Digital transformation, does it need to be centralized?
Dr.Yasser Abdelaziz
Digital Health Expert | sales and marketing leader | Doctor in International Business | growth leader | country manager| health informatics leader| coach and consultant
Digital transformation is a term that has been widely used recently.
however, the understanding of the term may be different from an industry to another, but also may be different from a person to another person inside the same industry.
one of the common definitions of the digital transformation is changes associated with the application of digital technology in all aspects of business.
this is really a good definition, it shows that digital transformation is not the digital technology, but it is the application of digital technology into business, this technology is not different from industry to another industry, nor from business to another business, but the application of the technology may be totally different.
another important point in the definition is the application of the technology in all aspects of business, this directly means an E2E application, in an ideal case of digital transformation of a business the application of digital technology should be in the complete E2E business processes and activities.
the result of this digital technology application on a business is to improve the efficiency, eliminate waste in the processes, ensure adherence to standardized workflow and work processes, avail shorter and more effective path to customers, suppliers and partners, ensure more staff engagement and motivation, make faster and more effective products and services introductions to the markets, improve customer communications, avail different channels for different types of marketing messages, and a lot more.
this application of the digital technology in all aspects of the business requires strong IT infrastructure in the organization, this IT infrastructure will stand as the foundation of the digital application, however, the digital application it self should be localized to meet the local market needs and business requirements.
this means that digital transformation requires strong centralized IT tools, but it doesn't require centralized business decisions and approaches, the business decisions in any multinational organization in normal situations should remain in the local organization and not in the head quarter.
having said that I believe digital transformation is not an option for any organization which aims to have a seat in the present and future work place, the digital transformation is mandatory, it should benefit from the central IT and technology capabilities but without moving the decision taking power to the head quarter.