When I opened the latest edition of BizTech, there were so many well-written articles that I tore three of them out to ensure I’d give them the attention they deserved. One of the Voices articles had a great title that drew me in, “Four Keys to Tech Success.” Coming off the heals of the CIO event here in Pittsburgh, digital transformation and what successful transformation looks like is a hot topic for IT professionals in the region.
In this article, the author discusses managing, securing and using data and how it is at the heart of every successful transformation. Digital transformation is the use of digital technology to solve traditional problems. These digital solutions enable inherently new types of innovation and creativity, rather than merely enhance and support traditional methods.
Driving change and balancing people, process and technology require a defined IT structure. Let’s take a more in-depth look at the data and work experience aspects of an effective transformation plan.
Data
According to Forbes Insights, while “the challenges posed by improving data quality can be daunting and obscure the benefits and possibilities that good-quality data enables … the costs of doing nothing are high. Gartner measures the average financial impact of poor data on businesses at $9.7 million per year.”
The key considerations here are data quality management, including storage, security and whether your company will embrace the cloud for select workloads or maintain workloads on-prem. Let’s also not overlook the importance of examining and organizing data to generate new insights that will bring impactful business results.
Work Experience
With estimates from the IDC that project by 2022, enterprises will spend nearly $2 trillion annually on digital transformation projects it’s critical that companies consider the impact to the current work environment. Employee experiences during a digital transformation is an area that requires partnering with each of the company’s business areas to ensure employees are having positive experiences as they move into new IT systems. To be able to provide the innovative solutions you are seeking with the transformation, don’t neglect investing in your people and their productivity.
Solid advice from the article is to think first about how you want to shape your customer and employee experiences, and from there you’ll find your starting point for a digital transformation.
References: BizTech- Spring 2019, printed publication and Forbes Insights (May 31, 2017) retrieved April 9, 2019, via the web.
