Digital Transformation can be a tough pill to swallow but if your company wants to survive and thrive, it’s time for a cultural shift, from the top down.
Digital Transformation is a commonly used term in tech circles today and has started to work its flavor-of-the-week, buzzword popularity into mainstream culture. Most of us who’ve spent time working in the constantly evolving world of technology look at buzzwords and buzz-terms with a healthy degree of skepticism; we see a lot of them come and go.
This time however, the buzz is living up to its hype. Digital Transformation is happening. It is real and it is disruptive. Ask cab drivers competing with ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft, or the family-run retail shop down the street fighting for space with Amazon—businesses everywhere and of every size are feeling the effects of digitization. Nearly everything we do today—shopping, banking, keeping up with friends and family—happens through digital means.
“Disruptive innovation, often fueled by fast-moving, exponential technologies, is unstoppable. Yet many executives react to it by panicking or denying its impact, rather than seizing the opportunity to reposition their businesses for future relevance and growth.”—Wall Street Journal
To stay relevant, or dare-we-say, to stay in business, companies need to embrace our digital world and transform the ways they interact with customers, employees, and sales prospects.
Our customers share security concerns related to digital transformation almost universally. Regardless of scale or industry, from Fortune 500 brands to regional universities and hospitals, cybersecurity is one idea shared consistently as the most important and often most difficult component of this transformation. Deciding on vendors and deploying technology is the easy part; change—getting employees at every level of a company or organization to think and act differently, and altering their work processes around new digital technologies and more importantly security, can be the greatest challenge.
Businesses and organizations are structured to operate in very specific ways and once processes are established, altering an existing mindset or practice presents a challenge. Disruptive technology innovator, Salim Ismail explained to the Wall Street Journal in 2015, “I’ve learned from experience that when you’re attempting disruptive innovation inside a big company, the immune system of the company will attack you. Large organizations are built to withstand change and avoid risk, and now we’re telling them to move fast and take chances.”
Regardless of a company’s willingness to modernize and accept organizational and technological change, whether we like it or not, disruption is here. As applications and data move to the cloud, IT team boundaries continue to blur, and the silos they traditionally worked within are toppling—bridging gaps has become increasingly important. Our customers have addressed these issues in a handful of ways, discussed below:
Collaborating with other companies under comparable circumstances.
Collaborating with friendly businesses and willing competitors who are facing similar challenges as they digitally transform and migrate to the cloud, can be helpful and enlightening. Scheduling time each month with a peer, or peer groups, to share ideas, work through issues, and discuss best practices can be advantageous for everyone.
Focusing on education surrounding the cloud.
We’ve found a need to help IT teams alter the ways they view the cloud. Investing time in education and working with your teams to ensure a baseline understanding and focused mindset prior to starting any project is essential. Ensuring your team members are trained on best practices for the development, deployment, and security of cloud applications is an ideal place to begin.
Building a specific and comprehensive agile team.
Companies often employ varying names for ‘agile teams’ and make use of different organizational models to bring team members out of their silos. However your company refers to these teams, and regardless of how they come together, a unified team with clear objectives and defined duties makes digital transformation easier and ensures success.
Transformation can be difficult at every level, but in this digital era, sticking your head in the sand to avoid the inevitable will only result in the wrong kind of disruption. iConvergence can help you manage this change and make sure your business comes out on top. Get in touch to learn how.