity or collaboration.

Power your small business growth strategy with Box

The success of digital transformation in small businesses also depends on the way you manage and get value from your data. With Box, the leading Intelligent Content Management platform, you leverage advanced AI capabilities to automate business processes, collaborate on content, and gain insights from documents with end-to-end data protection.

Box for small businesses supports your growth strategy with:

• Unlimited storage, e-signatures, and collaboration from anywhere
• Enterprise-grade artificial intelligence to create intelligent workflows with Box AI
• Security and compliance controls for your business needs
• Seamless app integrations to connect Box with +1,500 platforms

Reach out to us and see how digital transformation for small businesses can work for you.

*While we maintain our steadfast commitment to offering products and services with best-in-class privacy, security, and compliance, the information provided in this blog post is not intended to constitute legal advice. We strongly encourage prospective and current customers to perform their own due diligence when assessing compliance with applicable laws.