Digital Transformation: SMAC or SMAC(K)ed

Digital transformation, buzzword in corporate, has not been fully understood by majority of enterprises. Only investing in parts for SMAC(social, mobile, analytics and cloud) is considered digital transformation. However, the business landscape is changing; we are entering what many call the ‘Post-SMAC’, where the confluence of emerging technologies is leading to new possibilities for consumers, enterprises and technology vendors. Multiple technology trends are conjugating relationships between customers boosting agility within the enterprise and in the market, and leading to increased collaboration among internal and external stakeholders. There are numerous challenges and opportunities as enterprises prepare to digitally transform themselves.

IT has so far automated business processes and not really changed the business practices. Now, technology is changing the business process, how we create, sell, market, interact, deliver to customers. Adoption of newer technologies such as augmented reality, internet of things(IOT), robotics, cognitive systems, 3D printing and their combination will transform industries. Those businesses who bring digital transformation into the center of their corporate strategy will be digital explorer. In the process of digital transformation, businesses can champion the cause of customer by altering customer experiences, using information as a competitive advantage, and creating new revenue streams with connected services. Other characteristics are; ability to leverage information for competitive advantage by enabling the business to respond to opportunities swiftly and with superior intelligence; and ability to make business operations more responsive and effective by leveraging digitally connected products and services, assets, people and trading partners.

Enterprises are gaining some value from transforming parts of their businesses, but are only part of the way toward achieving the potential of digital transformation. Despite internal and external pressures, very few businesses are gaining the full value of technologically-enabled change, even with technologies they already own. Enterprises can optimize their investment into various digital technologies by following simple framework

• Have a digital roadmap plan with value proposition for each milestone
• Align role, talent, capability and governance with digital roadmap
• Align incentive and performance management for what really matters
• Design system to capture real value real-time
• Organization change management for digital-ready culture