Consumer Digital has been Transformational by all means, but Enterprise Digital has been a Story of Hype at many corporations!!

The rapid pace of digital experience innovations keeping in pace with exponential commoditization of computing, storage and network(cloud & edge) has resulted in a world of users with real time access to information and insights like never before! These technology fascinated users- the knowledge workers, executives and C-suite members- started asking the question, "why can't we have the same consumer experience at work" ??

Majority didn't comprehend the complexity of an enterprise digital landscape after being carried away with brilliant mobile experiences which works at scale in consumer world! In many cases, after listening to the brilliant story telling consultants and pundits, the C-suite leaders forced these undertakings without competency and often disrupted business operations. Many used well oiled corporate crisis management/communication skills to minimize the damage! .

I found the following public information , a good reminder to everyone to stay grounded about potential risk of digital transformation at enterprises.

16 famous ERP disasters, dustups and disappointments (cio.com)

Technology revolutions and pace of change with cloud computing, edge computing, connectivity and software tools created the biggest fear of unknown in C-suites of traditional manufacturing companies where historically no tech savvy leaders were present. The C-suite leader who oversaw the technology was usually the finance head because , IT has been one of the expensive functional line item for the company and someone has to keep an eye on the heavy expenses! It remained the captive gold mine for the longest time for a few tech services and consulting companies who mastered the game of "selling based on fear of unknown" to board rooms & C-suites. Even today this is a reality in many companies!

I had done my share of significant IT services outsourcing during my automotive days where I learned the importance of having in-house competency at scale due to the unique nature of digital transformation at enterprises:

1. It is incremental & iterative
2. It is adaptive and never ending

I also learned to stop listening to the story telling consultants who delivers beautifully crafted personalized presentations with the so called "best practices"!

I have been very fortunate to test and prove my hypothesis in real life across many large organizations with incredible teams and leaders who lead the change with capabilities and conviction. The results have been consistently admirable to date with no exceptions!

Summary of my observations & learnings over the last 2 decades as a successful practitioner of enterprise digital transformation:

1. A business data domain based homogeneous technology platforms are the best choice for organizations to address the ever changing compliance, security, experience evolutions and expectations of near real time enterprise correlations in a sustainable manner. An ideal Enterprise Architecture Platforms include One ERP platform, One Collaboration & Communication platform, One Access & Identity platform , One IOT/OT platform, One Analytics/AI/ML platform and One external Internet facing experience platform. Chasing shining objects based on the hype cycle of the day, is the most common mistake in digitization of enterprises!
2. The best of the breed architecture(many market pundit's opinion over the last decades) ?astronomically increases the recurring cost with software subscriptions and exponentially increases complexity across security, data duplication, compliance and sustainability.
3. The journey is not easy and it is difficult to architect and orchestrate with the right sequence of building blocks to a sustainable state with a precision "engineering-in-flight" execution.
4. 99% of the technology fascinated users - the knowledge workers, executives and C-suite members- will often ask the same question, "why can't we have the same consumer experience at work", "why can't we just buy a new software package", without understanding the complexity of "engineering-in-flight", and often one should be prepared to have the patience to explain the complexity again and again!
5. Never expect the digitization journey at an enterprise to be over, because the adaptive nature of the journey is equally important as the "engineering-in-flight" execution. The only way to sustain success is to learn the art of "engineering-in-flight with frequent adaptive cycles of refinement"