Consumer behaviors are changing at
speeds never before seen in many industries, which is impacting how businesses
operate and bring products to market. In fact, more than a dozen retailers have
closed this year as a result of having business and IT systems, and supply
chains that are unable to meet the speed requirements of digital consumers.
Most companies report they have
IT systems in their inventory that are too
slow or incapable of supporting real-time digital consumers. That spells
trouble. Consumer and competitive changes are forcing enterprises to
rethink their strategies in order to speed up in just about all areas: R&D,
manufacturing, distribution, marketing, and sales.
Enterprises that I speak with today
seem to understand that the need for digital transformation is being driven by
advances in mobile technologies, automation, cloud computing, sensors, big data
analytics and artificial intelligence. They realize they must
upgrade their IT systems and business processes to accommodate these changes
and increase the speed of their operations. They are also focused on how
to improve their agility and flexibility, so they are nimble enough to respond
to changing consumer behaviors, tastes and new competitors. Many
companies today find themselves in a position where their past investments in
IT systems, that once provided competitive advantages, are now anchors
preventing them from moving into the future.
Achieving real-time operational speeds
is required to support real-time digital interactions and experiences.
Supporting these real-time experiences is more than just a technology
issue, it requires companies to support real-time analytics, decision-making
and business operational tempos. An operational tempo,
in the context of this
article, is defined as the speed or pace of business operations. Achieving a
faster operational tempo is a significant challenge for many. This is why
we are seeing more applications of real-time analytics, automation and
artificial intelligence.
Changing an enterprise’s operational
tempo requires strong leadership that can transform the entire organization. It
often requires significant IT updates and upgrades, organizational changes, and
reengineering business processes and decision-making matrixes to align with
real-time demands.
The biggest challenge for legacy
companies today, is how to move to real-time.
On
the 20th of July I will be leading an online discussion with
the CIO WaterCooler on "Sequencing Digital Technologies for Competitive
Advantages Over the Next 40 Months of Digital Transformation".
At
my Digital Boardroom we will be discussing that we (consumers) have all changed
as a result of digital and mobile technologies and platforms. Enterprises must
now follow and transform, in order to support these changes and compete fast
enough to matter. If you agree with this premise, then an important question to
ask is what sequence should digital technologies be implemented in order to maximize
the ROI from digital transformation investments? Another important question is
what enterprise business and IT doctrines should guide organizations through
this transformation. These important questions and others will be discussed,
and research findings shared. (Digital Boardrooms typically take approx. 45min)
If you’re a CIO or an
IT leader and you’d like to participate you can register here: https://ciowatercooler.co.uk/digital-boardrooms/’
Kevin Benedict
President, Principal Analyst, Futurist, the Center for Digital Intelligence™
Website C4DIGI.com
View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Technologies
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies
***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
-->
