Nowadays, the CIOs of major organizations primarily own or sponsor the digital transformation acceleration efforts. The same goes with the CTOs as they are facilitating the digital investments and adopting new technologies and effective use of cloud platforms in most of the activities.
There is no surprise that about 96-percent of respondents in the recent Tech Pro Research said that they were a part of some form of digital transformation acceleration. The ownership and implementation of the accelerated digital transformation are broadening in the cross-functional groups and especially the C-suite of the organizations.
According to a survey conducted by BCG, about 50-percent of companies confirmed that they were prioritizing the use of digital transformation into their business, even before the COVID-19 crisis. The easy accessibility of high-speed internet, reliable servers, cloud platforms, and other infrastructures have simplified the hassle of the digital journey. Due to the stay-at-home restrictions, more and more companies (80-percent according to BCG survey) are now switching to digital transformation acceleration.
Digital transformation strategies
The following are the priorities that will accelerate digital transformation:
Plan digital transformation roadmaps based on technology trends
The CIOs, CTOs, and other digital leaders form a business partnership to discuss how technology can ease their processes to meet business goals. While doing so, these professionals should keep track of the emerging technological trends and try to implement them into their organization to gain maximum impact and ROI.
To accelerate digital transformation, new approaches to IT are required. The digital platforms include various technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), cloud native tech platforms, chatbots, augmented reality, internet of things (IoT), machine learning, transactional systems like CRM and ERP, and others. Top management should identify which technologies are required in their organization and make use of it.
Keep scope for continuous improvement
After understanding the numerous difficulties in the transformation, unpredictability, and financial realities, it is worth noting that the progress of any organization should be considered from a continuous improvement perspective. When the company will make changes in various areas, it will lead to an overall transformation over time.
Cloud platforms allow faster prototyping of projects. It helps to build, test, and deploy apps on various platforms which certainly speeds up the transformation phase as it doesn’t include any complex infrastructure setup.
Accept the culture of innovation and transformation
Culture is certainly one of the biggest challenges in the process of digital transformation acceleration and innovation. The companies which are rapidly progressing in digital adaption are those who are prioritizing the investments of the organization into the culture to become more innovative, collaborative, iterative, and adaptive.
Cloud computing allows the access, retrieval and processing of information from any place at any time. This smooths out the hassle of collaboration and improves productivity.
The CIOs and CTOs of this age should step outside modus operandi and revive their practices. They should try to bridge the gap between business goals and their abilities according to the market trends.
Securing and managing data as a corporate asset
Data has become the heart of any digital business these days. Security and management of data are very crucial as theft or loss of such valuable data may result in the shutdown of a business; hence, data is a corporate asset. The CTOs of organizations should focus on secure yet manageable systems for data. The customer-centricity aspects such as transparency, consistency, and response promptness rely on the accessibility and accuracy of the data.
The data gathered from various sources and systems are stored in any format. So, there are chances that similar data gathered from other sources may conflict with each other. The data is either stored on the local server or cloud platforms which can be accessed whenever required.
Moreover, there are limitless external sources of data such as social media, third-party surveys, or partner’s transaction systems. Hence, data management becomes a necessity as it aids in quality control and ensures data accessibility and usability.
Operational cost savings
Cloud computing solutions are different from traditional hosting or server packages. These are scalable service model; which means, the organization only pays for the resources utilized by their projects not according to storage or bandwidth. this saves the cost of purchasing and maintaining IT infrastructure.
Furthermore, there is no need for any IT support staff to maintain the server environment.
Involvement of Top Management
The approval and support from top management such as CIO and CTO are essential when it decides possibilities, planning, execution, and cross-functional nature of a digital strategy. Certainly, the top management of any organization sets the visions and goals for their organization, builds a team, and directs them for the transformation.
The visions and goals should be easy to understand so that they will be communicated properly throughout the organization across the different hierarchies. However, it should be considered as relevant, achievable, and powerful enough which will inspire and motivate the entire organization.
The top management should assign the required resources and ensure cross-functional coordination by minimizing the key obstacles which inevitably occur in various day-to-day operations. The support received from management is considered as the most important aspect which further leads to digital transformation as a whole.
Summary
The above mentioned strategies will help CIOs and CTOs to digital transformation acceleration. The use of AI, cloud platforms, and other technologies can help the organization achieve the accelerate digital transformation within a short period.