Like a birdie bounced over a badminton net, digital transformation is a buzzword frequently tossed into business conversations and articles. And just like that birdie—depending on who’s serving—it’s an offensive missive, or it’s deployed as cautionary advice to put a company on the defensive.

Put another way, digital transformation either brims with the promise of the future, and of liberation in work and freedom from limits when it comes to growth and innovation. Or it’s cached within a “how come you haven’t gotten on the bandwagon yet? Digital transformation is essential to survival, or you’ll find yourself on the wrong side of the disruptive divide” type of comment.

But what, exactly, is digital transformation? What does digital transformation look like? What can it solve? What is the result of digital transformation in the orthopedic medical device manufacturing vertical?

So many questions. First, let’s define digital transformation, before even examining how it might look when applied to just such a business.

At its most basic, digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business. The application of digital tools and processes fundamentally changes a business’s operations. How? These digital tools and processes simplify conventional, more cumbersome ways of doing business, such as handling data entry, executing routine communications, or enacting multi-step processes that can easily get stuck in a bottleneck. Done well, digital transformation creates new and efficient ways of working and paves the way for acceleration in innovation and growth—and overall revenues.

Digital transformation is not a new idea—it’s arguably in its third wave at the moment. First hot as a term in the mid-1990s, the buzzword surfaced again about a decade ago. Yet the concept (before it was named “digital transformation”) goes back nearly four decades. In fact, almost any company in existence today has embraced some aspect of digital transformation technology, from mainframes to the Internet, ERP systems, and the cloud.

But having these digital technologies coexist in a technology stack is not the same thing as digital transformation. For many businesses, certain processes have been digitized, but these processes have not been transformed. Applying digital technology to existing processes looks like paper sales orders that have become PDFs. Or, it looks like sales orders that are now in Excel spreadsheets or ERP systems.

By contrast, digital transformation looks much more like a revolution in operations, where access to a single source of data and truth is available to all staff. It’s where access to real-time information and data drive better, more-informed decision-making. It’s where the tedious nature of certain jobs is relieved, allowing management to repurpose people into more rewarding work—and, at the same time, control headcount with growth—ultimately to drive better performance and higher profits across a business.

Certain industries have already wholly embraced digital transformation, precipitating a sea change in their business models as well as new horizons for growth, profitability, and innovation. Think about the explosion of the Internet of Things—connected devices and smart meters—and how that’s transforming energy companies, for instance. Think Netflix instead of video stores, Amazon instead of Kmart, and your 24-hour news cycle instead of the printed local newspaper tossed on your doorstep. These are all products of digital transformation.

Other verticals, however, have been slower to adopt digital transformation. And the orthopedic medical device industry is among them—meaning the time is ripe for adoption to drive the kinds of gains in dollars, strategy, and innovation that other industries have already seen.

For the orthopedic medical device industry, digital transformation offers relief: from chaos, from pricing pressures affecting financial performance, and from compliance needs with new track and trace regulations. In fact, manufacturers at all sizes and scales struggle with this chaos and these pressures, and that reality costs them time, money, and opportunity. All of that can stifle growth and scale.

• Small manufacturers trying to grow quickly struggle to meet demand with production. Homegrown processes handcuff employees’ effectiveness, and management struggles with the finances required to increase headcount even while seeing the need in the stark light of reality.
• Midsize manufacturers contend with other pressures. Under-utilized inventory constrains cash flow, and increasingly complex field sales networks can jeopardize effectiveness.
• Large manufacturers operate within a different landscape, as mergers and acquisitions add complexity to the product line. Working capital, which is essential to the growth priorities shareholders demand, is often locked in under-utilized inventory, or it’s a challenge to get inventory where and when it’s needed.

Multiple imperfect systems, lack of visibility, constant inventory wrangling, and cumbersome data entry all contribute to chaos. And, ever-increasing competition and evolving regulatory oversight compounds the situation.

But digital transformation offers great promise. By streamlining business processes, digital transformation can help manufacturers reinvent the way they do business from the inside out. And there are tools—and expertise—that manufacturers can avail themselves of in order to accomplish it.

Take ImplantBase, for example, which provides the industry-leading cloud platform for the orthopedic implant device industry. As CEO Ethan Lauer puts it, “We certainly see ours as a digital transformation firm providing a digital transformation capability for our customers to be able to walk down that path. We've been, over the course of the last 10 years, developing expertise in doing just that.” Through a single cloud platform, ImplantBase revolutionizes finance, sales and operational functions for manufacturers of all levels. It’s currently in use with nearly 25 manufacturers of every size and scale, helping them rein in chaos and grow to capture market share.

Digital transformation is coming to the orthopedic medical device implant industry. Its promise offers new and efficient ways of doing business—ways that open up the horizon for the kind of growth and scale many companies seek without treading a clear path forward.

Interested in how ImplantBase can help? The company’s experts offer a 30-minute, no obligation performance assessment and transformation plan.