Information Advantage with TechIntensity

Defence aspires to achieve Information Advantage. Microsoft’s TechIntensity approach delivers it.

TechIntensity is a Microsoft concept based on a few simple principles to help organisations succeed using digital capabilities and digital transformation. Tempo is a significant concept in Defence, where it provides military advantage in relation to adversaries. TechIntensity is to Digital Transformation what Tempo is to Warfighting – it drives advantage in comparison to adversaries and competitors. The concept enables Defence to identify where it needs to concentrate digital transformation resources and where it can achieve the greatest information advantage.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, explained TechIntensity at the recent Future Decoded Event in London.

“Each of us has to do really two things: One is we need to make sure that we’re adopting the latest and greatest technology. And second, we’ve got to build our own digital capability. Irrespective of which industry you’re in, you’re a digital business and you’ve got to do both”

Microsoft uses a simple equation to explain the concept: Technological Capabilities amplify Technological Adoption. It contains, though, more insight than just the simple formula used to explain it:

TechIntensity = TechAdoption ^ TechCapabilities

There a four basic blocks to the concept:

1. Every organisation is a digital organisation
2. Innovation Advantage through World Compute
3. Domination of Artificial Intelligence
4. Speed of adoption provides advantage

Every Organisation is a Digital Organisation

It is hard to ignore the digital transformation of recent decades, yet the cultural change that has been introduced is far more profound than the technology that has been adopted. Indeed, the latest technology is probably only current for 18 months, and so organisations cannot rely simply on a new tool to provide advantage. It is those that adopt like digital organisations that are most successful, not those that just buy the latest digital tool.

Today, all organisations are digital organisations. Those that exploit this fact are most successful, especially when they realise that digital transformation is unique to their organisation. Companies cannot simply copy and paste another organisation’s technical adoption and capabilities to succeed, nor can they simply obtain the latest technology. A successful organisation understands its own issues and advantages, and how it evaluates, adopts and replaces capabilities within a broader digital culture.

Technical Adoption (how an organisation performs as a digital organisation) is the crucial component. The Technical Capabilities then amplify that adoption for better or worse.

Throwing faster and smarter tools at a slow and dumb process will just accelerate the inevitable failure. Throwing faster and smarter tools at a fast and smart process will amplify its performance.

Digital organisations evaluate, adopt and replace technology quicker and more efficiently than traditional organisations. This provides advantage over their competitors. Organisations that have long procurement cycles, complicated contracting mechanisms and disconnects between operations and development are those that will flounder. This is more than just automating process, it is about how Defence must become a digital organisation with a digital culture across its entire business, and not just in the sharp end of warfighting.

Default Cloud is the world’s computer

The concept of ubiquitous computing, hybrid clouds, connected intelligent edge devices and default cloud are anathema to many in defence. Microsoft has a core view that Cloud computing serves as the world’s computer which provides innovation advantage and pace over older on-premise or static solutions. Cloud is the enabler of digital transformation. Decisions to only implement on-premises networks and computing will involve paying an increasingly large innovation cost – innovation is faster on a global computer where ideas are created, shared and improved faster than isolated teams and networks.

Whilst Defence may last longer than many organisations due to its bulk and legacy, it will eventually collapse against cheaper and quicker innovation from cloud computing in the same way that the USSR centrally controlled markets could not compete with Western entrepreneurs and free markets. Defence must explain how its legacy systems and processes will drive digital pace of innovation and adoption across its entire business and, where it cannot articulate the better future, replace those systems and processes.

Amplification through Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft passionately believes in amplifying human ingenuity with artificial intelligence and it is AI that unlocks TechIntensity. AI provides the ability to improve business process, predict organisation needs and deliver innovative solutions at a faster pace. TechIntensity will be greatly amplified through adoption of Artificial Intelligence.

AI will change the pace of adoption, growing TechIntensity within those organisations that can implement and adopt it ahead of their competition. In Defence, most interest in AI has been around either decision support (especially in operational decision making) or on data analysis for intelligence insight. Yet it is still in the foothills of adoption and Defence has largely ignored the opportunities already implemented in manufacturing, financial service and health sectors. Defence must articulate its AI strategy to support the digital transformation required for information advantage.

Speed of Adoption provides Advantage

Organisations that adopt and adapt technical solutions for their own goals will survive for a while. Those organisations that adopt and adapt for their goals ahead of their competitors will succeed. It is possible in the Defence sector that global adoption will be slow and steady across all nations, allowing a marginal gain to have a slight advantage in comparison. This has, for most of history, been the natural order for Defence. Knights fight knights, soldiers shoot soldiers, tanks destroy tanks. Defence is often slow to adapt.

Yet It is also possible that a military organisation will increase its TechIntensity at such a rate that it gains a significant advantage. These revolutions have been well documented, whether longbows, trains, machine guns or tanks. Western militaries have also been obsessed with technology capabilities for decades, believing that technology alone will provide enough advantage against adversaries. Previous revolutions have shown that it is not Tech Capability that wins wars, but the TechIntensity based on Adoption amplified through Capability. Many nations deployed tanks before World War 2. Only Germany used them to amplify their Technical Adoption approach.

In the MOD’s view, information provides the possibility of advantage in the future. Yet it is also a partial adoption. There is talk of cultural transformation and information as a bedrock in the future of UK Defence, yet also concerns about how far information can be exploited and whether AI can be trusted to do more than assess data. It is a vision of hedged bets and cautious change that does not sit easily when viewed against the real-world changes across societies and industries.

TechIntensity is concept of advantage and tempo. It takes the digital transformation that has changed the world and shows that simply acquiring new technology is an ineffective strategy. Instead, it concentrates on how organisations act as digital entities across their entire business, understands that organisations need to adopt in their own way, and amplifies that adoption through evolving capabilities. It is a concept that explains how to achieve Information Advantage.