Leading a digital transformation initiative requires collaboration and alignment between business and IT teams. Both business and IT leaders have crucial roles to play in ensuring the success of the initiative. Business leaders should provide strategic direction, define the goals and objectives of the digital transformation, and ensure that the initiative aligns with the overall business strategy. They have a deep understanding of the organization's operations, customer needs, and industry trends. Business leaders can identify areas where digital technology can drive value and competitive advantage, and they can champion the necessary organizational changes.
Read MoreIn a recent LinkedIn post, David Rogers rightly described digital transformation as a combination of both digital strategy as well as organizational transformation. His simple formula reveals why so many companies struggle with their digital programs. It is: DX = D strategy + organizational X. It’s not enough to craft a business strategy enabled by digital. Organizational transformation is also needed. There’s the rub.
Read MoreWe have known for over a decade that a major advantage of digital maturity is that higher digital maturity drives better financial performance. More recently, a survey of over 1,200 executives revealed that digitally mature companies were three times more likely than lower maturity companies to outperform their industry average on key financial metrics.
Read MoreThe business benefits of focusing on customer experience have been known ever since 1954 when Peter Drucker wrote that “there is only one purpose of a business: to create a customer.” However, it wasn’t until 1989, when Jan Carlson, the chief executive officer of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), published Moments of Truth advocating a focus on customer experience (CX) and providing practical guidance. He famously coined insights such as:
Read MoreWhy do so many companies talk about digital transformation, and yet they deploy digital technologies for modest incremental improvement? They automate simple, repetitive, rule-based tasks. They don’t redesign. They tinker at the margins with AI through small proof of concept projects and pilots and fail to deploy models at scale for true economic value.
Read MoreBy 2032, it will be logical to assume that the world will be amid a digital and physical transformation beyond our expectations. It is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of scientific and technological advancements that will change how we live and interact.
What should we expect in the coming decade as we begin 2022? While there are many potential paradigms changing technological influences that will impact the future, let us explore three specific categories of future transformation: cognitive computing, health and medicine, and autonomous everything.
Read MoreI recently attended a seminar, The Art of AI Maturity, by Accenture executives Philippe Roussiere and Praveen Tanguturi as part of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE) lunch seminar series. The seminar was based on their recently published article The Art of AI Maturity: Advancing from Practice to Performance. “Today, so much of what we take for granted in our daily lives stems from machine learning,” wrote the authors in the article’s executive summary. “Every time you use a wayfinding app to get from point A to point B, use dictation to convert speech to text, or unlock your phone using face ID ... you're relying on AI. And companies across industries are also relying on - and investing in - AI to drive logistics, improve customer service, increase efficiency, empower employees and so much more.”
Read MoreAs the world turns increasingly more digital and data-driven, there is increasing desire for greater visibility and transparency of data. Governments around the world have turned to digital means to submit and pay taxes as well as collect a variety of revenue from different sources. Likewise, governments are making deeper use of data and systems for their expenditures and analyzing the patterns of that spending.
Read MoreThe pace of adoption for AI and machine learning continues unabated with global, widespread, adoption and usage. It’s not just companies that are taking note of the tremendous value AI can provide them. Countries and governments around the world are also seeking competitive advantages by harnessing the power of AI. Governments that can take advantage of the tremendous transformation presented by AI and cognitive technologies can position themselves for global competitiveness in the future. As a result, countries around the world are adopting AI strategies to provide roadmaps, funding, education, and strategies needed to differentiate themselves and become leaders in different areas related to AI and cognitive technology.
Read MoreLarge scale change has never been easy. Nearly three decades ago, leadership guru Dr John Kotter reported that 70% of all major change efforts in organizations failed. Just a couple years later, the late Dr. Michael Hammer estimated a 70% failure rate for the radical reengineering efforts. Now, that transformational efforts are often driven by technology, the recent success rate is equally bleak according to research by BCG. The root cause of failure with large scale digital change is captured by George Westerman’s first law of digital transformation, which states that: Technology changes quickly, but organizations change much more slowly.
Read MoreThe potential for low-code/no-code platforms is enormous. Low-code increases the productivity of IT developers — sometimes by several orders of magnitude. And no-code empowers experts and subject matter experts primarily on the business or operations side (as opposed to IT) to become “citizen developers.” But as I explained in a previous article, low-code and no-code platforms are not a panacea; they face challenges.
Read MoreThe analyst community is having a field day with hype around “low code.” IDC has predicted that there will be more and more low code used and that the worldwide population of low-code developers will grow with a CAGR of 40.4% from 2021 to 2025. Gartner predicted that low code will increase nearly 30% from 2020 to reach $5.8 billion in 2021. Forrester has also jumped on the low-code hype wagon and forecasted that by the end of 2021, 75% of application development will use low-code platforms.
Read MoreThere is a great deal of excitement these days around “digital transformation.” Instead of being preoccupied with “transformation,” companies may be better off paying attention to their level of maturity in deploying digital technologies – and then working diligently to become more digitally mature.
Read MoreAccurate, complete, and timely data has always been required for success with digital programs. This is even more the case when it comes to large, enterprise-wide digital transformations. Yet, a recent New Vantage survey reported that..
Read MoreThe track record for transformations has been disappointing for over three decades. In 1995, Dr. John Kotter found that only 30% of transformations succeeded and it’s been pretty much that way in survey after survey ever since. A recent McKinsey survey found that digital transformations may be even more challenging.
Read MorePart 9 of the ten-part series on Digital Transformation Debt expands upon the post-Covid-19 Decentralized World's emergence. Decentralization is achieved through Blockchains and Blockchain solutions. All the Bitcoin transactions are recorded in the distributed, replicated, and decentralized Blockchain of Bitcoin. There is not one single "Blockchain." There are many Blockchains and in different categories. Ethereum, for instance, has its Blockchain. Variants of Bitcoin, which have "forked" for various reasons, have their Blockchain.
Blockchain is the enabler of the Decentralization trend. This article covers the Blockchain applications, trends, and architecture - especially in the post-Covid-19 era for digital transformation.
Read MoreThere’s so much at stake, yet companies continue to struggle with digital transformation. A recent BCG study found that most digital transformations fail, and only 30% of transformations met or exceeded their target value and resulted in sustainable change. This should not come as a total surprise. Back in 1995, Dr. John Kotter…
Read MoreThis is the 2nd article in the post-Covid-19 Digital Transformation Debts series. Organizations are now facing tremendous challenges to cut costs – becoming lean – while delivering high-quality products and services. These are incredibly challenging times.
Value Stream digitization and automation in the post-Covid-19 era have two salient showcases: (1) Operational Excellence especially for customer service and the associated intra-Enterprise processes; (2) Inter-Enterprise Collaboration through Value-Stream-As-A-Service.
Read MoreThe impact of the Covid-19 lockdown of businesses and government will be felt for many years to come. It is causing mega-cultural trends that are already changing us. We might not be feeling it or appreciating the shifts that are happening. It is too close to home and we are in the midst of it. But it is happening, and it is very real. This is the first of a 10 part series on Digital Transformation Debt - post-Covid-19. It is the most important one, as it covers Culture.
Read MoreThere’s no doubt about it, digital technology has become an indispensable tool for driving customer engagement. For many companies, effective digital solutions are the foundation on which positive B2C, B2B, and B2B2C relationships are built. Technology fills in where legacy or manual systems could not, allowing businesses to create personalized, and intelligent digital user-friendly journeys for a wide range of consumers.
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