Q: In what way is digital transformation driving enterprises?
A: Digital transformation is no longer an option when growing a business. Agile organisations will gain a winning competitive edge compared to old school businesses.

It merely entails using all relevant digital resources available to your business to engage all your stakeholders.

Whether you are improving the lives of employees, customers or shareholders, these functions are more dependent than ever on how digitally transformed the business is to cater to their requirements, simplify processes and ensure loyalty.

All sectors across industries are moving towards the digital era due to the pandemic and addressing the limitations of how we used to work. Using technology to radically improve performance or the reach of businesses will become the norm and organisations that are slow to adapt will find themselves at a disadvantage.

There are three essential components to such an overhaul that will drive enterprises to gear up their digital transformations – viz. processes, operations and relationships with customers.

Taking News Publisher as an example, we identified a key process where we could allocate a PR professional’s time and effort to creative purposes. By automating the distribution of press releases through News Publisher Online, we have reduced a 20 minute process down to one minute.

By overhauling this operation, and enabling anyone to send press releases to the local media and enhance the customer offering, we make publicity affordable and accessible from anywhere in the world. In turn, this builds long-term customer loyalty.

Q: How has News Publisher catered to groups such as technopreneurs through digitalisation – and how can other businesses follow suit?
A: Customers are more empowered in their decision making as companies have to compete with the best product or service solutions since they have access to real-time information.

Technopreneurs may be pleasantly surprised by News Publisher since it’s unusual for a corporate communications agency to have a payment gateway on its website as it is a B2B service. However, due to automation of the process and zero human involvement, we’ve had to incorporate a payment gateway on our website.

This service was first used locally by entrepreneurs, making our offering a B2C service as we target individuals by making publicity cost-efficient. But with the pandemic, the gateway makes it easier for international clients to submit payments during lockdowns.

As such, we’re able to run our operations smoothly without stepping out, which surprises us when we identify new uses for our innovations.

In a similar vein, service sectors have no excuse apart from a few functions that still require physical presence such as activities where participants have to physically engage with each other.

The corporate communications or PR industry alone is capable of running at least 80 percent of its business online.

We work on written briefs, documents and press announcements. Being online therefore, is entirely mandatory whether or not we’re in an office. The use of social media and online platforms to communicate is creating various sub-industries such as sentiment monitoring, big data analysis, AI, influencer marketing and the list goes on.

However, the sustainability of service sectors too depends on digital transformation.

Technology is not only used to understand wants but to simplify the user experience and understand their frustrations. Bridging sector gaps through tech would mean diving deeper into customers’ mindsets and helping them with a better service offering whether it’s quicker, cheaper or simpler.

A technopreneur’s journey to simplifying an operation or process means thinking like all stakeholders – or all humans. Enterprises also need to be mindful in ensuring that the technology used is relevant to them.

Businesses must leverage insiders instead of hiring consultants to improve their businesses. They need to recognise employees’ fear of being replaced and adapt to a Silicon Valley startup culture where flat structures result in agile decision making.

Q: What are the company’s future plans?
A: Innovation is nice if you reap all its rewards. We still believe there’s more potential in expanding our online tool.

While we attract clients through the automation initiative, there’s still a lot of human involvement in the process. We may work from anywhere but the idea is to have a completely automated process.

Changes in customer behaviour take time and consistent awareness building. We’re working on expanding our markets locally and internationally through content marketing.

On the environmental front, we have partnered with a company called Breathe to plant a tree for every new client we gain. So in time, we will have a little News Publisher forest planted by our very own clients.

News Publisher helps entrepreneurs develop their marketing strategies. Through promotions on Instagram, we select three entrepreneurs every quarter to guide them with complimentary advice on how to maximise their tools and marketing budgets, followed by a summarised plan for each startup to launch.

And finally, digital PR will play a pivotal role as it represents prompt publicity and a two-way communication platform.

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INTERVIEWEE INFORMATION
Fiona Nanayakkara
Director
COMPANY DETAILS
Telephone:0750 775775
Email:fiona@newspublisher.online
Website:www.newspublisher.online