Digital Transformation - What's in a Name?
I've used the term Digital Transformation for many years, I always felt in the correct context to talk about moving technology forwards. Interestingly it can also come with a stigma attached to it.
With my TOGAF architecture head on I recognise that the IT world is seen by people through the lenses of viewpoints and perspectives. Depending on the person involved they can have vastly differing views on any subject, object or IT related entity.
So to some the term Digital Transformation is seen incredibly negatively as it implies a serious Legacy starting point. To a smaller business that could be detrimental to the brand which in turn drives a negative social media sentiment and could ultimately impact revenue/margins. I always say the truth is between the two extremes and some people see the term Digital Transformation means the move from systems such as paper (of course we're more likely to call that Digitalization .....for which I thank the Atos Scientific community for clarifying in my Atos/Worldline days). So this viewpoint is one real extreme and not what the majority of Digital Transformation is about.
In bi-modal (Gartner) and 3-SpeedIT (Atos/Worldline) each show an evolutionary path to follow towards the utopia of Digital. In my view you can still be seen as heavily Digital as you are transforming, Digital itself evolves (if you don't evolve you stand still and standing still is a good as going backwards) so Digital Transformation is simply a path of bettering yourself.
With age and experience though you recognise the need to adjust and pivot your own viewpoints and perspectives (inside the tent to how the outside reacts) and I'm now more likely to use the term Digital Evolution. Why ? I feel it is more accurate to the fact that most organisations now can claim to have some element of Digital in place with most organisations having at least a toe in the waters of Cloud, Agile, DevOps, Automation, AI etc. The word "Evolution" says I'm continuing my Digital journey whereas "Transformation" implies I have a journey to start.
Thank you for listening, I'm off to help "Evolve" things at CarFinance247.
Founding Partner - Impact Transformation
5 年Ryan I think we really need to look at Digital Transformation from a simple perspective which focuses on the way an organisation changes the how it delivers a particular consumer focussed Product or Services, and how that will impact internal operational delivery to give the best benefit. All of the things that #GrahamBerrisford?has called out are great examples and highlight some of the common challenges for IT organisation face as a result of Digital Transformation i.e. which cloud delivery model (Public, Private, Hybrid), what will be the impact on Service Management, how will we deal with legacy systems in a digital ecosystem. All this can also be impact by your organisations cyber security approach, and the level of risk the senior stakeholders are prepared. If you take all this is context you can see the real benefit of a flexible #EnterpriseArchitecture?approach in support of Digital Transformation initiative.
Director and Principal Tutor, Avancier Limited
5 年Ryan, We are a fashion industry in which words come, go and change their meanings. We have been digitally transforming and evolving business operations since the Information Age started in the 1970s. But "digital transformation" is a newish term, associated with things that have impacted business operations in the 2010s. To address things you mention... ? Cloud? The impact on ITSM operations is one thing. The transformation lies in SaaS and business managers' ability to bypass the IT department, along with TOGAF and all enterprise architecture efforts. ? Agile development? I'd exclude this, because it started in the early 1990s, and because the impact has been more on the IT department than (sadly) the business. ? Dev Ops and Automation? Relatively recent, but again, more impactful on IT operations than business operations. ? AI? Ah, now you're talking! Digital transformation is much to do with the impact on business of big data capture, machine learning and associated innovations. ? The explosion of e-business since c2005? I’d add this under "digital transformation", noting that the transformation effects on the high street are far from finished.
Ryan Bryers 60innovations are looking forward to working with you on this. The article is very accurate indeed!
Enterprise Architect & Technology Specialist at Accenture
5 年Very well expressed