Setrag Khoshafian, PhD

We’ve all been hearing the hype lately about low-code and no-code platforms. The promise of no-code platforms is that they’ll make software development just as easy as using Word or PowerPoint so that the average business user can move projects forward without the extra cost (in money and time) of an engineering team. Unlike no-code platforms, low-code platforms still require coding skills but promise to accelerate software development by letting developers work with pre-written code components.

The post-Covid-19 world is becoming increasingly decentralized and connected. The disruptions are accelerating. This is the last of the 10-part series on Digital Transformation Debt post-Covid-19. It is the fitting conclusion for enterprises that face the transformational challenges of Covid-19. We started the 10-part series on Digital Transformation Debt post-Covid-19 era with Culture – the most critical dimension. We end in this part with Competency Centers. In some ways, those are the parentheses: all the other parts fit in between these two. The Culture sets the tone and direction. The Competency Center governs the best practices. It is time to alleviate the Digital Transformation Debts and start the journey!
#competencycenter #coe #centerofexcellence

Part 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.

Part 8 of the ten-part series on Digital Transformation Debt expands upon the Connected World's emergence – through the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT solutions for a Connected World is essential for Digital Transformation. There will be 75 billion devices by 2025. There are more than 600 IoT platforms. Learn from this article - with many practical examples - how the road to IoT success runs through Intelligent Process Automation of Things. All industries struggling with Covid-19 will benefit from IPAoT solutions.

This article is the seventh part of a ten-part series on Digital Transformation Debt, post-Covid-19. Part 7 focuses on the most impactful and relevant trend for an essential focus of Digital Transformation: the customer. The customer in the digital era is always connected, tech-savvy, and has high expectations. Customer Experience (CX) Optimization is a critical dimension, especially in the Covid-19 era. CX can be realized through leveraging AI, innovative design, and Automation. DX transformation elucidates the need to shift from bulk marketing, siloed organizations, and ad-hoc experiences to digitally transformed 1:1 connected customer engagements. The combination of AI with digitized end-to-end value streams on behalf of the customer creates this experience through extreme Personalization that leads to concrete business results, such as improvements in Net Promoter Scores (NPS).

This article is the sixth part of a ten-part series on Digital Transformation Debt, post-Covid-19. Design Thinking can be leveraged both by startups for faster and more successful Minimum Viable Products or incumbent enterprises on their transformation journeys. Design Thinking Methodology, as described here, incorporates the Design Sprint followed by Minimum Viable Product (MVP) development using Low Code/No Code platforms. This article is relevant especially for innovation with a startup culture for organizations of all sizes that shows how Design Thinking, Design Sprint and Low Code/No Code culminate in viable innovative products and solutions.

This article is the fifth part of a ten-part series on Digital Transformation Debt, post-Covid-19. Due to Covid-19, organizations need to be agile and responsive. They need to understand trends and predict actions leveraging enterprise, sensor, customer, and partner Data. The dream of a Citizen Data Scientist spanning Automation and self-service with drag and drop intuitive productivity tools are slowly becoming a reality.

This is the fourth part of a ten-part series on Digital Transformation Debt. The Covid-19 pandemic is pushing many enterprises to re-consider their digital transformation and modernization initiatives, especially in accelerating the development and deployment of innovative applications. The emergence of Citizen Developers leveraging Low Code/No Code platforms has profound transformative implications both for Enterprises and Startups.

This is the third part of a ten-part series on Digital Transformation Debt, post-Covid-19. The Covid-19 pandemic is pushing many enterprises to re-consider their digital transformation and modernization initiatives, especially for Automation. The article covers all aspects of automation: RPA, AI-Assisted, and Cognitive Work. It also highlights robust Automation Strategies for a post-Covid-19 Automation roadmap.

This 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.

The 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.

IPAoT is the next phase in the evolution of IoT! Connectivity of devices in our homes, offices, and industries is ubiquitous. Connectivity is exploding. Several technologies such as 5G, Cloud, Blockchain, and AI are critical catalysts in the pervasiveness of robust and pragmatic solutions with IoT. But the glue that ties it together and connects IoT devices to people, enterprises, and trading partners is Process Automation. 

Decentralization and its impact on organizations as well as business transactions came through loud and clear throughout the conference. Examples of pragmatic applications with disintermediated interactions spanned healthcare, financial services, sports, education, government, non-profit, beauty, industrial applications and many more. A number of presenters emphasized the new era of decentralization with an ideology that empowers communities vs. centralized greedy brokers.

The impact on Organizational Culture is one of the most fascinating realities of the digital era. Digital technologies, including Blockchain, are just enablers of cultural trends that are transforming all demographics at an accelerated rate. Culture is always more important and impactful than pure digital technologies, as impressive as the latter are. The potential cultural impacts on individuals as well as organizations are tremendous. In order to succeed and innovate with digitization, transformation best practices should challenge long established cultural norms.

There’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.

The increasingly fast paced and competitive landscape of products and services have necessitated innovative approaches for managing logistics and supply chain. Logistics pertains to distribution and organization of products within an organization. It includes warehousing and transportation and is considered part of the overall Supply Chain. How important is Supply Chain?

Digitization is having a remarkable impact on all industry sectors. Manufacturing in particular is in the midst of a major digital transformation shift often characterized as Industrie 4.0 (aka Industry 4.0 or Smart Manufacturing (especially in the US)).

The decentralized ledger technology underlying cryptocurrencies – Blockchain – is becoming a defacto solution for many peer-to-peer applications.

In the past few years we witnessed a pervasive emphasis on Digital Transformation (DX). Digitization continued to be a top priority. Each year there are predictions on various digital technologies that will impact DX. Examples for 2018 include IoT Predictions, top predictions on DX itself, and Customer Experience predictions – to name a few.