The digitalization of companies: RENEW AND COMPLY

Last Sunday, March 14, marked one year since Royal Decree 463/2020, of 14 March, declaring a state of alarm for the management of the health crisis situation caused by COVID-19. This event has meant a radical change in our way of relating, encouraging telematic meetings, online shopping, medical consultations by telephone, communication with our loved ones through social networks, etc. We had to radically implement technology in our daily lives, becoming our ally

Because of this fact, online commerce is one of the few that have increased in 2020, especially during the months of lockdown. This is reflected in the annual eCommerce study carried out by IAB Spain, the association for advertising and digital communication in Spain. This study aims to measure the evolution and main trends of this market in Spain. The aforementioned study shows that, currently, 7 out of 10 Internet users shop online, which translates into 22.5 million Spaniards between 16 and 70 years old.

In addition, the study points out that 73% of users trust web pages mainly thanks to two factors: a good previous experience and the existence of secure forms of payment. It also details that the shopping websites, the brand, the good opinions of the buyers and the online seal of trust convey trust. In addition, these online shoppers continue to purchase physical products and services in greater proportion.

As indicated in the aforementioned study, it is necessary for any sector to strengthen its digital presence, and that is why public administrations have given impetus through different grants, with the aim of implementing innovation in companies. Aiming to improve their competitiveness through technology.

But what is digitalization? According to RAE it is the”Action and effect of digitizing”, and then what is digitization? ”Convert or encode digits or continuous information into numbers, such as a photographic image, document or book”. We still don't exactly understand business digitalization, because it is a term that goes beyond a simple definition, it could be said that it is the implementation of a culture within the company (regardless of its volume of business), that is, digitalization begins with the digital transformation of the people who make up the business, modifying the way they relate within it, implementing digital tools and technological resources to optimize work processes. After this, business digitalization would consist of the change of”New Customer” that, as reflected in the study mentioned above, the way of acquiring, consuming, searching for products or services and how they relate to different brands has changed radically. The next link, which is a very important point, is to implement new technologies to our business, such as the well-known one”Chatbots” customer service through intelligent robots, WhatsApp Business, etc. In other words, services that have been provided for years, incorporating a technological part to provide added and differentiating value to the rest of the services already provided by us and our competitors. Another point is data analysis, the much mentioned Big Data, being the information provided by users who visit our website unconsciously by them, the main source of information for making strategic decisions to launch new products and expand the customer target, both for our real and potential customers.

As we have seen, the future is digitalization, but we must not forget that whenever there is data traffic, we must take into account the Fundamental Right to Data Protection, which we must guarantee by being responsible for the processing of data. We must be aware that in order to achieve digital visibility on the Internet, not everything is legal, since we must comply with all the regulations that apply to it, the aforementioned Organic Law on Data Protection, the Information Society Services and Electronic Commerce Act, consumer and user law, among others.

In this new era in which both companies and individuals have a “digital identity” we must take care of the image we are projecting and the one we want to leave to the future, because what is done today has repercussions for a long time, having an impact that we are not providing now. For this reason, it is important to take care of our brand image, the comments of our customers, and we must implement a policy in our business to improve the impact we want to leave digitally.

Renew or die. Both for companies and independent entrepreneurs, you should consider the option of digitalization, as the main source to boost your business, complying with legal obligations, since a legal breach, a data security breach, can ruin all that economic and personal effort, causing reputational damage, which directly affects the commercial brand; materializing in economic losses. I repeat “renew or die” but always complying with the provisions of current legislation because otherwise, the investment made is worthless.

Guadalupe Tejela (T&L Attorney)