6 Ways to Maximize Digital Transformation Success
Enterprise organizations will shift from what is being used to how it is being used. Maximizing what is already in place will become the priority
In my conversations with customers over the past year, including multinational beverage distributors, consumer electronic behemoths, and aerospace giants, digital transformation has been a significant priority. This was, of course, as expected.
According to one report, companies in the U.S. will spend over $250 million on digital transformation efforts this year. That number is expected to grow to over $470 million by 2024.
One difference that separates digital transformation initiatives from previous enterprise IT projects is the broad swath of technologies under its banner. Cloud. IoT. AI. Big Data.
Without question, since it is such a broad topic, digital transformation will remain a priority in the coming year. You’ll soon read article after article “predicting” that technologies under the digital transformation umbrella will stay hot. They all will. However, the focus in 2020 will shift from what is being used to how it is being used. Maximizing what is already in place will become the priority.
Here are six factors organizations need to consider to get the most out of digital transformation efforts in the new year.
The CIO is dead. Long live the CIO. The role of the chief information officer is in the midst of a significant transformation. Fifteen years ago, the CIO had a seat at the table, playing a leading role in enterprise technology decisions. Since then, the CIO has moved into more of a technical support role and away from the decision-making table. To maximize digital transformation efforts, the role of the CIO must be reborn. The new CIO requires new skills and leadership qualities. The CIO must become the decision-maker on major aspects of digital transformation including precisely how the organization will handle the data and technology that connects people, machines, and processes in real-time.
Cartography is key. While the new CIO may use Waze to get to the office, it won’t help much once they get there. In many companies, especially those with multiple facilities, the CIO is currently in the dark on the current complete inventory of digital transformation resources. Like SaaS initiatives before them, digital transformation projects entered the enterprise one at a time, department by department, lacking any central control. New organizational maps will be created to show what you have, where it is, what it’s measuring, and what is connected to it.
