The global economy has shifted dramatically since the tech giants of the 1980s burst onto the scene. We got Microsoft, IBM and Apple, all providing consumer-grade computers and operating systems to the masses, fundamentally changing how people lived their lives.

But in terms of the economy, something even more important happened. Value started shifting away from physical “stuff” like oil pipelines, and into non-material, digital things, like algorithms. The most obvious example of this was what happened to Google. Here was a company employing just a few dozen people in the early 2000s, that had managed to corner the search market, all thanks to some very smart programing. The value of the company wasn’t in the computers it made, like Apple or IBM, it was in the digital language, something which couldn’t be touched in the physical world.

Now today’s largest companies aren’t those that have vast industrial facilities – they’re those that have control over very valuable arrangements of ones and zeros. So what does it all mean for businesses today?

Increase Your Digital Value

Even if you’re not a technology or a computer company, you can use digital tools, developed by Silicon Valley and its offshoots to add value to your business’s digital offering. There are all sorts of ways that you can do this. For instance, you could add value, with the help of IT support, by making it easier for colleagues to collaborate. Right now, collaboration tools are storming the workplace, allowing employees to work together on projects simultaneously, no matter where they are located. One of the ways you could add digital value, therefore, is to dematerialise your office, working from remote locations, and bringing in experts from all over the world who suit your businesses needs.

When it comes to customers, there’s a lot you can do already. One of the cool trends right now is to make websites a more interactive experience. Rather than just having a flat site which does little more than list your products, you can now make it into an interactive space where customers can comment, give feedback, watch videos and even play games.

Then there are the numerous supply chain and warehousing benefits that software can bring. New software solutions allow ecommerce businesses, retail outfits, and even consultants to automate many of their backend processes. What’s more, a lot of this software allows companies to collect critical data, which can then be crunched by big data solutions to provide insights. For instance, you might notice that you have a lot of demand for your product on a Thursday night? Why is this, and how can your company leverage this information to boost sales on every other night of the week?

The Key To Digital Success

Digital success is all about adding value to your company by getting software to take care of data collection and prediction. The more of these tasks you can pass over to software – things like accounting apps – the more your business will lower its overall costs and make better decisions.