Digitization vs Digitalization
What is the Difference and Why Should You Care?
There is much hype surrounding Digital Transformation and the associated terms Digitization and the tongue twisting Digitalization.
There is some ambiguity in the use of the terms Digitization and Digitalization with the terms often being used interchangeably despite having quite different meanings. I would suggest that this is often due to an organisation having a desire to be seen to be on of the cool kids who are digitally transforming without having an understanding of what this means.
DIGITIZATION
Digitization is the process of converting analog information to digital with no change in business process or model.
An example of this could include using an electronic rather than paper-based form.
Digitization has a long history (refer: Forbes) with the binary number system being developed back in 1679. Digitization of business really commenced in the 1950s with the application of mainframe computers to banking and finance and accelerating from the 1980s to now with the arrival of the personal computer and now cloud based computing.
While digitization can lead to significant efficiency gains, of itself it is not transformational.