CIO OPINION
all digital businesses by 2022. But with
business and technical hurdles to overcome,
how can CIOs manage the business
strategy of implementing their network at
the Edge? With potentially trillions of dollars
being invested in the hope of generating
huge economic returns, the argument for
paying attention to the Edge opportunity
is clear and the window for learning and
action is narrowing.
Leadership
In order to truly embrace the Edge, you
have to start at the top. Senior-level
management must develop a deep
understanding of the shifts taking place
in the marketplace, the opportunities and
challenges posed by adopting the Edge
as a cornerstone of business strategy.
What’s more, leaders need to understand
how the technologies will enable their
business to create these new opportunities
and recognising that it transcends the
realm of IT, opening up new avenues of
business. For instance, in the hospitality
sector, Edge solutions can help create
more personalised experiences for guests.
Interaction between the guest’s intelligent
assistant and the hotel can ensure that
the mini-bar is stocked only with what is in
their approved diet and digital restaurant
menus can automatically update using the
“
WITH BUSINESS
AND TECHNICAL
HURDLES TO
OVERCOME, HOW
CAN CIOS MANAGE
THE BUSINESS
STRATEGY OF
IMPLEMENTING
THEIR NETWORK
AT THE EDGE?
same information, such as removing any
high sugar content dishes. But with change
comes challenge – the C-suite needs to
have a full understanding of the challenges
when making the transition and learn from
other companies who have embarked
on both successful and failed Digital
Transformation efforts.
In order to succeed, managers need to
prioritise objectives, ensuring that both IT
and wider business resources are not spread
too thinly across multiple projects. Senior
leadership’s key role will be to provide
the resources and direction to ensure
projects stay focused on their goals and
can deliver meaningful results. Stakeholder
engagement is critical here – the scale of the
opportunity, the size of the transformation
and the commercial risks of inaction need
to be communicated clearly to critical
stakeholders from employees and managers
to shareholders and the board.
Develop and evolve the business case
From the outset, it is important to
understand that the business case for
deploying edge technologies is likely to
evolve over time. While assumptions will
need to be made at the start of the process,
in order to give the project direction,
this will likely change and evolve once
businesses gain more practical experience
implementing edge-based solutions and
are in a better place to understand the true
benefits for customers and the organisation.
The key factor in evolving business cases
will be responding to feedback from the
end-user or employees. While enterprises
may have to adjust the solution as they hit
technological barriers or come up against
an unwillingness to invest from senior
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