Digital transformation is impossible without network transformation

No matter what form digital transformation takes – internal or external, supplier or consumer, mobile or web – it presents itself as some kind of application. Applications that are delivered, secured, and scaled by the network infrastructure.?

Without a fast, secure network, digital transformation becomes impossible. Most organisations want to introduce user apps, utilise more data or improve their digital processes. All of this runs on and relies on your network.??

Organisations that fail to embrace the digital transformation of their network, to adopt modern delivery methods that include automation, orchestration, and the operational scale afforded by a modern network, are in danger of sabotaging digital transformation projects.?

People’s first focus is customer experience, when it should be performance?

Often, organisations think about digital transformation from the perspective of the user. They know that a digitised customer experience is what people are demanding, and so this becomes the focus.??

But digital transformation can’t be approached at a surface level. Everything that enables the desired outcomes of transformation happens at the network level, and without investing in this underlying infrastructure first, digital transformation efforts can’t live up to expectations.?

In a post-covid world, organisations have certainly been made aware of this. It quickly became clear that their old networks were not agile enough to accommodate new styles of working that required server to cloud and application connections.??

This immediate need led to a reactionary approach. But moving to a hybrid or cloud-based network is not a simple process. Many factors need considered, from operations to the technology in place, to your teams and how they work – factors that organisations didn’t have time to fully consider. Understandably, the result isn’t perfect. Now, organisations need to refine the work they’ve done with an ongoing and evolutionary approach.?

Common barriers when people start with digital, not network?

You may be wondering why exactly neglecting your network leads to poorer digital transformation results. Here are the main barriers you are likely to encounter if you take the digital-first approach:?

• Performance: the best app interface in the world can’t make up for poor network performance. If your network infrastructure is inadequate, then it won't be able to support your app’s full functionality.??
• Customer experience: your aim is to provide a good, responsive user experience. Your server, network and the resulting connectivity is what enables this. Without investing in these components, your app performance will suffer in certain scenarios.?
• Security: people increasingly work outside of the office and your digital landscape is more essential, and more complex, which means your attack surface is greater. Organisations need to focus on building robust security for their software before and during the build phase.??
• Observability: there has been a shift from performance management to observability, which means understanding your network performance in granular detail, finding opportunities for improvements, and detecting issues proactively. This starts with the network.?

How Ampito helps bring network and digital transformation together?

In summary, digital transformation efforts that ignore their network will certainly fail, or fall short of objectives. Customers today have high expectations and will abandon poor service experiences with web and mobile apps, turning to other options. Your team may also become tired and dissatisfied with complex or inefficient systems, which will have a negative impact on internal adoption as well.??

At Ampito, we help customers understand their needs first. We take a practical approach, reviewing what you have, identifying what elements need to be improved, and managing the transition from old to new where it’s needed. Most importantly, we can prioritise the steps you need to take to achieve this transition.?

Defining objectives:?

First, we think about the end-to-end experience. We ask questions like; what will this process look like for your employees? How will the interaction of web and mobile integrations work? And what do your end users need or want from their experience??

Prioritising resource:?

Next, we look at prioritising your investment in the network. What is going to have the greatest impact? Considering everything from operations to your peoples’ skills, we start to design a phased approach to your transformation, making sure everything is achievable for your budget and happening in the most ideal order.?

Managing the old:?

As technology ages it becomes more expensive to maintain. Our team looks at your ‘technical debt’; where you are overspending and where we can make up budget for new technologies. We also support you to get rid of what is inefficient in a sustainable way and introduce IT solutions that will be evergreen. So, your investment goes further and lasts longer.?

SD-WAN:?

SD-WAN is a network solution that will bring flexibility and agility to your network. It introduces automation, observability and control functions which support both cost-savings across your network as well as enabling your users to connect from anywhere.?

This can work in tandem with your legacy environments, enabling that phased approach which will help you successfully transform.??

For example, we helped Nuffield Health to reduce WAN traffic and increase bandwidth at sites across the UK in a matter of months. Nuffield Health users now have access to business-critical SaaS and IaaS applications via the cloud and without impacting the performance of the network.?

?If you want to learn more about SD-WAN, get in touch to discuss your network transformation options with our team.?

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