Digital Transformation: Riding the Wave or Watching the tide go by?

Can you imagine a Futuristic Mr. Bond, the Secret Agent trying to defeat A Super Geeky Villain with his year old 1962, Beretta 6.35mm gun?

The answer is clearly NO!

As for the Super-Agent 007, it’s all about the Digitized Gadgets, Upgraded Fancy Cars and Revolutionized Weapons that he uses to win over the Geeky Villains and sneaking away with Bond Women.

So the point we are trying to make here is that in each and every series of the Bond movie that was showcased, the producers knew how to keep pace with the new Digitally Evolved, Transformed & Modernized Gadgets and sync in with the present audience.

Or When Netflix launched its DVD-by-mail business in 1997, Blockbuster ignored the new kid on their block.

Blockbuster’s view was that consumers preferred to drive down to their local store than wait for their films to arrive a few days later. But then Netflix developed a platform offering an all-you-can-watch, on-demand approach to “streaming” entertainment. The rest is a story all of us have been party to.

The repercussions of this kind of disruption cannot be underestimated. For nearly every industry the impact of new digital technology is fundamental, even existential, stirring up business-critical agendas for the boardroom and their IT departments.

Similarly, in today’s world leading enterprises see Digital Transformation as a Bridge towards achieving Crucial Objectives. Digital Transformation is all about transforming the way business is done in an ever-changing economic landscape and this is having a big impact across industries.

As per a Gartner survey of 396 leaders across 30 companies, half of the CEOs surveyed expect their industries to be substantially or unrecognizably transformed by digitization. The boards of every company have valid concerns about the impact of digitization on their ability to ensure that the company’s business relevance continues. Forward-looking leaders are staying a step ahead by understanding the seismic shift that’s happening as their industries and competitors embrace digital transformation, and apply it across the board.

So what is this buzz about Digital Transformation?

Digital Transformation is about Creating New Customer Experiences that lead to increased customer loyalty and increased revenue. It is about Transforming Processes and Business Models so organizations can respond faster to market changes and make operations more efficient. Digital transformation is also about Empowering Workforce Efficiency and Innovation which leads to increased productivity and helps to attract and retain talent.

In today’s rapidly transforming business world, it seems the only constant is change. Companies that can’t keep up with the pace of change and adapt to disruptive innovation often find themselves floundering. There are quite a few examples of famous market-leading companies that have had to declare bankruptcy as a result of not reading their markets right and not keeping up with Digital Transformation.

Eastman Kodak Company (KODK) is one such name that comes to mind, along with Polaroid Corporation, Blockbuster, Inc. and Borders Group. While some of these companies may have been somewhat mismanaged along the way, not keeping up with the Digitalization was certainly a major factor that led to bankruptcy. Wherein companies like Instagram, Netflix, Amazon, Kindle & Paypal have proved that being updated with existing technologies and keeping pace with the Digitization has made them as the leading Tech Savvy Companies of this Era.

What makes an enterprise ‘Digital’?

Customer delight is what every brand manager strives for. For an enterprise to become ‘Digital’, the transformation must happen top-down. The CTO must act as a catalyst and evangelize ‘Digital’ in every function from the traditional Line of Business (LoB) to New-age Agents. It is important to inculcate a culture of innovation that not only trickles top-down but grows from bottom-up as well. Involving each of the employees in conversation to understand what ‘Digital’ means to them will help assess the readiness to transition.

“60% of digital businesses will suffer major service failures by 2020 due to the inability of IT security teams to manage digital risk” Gartner

Some of the roadblocks that organizations face while embracing Digital Transformation include:

• Legacy IT infrastructure and Processes
• Organizational culture
• Skill gap
• Budgetary constraints

So where do we Start?

Digital transformation is not about riding out a storm and hoping it will pass. It is about embracing change – and accelerating it. New digital services from automation to the Internet of Things, cloud services to outsourced applications, provide opportunities for efficiency and growth. By understanding the connections between technology and people, small ideas can grow big in a very short space of time.

It’s Time for Change!

The old management models – and the old companies – are coming crashing down. Traditional modes of operation that worked for decades, and built small companies into global giants, no longer fit. Only those that truly transform their digital processes from the ground up will survive. Consider Nokia – once one of the world’s leading providers of hardware, leading the mobile phone market. Following the disruption of their industry (led by Apple), they sold their mobile devices division and transformed into one of the world’s biggest wireless network providers.

As per a research by Protiviti, even though IT budget for organizations have increased by 10% over last few years, a greater share of the budget (55%) goes into operational and maintenance expenditure rather than innovation expenditure (13%).

Piloting Digital Transformation

Clearly, success will not come easy in this age of disruption. For any organization to succeed in its digital business initiatives it is important to:

• Listen to customers
• Rewrite the rules
• Forge digital partnerships
• Be leadership-driven
• Enhance your speed and endurance.

Platforms built on data, networking, security, automation, and analytics deliver results. A new breed of software that enables people without traditional coding skills to configure enterprise-grade solutions and apps can remove the barriers to digital transformation.

It’s Time to Lead the Way

Successful organizations will be those who recognize the need for change, develop and execute a risk-managed plan to adapt their people, processes, and technology to create an organization that enables innovation. Digital transformation is now a necessity for every industry. For today’s enterprises, this is both a scary time and an exciting one. Redefining business models is a high-risk strategy; doing nothing, however, is a far bigger risk and one that is sure to fail.

It is a gaping fate that awaits a quarter of businesses today as predicted by Gartner. As per Gartner Digital Business Incompetence will cause 25 percent of businesses to lose competitive ranking by 2017

It’s the age of digital disruption, and it pays to stay a step ahead! Over 40% of companies will be affected by digital disruption over the next 5 years, and the ones prepared for digitization will be the ones to benefit the most. If you don’t know where you stand, you run the risk of being left behind.

So, we at Locuz are here to help you embark on your journey towards Digital Transformation. As an IT Infrastructure Solutions and Services company, we focus on helping enterprises transform their businesses through innovative and optimal use of technology. Our strong team of specialists, help address your challenge of deploying & managing complex IT Infrastructure in the face of rapid technological change.  Apart from providing a wide range of advisory, implementation & managed IT services.