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Q: Could you outline the obstacles faced by businesses pursuing a digitalisation strategy?
A: To adopt digitalisation, organisations should take bold steps and revisit everything they do, from internal systems to customer interactions, online and in person.
Critical obstacles that large enterprises face when pursuing a digital transformation strategy include a lack of a clear vision, organisational resistance to change and bondages of organisational structure.
Most large enterprises lack a common goal since each department usually operates in a silo. However, digital transformation is an organisation-wide shift and all components should work together to succeed.
A clear purpose, a vision and goals must be set. Not having a vision is like embarking on a journey without a destination. If you’re lucky, you could stumble on something great but that is highly unlikely.
Furthermore, change means pain for anybody. Yet, pursuing a digital transformation strategy calls for taking bold steps and calculated risks, experimenting and to an extent, failing too.
In large enterprises, significant digital projects have extended timelines because they challenge routines, which cause most employees to feel uncomfortable. Organisations should make digital transformation a priority or risk being left behind.
Many businesses attempt digital transformation without upsetting the applecart. This is possible but it will be a very slow process. Digital transformation is a significant undertaking that might require drastic alterations to organisational structures, roles and even overhauling operational models, which might in turn inspire innovation, thought processes and mindset changes.
Other reasons such as budget limitations, talent shortages and competing priorities can also become common digital transformation challenges.
Q: How do existing organisational systems impact the success of digitalisation?
A: Sometimes, organisations are willing to transform digitally; yet they remain entrenched in legacy routines, inflexible technology stacks and development processes that have been layered on top of each other. This slows down the adoption of a transformation strategy.
Successful digital transformation is achieved through iterations of a ‘build, test and learn’ approach, whereby new features are being routinely added, measured, adjusted and redeployed based on customer feedback.
Enterprises that fail to forget legacy and bravely adopt digital systems are at risk of losing opportunities to more nimble and adaptable competitors who practise change adoption and management.
Q: And how are AI and IoT shaping the office of the future?
A: AI and IoT are among the top technologies organisations heavily invest in to improve efficiency and gain a competitive advantage.
Artificial intelligence can range from automating a simple process to more intelligent decision making while Internet of Things helps capture and collate large volumes of data from several sources.
Although categorised separately in the past, the convergence of AI and IoT has redefined the way organisations and economies function.
AI embedded in the IoT creates smart systems that simulate intelligent behaviour and support decision making with little or no human interaction. AI and IoT together help organisations boost operational efficiency by providing insights into time-consuming processes while enabling better risk management.
This is because they can also be used to predict and gauge the number of risks, and respond to them efficiently. They can also assist organisations running mission critical operations by eliminating unplanned downtime, which can be costly.
Furthermore, AI enabled IoT permits businesses to predict equipment failure in advance and deploy predictive maintenance procedures, saving billions of dollars.
Q: Could you cite examples of how digital transformation is driving enterprises?
A: There are many – Uber created the world’s largest taxi service without a vehicle fleet or hiring drivers; eBay and Alibaba dominate the e-commerce sphere by running the world’s largest online retail platforms without any inventory; Netflix began as a mail order service and is now disrupting conventional TV, eliminating video rental companies and changing how we consume video content overall.
Q: How are emerging technologies impacting the bottom lines of companies?
A: Various digital transformation technologies offer organisations an opportunity to directly impact their bottom lines by bringing in measurable cost reductions while enhancing efficiency and contributing to the top line.
Like AI and IoT, robotic process automation (RPA) – even though it isn’t as new – is still widely used by organisations to achieve operational efficiencies and reduce operating costs.
Companies are also investing in analytics tools, recognising the value of data and the insights they can derive to improve customer experience, drive revenue increases and garner positive bottom line impacts.
Digital transformation is an undertaking that requires a sharp vision, a goal oriented mindset, and the perseverance and willingness to adapt to change; it helps organisations survive and face the future by enabling them to compete better in an economic environment that is constantly changing in response to technological evolution.
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