When last week the
CEO of the world largest software company is said “We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months”,
it had me wondering about digital transformation (DT) and my understanding of
this wonderful term. As a student of technology based transformations and a
practitioner of IT led business success, my reading of DT was fairly simple and
shared by a large number of CIOs, CDOs, and CXOs across companies and industries.
While many vendors and partners pitched their wares as the means to get to the
ultimate nirvana state of digitally enabling the business, they were largely a
cog in the wheel and not the whole wheel or a major part of it.
Many would have seen an image that in jest points to the
cause of forced digital transformation not being the CIO, CDO, CTO, CEO, or for that matter
any person, but a virus; the same virus that has changed the way of working for
the entire world bringing business’ down, forcing everyone to stay at home to
stay unaffected and alive. Almost everywhere work from home became the only way
to continue basic operations and run whatever remained of their business. In a
struggle for survival, the need for connectivity and basic tools exploded. The inertia for the adoption of
collaboration tools was replaced by enthusiasm and across corporate layers
people started embracing these.
Many small and large technology providers took advantage of
the situation to proclaim their role in digitally enabling their customers.
Their offerings ranged from cloud based software solutions, mobile enabled
applications, applications for managing appointments, note taking, digital
publishing and not to forget the collaboration tools for voice, video, chat,
conferencing, editing and sharing documents, workflows, the list is endless ! Almost
every enterprise that had some ongoing operations and dialogues probably had
most of these deployed; the scale at which it was now required needed
additional subscriptions and deployments.
So I went back to my library to refresh my memory and found
2 definitions that resonated with the majority and the foundation of my
discussions with people and companies in the past. They are:
1. Digital transformation is the integration of
digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you
operate and deliver value to customers. It’s also a cultural change that
requires organizations to continually challenge the status quo, experiment, and
get comfortable with failure.
And
2. Digital transformation is the process of
using digital technologies to create new — or modify existing — business
processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and
market requirements. This reimagining of business in the digital age is digital
transformation.
The lockdown over the last 2 months and more brought about
the New Abnormal. Companies attempted to enable as many people as feasible with
tools to continue working. Sales calls continued on video/voice calls, meetings
conducted on collaboration platforms, data moved to the cloud for access by the
teams that needed it, and access to core applications controlled to the WFH
enabled. All of this did fundamentally create a change in existing business
process, culture, customer experience and probably a long lasting one. It is
unlikely that the situation will revert to normal any time soon. So if you take the literal meaning of the
definitions above, the answer would be yes there was digital transformation.
But, isn’t digital transformation planned with a step by
step review of process, people, technology and consideration over impact – to
customers and internal stakeholders – and change that needs to be managed. Does
it not require endless meetings and buy-in from teams to the new way of working
and automation that improves outcomes? Should not legacy and status quo be
challenged to discover the optimal digital footprint for the enterprise? What
about the investment and budgets and ROI, impact on operating expenses? Who
will drive the change and create a sustainable model? Is this digital transformation or a digital reaction to the new
abnormal necessary for survival and a semblance of continuity?
I believe that the new abnormal has triggered a wave that
does away with the conventional decision making cycle and metrics for
technology tools and solutions that enabled the enterprise to function even if
with reduced operation and manpower. The elephant in the room that needs
confrontation is the continuity of the current once business starts moving
again and the normal as everyone knew and understood makes a comeback. Will the
additional investments, ad-hoc changes and approvals for access, implications
on licensing and more, the mountain to climb would be the shift back or keep
the new way of working as the new normal. There is no one way to go, it would
be dependent on the company, industry, geography and the amount of cash in the
bank.
The seeds of digital transformation have been sowed –
grudgingly or forcibly imposed with no choice; it is up to the enterprise to
build on top of this after strengthening the potentially shaky foundation. And
the answer is yes, what would have taken 2 years has taken 2 months, though it
may not be sustainable as it is and will require a lot of rework.
That’s another story !