It’s this impact that organizations are now realizing the value of not just marketing but the sources behind its efforts, data.  Yes, we can easily say that data and technology falls under the role of the Chief Information Officer or Chief Technology Officer, but the real value comes from turning that data into a digital asset and connecting that data back with the customer, the audience, the user and their experiences. Data alone is still data and let’s remember in digital transformation, it’s not about technology.   This is where marketing makes that connection.

My efforts providing marketing strategies to my customers is now transitioning to offer a company digital transformation strategy with data-driven efforts.  Marketing is still involved but organizations now want to understand the data they create, the data they capture, and the data they need to capture, but they need to know the value of the data as it relates to their audience and their experiences.  Companies do not exist without its customers, so this is the common force leading organizations to re-think in terms of digital vs marketing.  It’s not about the marketing experience anymore, it’s about the digital experience both for the customer and for the organization.  Organizations are now realizing that it makes sense that the digital experiences expert, aka marketers, should also lead the digital charge both externally and internally within the organization.  This includes leading digital transformation across the company because just like customers, employees are just as impactful to the success of the company, so digital transformation should be treated with the same amount of effort to be successful.  This is not to say that all other departments should be left out, digital transformation is a company-wide effort but if marketing is key to connecting with customer experiences, then it stands to reason that marketing, now digital, will help transition any organization to connect with its employees to lead them into the digital age.

As I work with organizations, digital transformation also includes the artificial intelligence experience.  Many think of artificial intelligence as a buzzword but today, I work with many organizations that are leveraging the value of AI.  Organizations understand the challenges with artificial intelligence but over time they are also understanding the value of data and the need to stay competitive in the digital age.  As I develop their digital transformation strategy (albeit artificial intelligence experiences), it involves the four key pillars of people, process, product and technology as the foundation.  Over time, these artificial intelligence experiences range from learning models such as machine learning, object detection and neural networks but also include natural language processing through chatbots and natural language generation for content creation.  Its understanding what the organization is capable of and how to leverage data from automation to predictive analytics.

As of 2020, Illumulus is now shifting its positioning model.  We are providing digital transformation strategies, digital implementation models and creating artificial intelligence experiences as our primary focus.   In the past, this was secondary to the main focus of marketing strategies, but now the goal is to lead others to become a digital data-driven organization by turning data into digital assets.