Whats your digital transformation definition? Mine is converting analog process into digital ones while business operations are running smoothly.
in IT Services, 201 - 500 employees
The integration of digital technology into all areas of a businessCIO in Government, 10,001+ employees
Our digital transformation is to move from legacy software to next gen, such as low code application platform and robotic process automationCIO in Education, 1,001 - 5,000 employees
I try not to use the term any longer, but for me, it's about retiring technical debt and using the tools/techniques/platforms, etc. that are relevant in today's technology times.Director of IT in Software, 201 - 500 employees
I think this is an overused term and such a buzzword. For me, I see it as a way/process to retire old systems and legacy systems with more modern applications that utilize the latest technology. CEO in Healthcare and Biotech, 11 - 50 employees
What, really tough to define given the varied parameters across all industries, in that regard, how aboutDigital transformation is the process of adopting digital technologies by an organization to improve its products, services or operations, and to create more value for its customers, partners and employees. It involves changing the way of doing business, delivering customer experiences and optimizing processes using data, AI, automation, cloud and other digital tools. It also requires a culture of innovation, agility and resilience to adapt to the changing market demands and customer expectation:Director of IT in Healthcare and Biotech, 10,001+ employees
It is an all-encompassing strategy for using technology to improve healthcare delivery, lower costs, and increase efficiency across the board. To achieve operational efficiency, better decision-making, more positive patient experiences, and streamlined processes, digital transformation requires the strategic integration of digital technology, data-driven insights, and automation. Meeting the requirements of patients, clinicians, and employees requires an environment that encourages innovation and continual improvement, welcomes new technology, and follows the latest developments in healthcare.Chief Information Officer in IT Services, Self-employed
the definition needs to include tech - people - skills - processes - behaviours - mindset - customers - digital literacy levels and more. digital transformation happens when people take doing things in a digital way as they norm and doing anything other than that abnormal. Head of Transformation in Government, 501 - 1,000 employees
Digitalisation = the opposite of automation, and here is where we get it wrong.Digital is more about culture than the underlying technology.
Technology has existed for a very long time, but it didn't start to change culture and society until the early 21st century. I've written more than a few posts on this.
And the tech these days are written and managed and driven by those digital natives, so the technology comes from the culture and not the other way around.
So digital (for corporations) is about changing your culture.
Radically.
Most organisations are still thinking 20th century ERP, supply chain and command and control when they think about digital. This will fail and shadow human processes emerge.
Because digital is about human, and often this requires de-automation.
50% of all process work is bunk - sorry to be so blunt, but look at how under 29s find shortcuts around work process, rules and do things fast.
Digital is about enhancing social capital, influencing people, breaking down hierarchy, exchange of value, and individual productivity vs end-to-end corporate business process efficiency.
So they look to stop doing work that made sense in the 20th century, and while value-stream waste had to be discovered and analysed and leaned in 20th century models, digital natives don't even question.
At the same time, the world has become more complex. The end-state of the manifest destiny of globalisation brought about levels of complexity that 20th century approaches fail to tackle quickly and convincingly. The cynefin framework is an excellent model developed at the dawn of the 21st century to help us understand our positioning in complex systems.
In short, converting analog process to digital is like converting VHS tape to MP4. And this is one most organisations are calling digital.
A real world example: I have a supply-chain in a distribution economy that remains largely human and manually driven. I invest millions of shareholder capital to implement robotic process automation to free up the humans from the drudgery of my useless administration, which feeds a BI system no one uses except for 5%-10% (instead of eliminating the work alltogether), then I invest in AI-enhanced robotic factory management, and pilot with 3rd party partners to look at automated trucking. Then I pat myself on the back for being digital. What is digital about it? It hasn't actually taken the core business and transformed it into an information business which can scale and grow at exponential or doubly exponential rates.
In the same example digital is about breaking down expertise and contributing to ecosystem value exchange, gravitating one's centre of focus toward pools and platforms of emerging value where the majority of the ecosystem congregates. And what is an ecosystem? All of your friends and foes in your industry and near industries. It's not your current trading partners.
So that same company, to use the example, could write-off its expensive warehouse management and join a 4PL, then break apart its sales and marketing into autonomous hubs of 7-9 person teams who are co-opetive and manage their own administration, billing and HR. The company then spins off its know-how into a separate startup company and instead of buying AI-robot, it contributes its core knowledge into building the specialised software.
That's digital.
Strategic Banking IT advisor in Banking, 10,001+ employees
I agree with Paul. A real transformation would implies to modernize the processes (streamlining and automating them).Too often, a digital transformation reminds me of the end of the 90s when we had started to develop more and more functions either on a self-service perspective or just purely replacing paper forms by electronic forms. It was kind of a plastic surgery instead of doing a real reengineering of the processes.
And at the end, it is a matter of finding what objectives an organization wants to reach and what is the true ambition behind this.
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Yes46%
We're currently considering it28%
No24%
319 PARTICIPANTS
CTO in Software, 201 - 500 employees
Without a doubt - Technical Debt! It's a ball and chain that creates an ever increasing drag on any organization, stifles innovation, and prevents transformation.Cyber Security38%
Cloud Computing/Cloud Migration44%
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)67%
IoT (Internet of Things)28%
Digital Transformation:34%
WFH/Remote Work16%
Legacy Systems Modernization13%
Data Management11%
200 PARTICIPANTS
Digitisation - converting analogue data into digital data.
Digitalisation - converting analogue processes into digital processes.
Digital transformation - digitalisation along with organisational change to support it.
Interested in other definitions.
Those are good definitions, but I would define things a little broader for digital transformation……. It is the transformation of customer focused business processes that lead to new business models and provide seemless, connected internal processes.