What is digital transformation?Why does digital transformation matter?How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed digital transformation?What does a digital transformation framework look like?What role does culture play in digital transformation?What drives digital transformation?What are the key trends in digital transformation in 2022?How can I measure ROI on digital transformation?How can I get started on digital transformation?Where can I learn more?
This article aims to answer some of the common questions around digital transformation and provide clarity, specifically to CIOs and IT leaders, including lessons learned from your peers and digital transformation experts. Because technology plays a critical role in an organization's' ability to evolve with the market and continually increase value to customers, CIOs play a key role in digital transformation.
How does the MEA keep pace with transformation
Download Zip: https://enpenfoetsu.blogspot.com/?gi=2vGhdi
Because digital transformation will look different for every company, it can be hard to pinpoint a definition that applies to all. However, in general terms, we define digital transformation as the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business resulting in fundamental changes to how businesses operate and how they deliver value to customers. Beyond that, it's a cultural change that requires organizations to continually challenge the status quo, experiment often, and get comfortable with failure. This sometimes means walking away from long-standing business processes that companies were built upon in favor of relatively new practices that are still being defined.
Digital transformation should begin with a problem statement, a clear opportunity, or an aspirational goal, Jay Ferro, chief information & technology officer of Clario, recently explained. "The "why" of your organization's digital transformation might be around improving customer experience, reducing friction, increasing productivity, or elevating profitability, for example," Ferro notes. "Or, if it's an aspirational statement, it might revolve around becoming the absolute best to do business with, utilizing enabling digital technologies that were unavailable years ago."
Leaders need to be fully aware of this reality as they frame conversations around digital transformation. For advice from Swift on how to speak to this topic without getting burned, read our related article, Why people love to hate digital transformation.
Although IT will play an important role in driving digital transformation strategy, the work of implementing and adapting to the massive changes that go along with digital transformation falls to everyone. For this reason, digital transformation is a people issue.
Mattel EVP and CTO Sven Gerjets says leading transformation starts with empathy. "When your empathy is genuine, you begin to build trust," he says. "If you don't have an organization that is supportive and fully onboard with the transformation efforts, it's impossible to succeed. You need to have leaders that know what "good" looks like and who are motivated to help the organization understand why you're doing what you're doing."
If businesses want to evolve with the rapid pace of digital change today, they must work to increase efficiency with technology wherever possible. For many, that means adopting agile principles across the business. Automation technologies also help many IT organizations gain speed and reduce technical debt.
E.G. Nadhan, chief architect, Red Hat, notes: "Even companies who have embarked on multi-year transformational journeys have had to make adjustments midstream, as they should. The operative word that defines the purpose for digital transformation in 2022 is resilience. The pandemic taught enterprises to be prepared for seismic shifts in the market dynamics and consumer needs. Forward-thinking enterprises will focus on the ability to effectively pivot and deal with change with minimal to no impact to internal and external consumers."
To prove the success of digital transformation efforts, leaders need to quantify the return on investment. That's easier said than done with projects that cross functional and business boundaries, change how a company goes to market, and often fundamentally reshape interactions with customers and employees.
"When determining how well digital transformation investments are performing, it's best to take a portfolio view and not a project level view," says Cecilia Edwards, partner with digital transformation consultancy and research firm Everest Group. Just as a mutual fund manager or venture capital firm would look at overall performance to determine how well things are going, digital transformation leaders must take a holistic view of digital change efforts.
This is particularly important so that the underperformance of one particular project doesn't reflect negatively on the overarching efforts of IT. It also builds tolerance for the necessary risks that must be undertaken to achieve real digital transformation.
Banking and Insurance are among the sectors that need to overcome challenges imposed by digital transformation. How should they adapt and ensure that they comply with both existing and incoming regulations?
Transformation from within is what should be primary objective for any organization. There are five core principles which every organization needs to emphasize on before starting their digital transformation journey. These include the following:
CEO to act as a CTO: When it comes to bracing innovation and changes, it is expected that the CEO wears the cap of the Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) and steers the business towards the right path. He should be the correct go-to person to make decisive strategies to bring about innovation and transformation within the organization.
According to Abu Dhabi Digital Authority, digital transformation is becoming a top priority for leading organizations across the region with annual spending on digital transformation initiatives expected to surpass USD 40 B by 2022.
Further, as per UnivDatos Market Insights, MEA digital transformation market is expected to reach USD 254 B by 2027 from USD 91 B in 2020, growing at a CAGR of 16% during the forecasted period. The widespread use of digital services such as mobile money and digital payments along with government initiatives and investment in AI, Metaverse, Cloud, 5G, smart cities are further providing a boost to the overall economic growth. Also, robotics, an emerging technology in the region is being applied across various industry verticals to reduce the rate of human errors. It is being implemented across smart buildings, smart factories, and smart cities through remote-controlled electrical equipment to reduces carbon emissions and lower energy consumption.
For the CIO, the focus should be giving strategic direction, building trust within the organisation and providing the means to achieve Digital Transformation. That said, transformation efforts need to be supported by resilient, cloud-enabled digital infrastructure and applications, rapid app development, digital platforms, data-driven and AI-enabled intelligence, and comprehensive security.
Organisations in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) need to ensure they are keeping up with the rapid pace of Digital Transformation if they want to remain relevant and have a successful business. For example in the Gulf region, governments are driving the agenda of Digital Transformation, with an emphasis on bringing Smart Cities to life through initiatives such as the Saudi Vision 2030.
At the forefront of this transformation are technologies such as cloud computing, analytics, Edge Computing, Machine Learning, Big Data, automation, and the Internet of Things (IoT). These new technologies are revolutionising the way we live, work and communicate, and are all supported by networks that need to keep up with the increasing bandwidth demands. Service providers across the MEA region have started the rollout of 5G networks to support the adoption of Digital Transformation at scale.
This year, Digital Transformation will continue reflecting in new technologies that enable the workforce to collaborate more effectively. For instance, we can expect companies to start offering Augmented Reality software and wearables to keep teams engaged. Businesses will also need to extend cloud and advanced network capabilities into the homes of their employees. Mesh Wi-Fi networks or even new methods of bringing connectivity to the home will become increasingly important. We will see an increase in the number of homes with a 5G connection during the year.
Along with the ever-growing capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as chatbots and real-time data analytics like medical imaging, the volume of healthcare data on the cloud is getting substantially bigger too: global healthcare data is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 36 percent through to 2025 (the fastest of all sectors, ahead of manufacturing, financial services, and media and entertainment). Healthcare is fast becoming digital and data-driven, and medical SMBs in MEA will need to keep up with the pace by being data-ready, first and foremost.
To keep up with the digital transformation pace in healthcare, medical SMBs will also need to ensure that the sensitive, personal data they work with is stored securely and compliantly. Investment in the right storage infrastructure, like a scalable, intelligent cloud solution such as Azure that supports AI deployment, regional data compliance, as well as secure, real-time data-sharing capabilities that easily integrate with clinical workflows, is vital.
Digital transformation is the profound transformation of business and organizational activities, processes, competencies and models to fully leverage the changes and opportunities of a mix of digital technologies and their accelerating impact across society in a strategic and prioritized way, with present and future shifts in mind. 2ff7e9595c
Comments