The digitization of companies: RENEW AND DELIVER

Last Sunday, March 14, marked the one-year anniversary of Royal Decree 463/2020, of March 14, 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 the way we relate to each other, encouraging telematic meetings, online shopping, medical consultations by telephone, communication with our loved ones through social networks, etc. We have had to radically implement technology in our daily life, becoming our ally.

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

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

As the aforementioned study indicates, it is necessary for any sector to boost its digital presence, and that is why public administrations have given impetus through various subsidies, with the aim of implementing innovation in companies. The aim is 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 digitizing? "To convert or encode digits or information of a continuous nature into numbers, such as a photographic image, a document or a book". We continue without understanding exactly the business digitization, 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 turnover), ie, digitization begins in the digital transformation of the people who make up the business, changing the way of relating within it, implementing digital tools and technological resources to optimize work processes. After this, business digitization would consist in the change of the "New Customer" that, as reflected in the aforementioned study, has radically changed the way of acquiring, consuming, searching for products or services and how they relate to the different brands. The next link, which is a very important point, consists of implementing new technologies in our business, such as the well-known "Chatbots", customer service through intelligent robots, WhatsApp Business, etc. That is, services that have been provided for years, incorporating a technological part to provide added value and differentiating the other 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 these, the main source of information to make strategic decisions to launch new products, expand the target customers, both on our actual 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 of Data Protection, which we have to guarantee as we are responsible for the treatment of these data. We must be aware that to achieve digital visibility on the Internet not everything is legal, because we must comply with all applicable regulations, the aforementioned Organic Law on Data Protection, the Law of Services of the Information Society and Electronic Commerce, law of consumers and users, 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 in the future, because what is done today has repercussions for a long time, having an impact that we do not provide now. Therefore, it is important to take care of our brand image, the comments of our customers, having to implement a policy in our business to improve the impact we want to leave digitally.

Renew or die. For both companies and self-employed entrepreneurs you should consider the option of digitization 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, reporting a reputational damage, which directly affects the trademark; materializing in economic losses. Again I repeat "renew or die" but always complying with the provisions of current legislation because otherwise, the investment made is worthless.

Guadalupe Tejela (Attorney T&L)