FEATURE: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
these initiatives from the start. In the digital
era, IT’s role cannot be constrained to
the historical efficiency objectives model
but rather be at the heart of enabling the
primary business objectives of growth,
profitability, innovation and so on. Having
them fully on board from the start will not
only ease the implementation but will allow
for any change to be measured right from
the start, progressing towards the set goal.
If, however, the CIO and IT organisation
can see that things might not run smoothly,
then they have the ability to pull back and
take the time required to explore why a new
digital initiative is not delivering as it should,
before it is fully scaled up.
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There is a launch and learn aspect to any
digital transformation initiative and it’s
important to strike a balance between
having some flexibility within the project and
being able to innovate, without taking on
too much risk. So, having the ability to trial
and find out whether it will or won’t produce
the results you are striving to achieve is key.
Whilst this can put stress on the governance
model for projects and the investment, since
it can slow down the activities, similarly, if it’s
successful, there’s the opportunity to expand
and scale. Therefore, having a shared vision
and full alignment with business partners is
really important.
FROM THE VERY START CIOS NEED
TO BE EXTREMELY CLEAR ON
THE BUSINESS OUTCOMES THE
ORGANISATION WANTS TO ACHIEVE
THROUGH DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION.
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Be ready to meet speed and
scale with ROI
Once a new solution for a new digital
process has past the hurdles and is fit for
function validation with a sample audience,
it has to be able to scale quickly and be
deployed rapidly across the target audience.
Launching new applications and services
are events that organisations need to plan
for. But, many forget about monitoring
the new applications continuously at this
point, as whilst you may think everything
is working smoothly, you could be wrong.
And to include integrated performance
management in production and through
continuous releases is critical.
Why? In a digital age where end-users
and customers are used to having almost
anything they want at a click of a button,
you can hardly afford for your business’s
new digital applications or systems to
suddenly stop working. For example, in
the shipping industry, large customers
have tons of cargo on a multitude of
ships across the world. The criticality of
the applications they use to oversee the
logistics and timings of these ships is crucial
as every minute counts. And, therefore, any
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