Time for ‘digital first’ upgrade

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Time for ‘digital first’ upgrade

Friday, 19 April 2019 | Amit Mehta

To continue thriving amid changing tides in the business world, organisations must establish an open and honest line of communication between their firms and IT functions

We live in an era where technology is changing rapidly. With new innovations marking the technological landscape and an unprecedented race for ‘digital transformation’ by enterprises, it has become almost imperative for organisations and their IT teams to upgrade their existing infrastructure, adopt emerging technologies and deploy ‘digital first’ strategies. It has now become common to see companies go all-out on the ‘digital’ part of transformation projects — IT upgrades, optimisation of digital channels, investments in technology talent and much more. Often neglected, however, is the change in management, socialisation and communication elements that are essential for the ultimate success of this new focus on IT.

Currently, the business landscape in India is rife with disruption. Much of it is driven by organisations using technology in new or innovative ways to keep the digital ecosystem circulating around businesses. According to a study conducted by ESG’s IT Transformation Maturity Curve India Report, 90 per cent of the Indian respondents believed that to succeed and stay ahead of the competition, their organisations’ IT department needed to adopt IT transformation. This indicates the extent to which the IT department needs to be an integrated element for the success of an organisation. Another salient finding of the study states that transformed companies in India are 6.5 times more likely to be involved in business-strategy development compared to their counterparts.

Therefore, technology-enabled change can only work wonders when there is a clearly-defined and broadly understood vision of both — how that transformation will unfold in reality and its end-to-end goals. Hence, alignment between IT and business is essential to create a common ground that can facilitate and encourage all-encompassing change. This can be achieved through a mix of conversation, education and empowerment among a full range of key stakeholders:

Demystify change via education and transparency: Despite buzz of positive sentiments around business transformation trends, there remains a general state of apprehension about disruption within the C-suite. Simply put, in the corporate world, change is necessary but rarely a straightforward business. In that context, business functions about to fire the starting-gun on transformation projects need to be facilitating advance-conversations around the need for change and what it will entail for all parties concerned, with a focus on IT — a crucial engine for innovation and growth.

To continue thriving amid changing tides in the business world, organisations must establish an open and honest line of communication between their firms and IT functions to facilitate the ongoing education of new business needs and technologies required to support them.

Mutual empowerment for a long-term symbiosis: Despite their close association, IT and digital transformation projects cannot rest in the hands of IT teams alone. The two need to go hand-in-hand and change must come from the business itself. There must be a collaboration where feedback, insights and iteration come together to form a robust view as to where the business is lacking and what its future should be. Such two-way conversations will surface valuable information: Bring hidden complexities and inefficiencies to light and allow the IT team to get to the heart of the issue and identify the right problem and reach for a solution. CIOs can fast-track this goal by implementing clear processes to ease internal transitions — with a focus on enabling end-users to quickly gauge and evaluate the effectiveness of new solutions — as well as associated metrics.

Faced with challenges, including fast pace technological advancement and ever-changing consumer behaviour, it is essential that all stakeholders within an organisation work in collaboration to understand the imperatives for change and how one can adapt to the change in a well-structured

manner, designed and enacted as smartly as possible. This is the key to thriving in the whirlwind of constant evolution and progress that defines today’s ever-evolving business landscape.

(The writer is director, Modern Data Centre, Dell Technologies)

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