Digital transformation: harder than it looks

Source: Micro Focus. McNulty.

It is not a question of 'why', but 'when' when it comes to digital transformation. The 'how' may be another question altogether, however.

Stephen McNulty, President, Asia Pacific and Japan, Micro Focus, believes that 2019 is the year when digital transformation focuses on the nitty gritty of execution, when there will be "a concerted shift from broad-based enterprise efforts to a more practical and step-by-step transformation plans, with incremental changes made to operations".

“Despite ‘digital transformation’ being a buzzword and a key priority on business leaders’ agenda for half a decade now, a 2018 survey of IT professionals revealed that only 8% of enterprises consider themselves fully digitally transformed and 23% are still in the early stages of their ‘digital transformation’. Many organisations are still struggling to achieve their digital business ideals,” said McNulty. 

"Businesses will be more strategic in adopting a utilitarian approach towards embracing a digital-first mindset – particularly so for companies with legacy business models and IT architectures. For such companies, digital transformation is an urgent business mandate. Enterprises must not only adopt a clear digital strategy that incorporates emerging, innovative technologies, but also undertake initiatives to modernise their legacy applications."

McNulty stressed that legacy systems remain critical to day-to-day operations for many organisations, and should not be replaced during the digital transformation process. “The strength and maturity of existing infrastructure (in) organisations can provide a solid foundation for integrating new technologies. In many cases, replacing the whole ecosystem would be counterproductive,” he said.

McNulty predicted: “In 2019, what’s needed is a pragmatic approach that leverages the value of current IT systems but embraces the future needs. In order to be able to accommodate emerging technologies, companies must be able to make adjustments to their legacy infrastructure accordingly – analysing how the old and the new technologies can coexist.”

Source: ThoughtWorks. Xia.

Jessie Xia, MD, Southeast Asia, ThoughtWorks, agreed that the digitalisation has not been easy for many companies, with strategy, approach, and mindset all playing key parts in successful transformation.

She said: “Looking ahead, a dash of innovative grit, adaptive leadership, experimental culture, and new-age funding will deliver an ideal environment for true strategic digital alignment.”

The Red Hat Global Customer Tech Outlook survey* has confirmed that companies are taking digital transformation seriously, but that they find it a challenge to transform.

“In our previous survey, 19% of companies that responded were looking to new business models or introducing new digital products and services in the next 12 months. This year’s survey shows almost twice that (35%), with the financial services industry leading the pack,” said Margaret Dawson, VP, Portfolio Product Marketing at Red Hat in a blog post.

“This definitely aligns with what I’m hearing and seeing from customers worldwide. There is no longer a question around whether digital disruption will happen, but more a matter of when and how much. Organisations realise they have to shift the equation to have technology—specifically applications and digital user experiences—that can drive their competitive differentiation. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the percentage of companies not planning any transformation initiatives dropped by half, from 32% to 14%. The 'put your head in the sand' strategy just wasn’t working.”

Source: Red Hat. Dawson.

Dawson also shared that survey respondents have found the implementation of digital transformation difficult, with a quarter of respondents still developing their digital transformation strategy. “This may be why we are seeing an increase in a new role that typically reports to the CIO, often called something like Digital Transformation Strategist or Digital Solutions Delivery—a trend I’m seeing in government and private enterprises alike,” she said.

According to Xia, business leaders and governments looking to embark on digital transformation initiatives in 2019 should consider the following best practices:

- Practice dynamic funding allocation

- Establish frequent checkpoints to test, measure and modify, and.

- Encourage more cross-functional collaboration to remove work silos and ensure all blind spots are covered

- Build organisational grit so that employees have the tenacity to solve problems, experiment and learn from failures

- Empower teams to think creatively to solve real customer needs, support learning, and encourage experimentation and feedback

Explore:

Browse the full list of 2018 round-ups and 2019 predictions in TechTrade Asia

*The Red Hat Global Customer Tech Outlook surveyed more than 400 Red Hat customers around the world, with respondents from 51 countries. Of these, 26.7% responded from the Asia Pacific region (APAC). These IT leaders weighed in about their current challenges, their deployment strategies, technologies they are excited about, as well as budget and technology priorities for 2019.