1) Importance of Substantial Investment in Digital Transformation
Executing a successful digital transformation initiative is no easy task. McKinsey’s mid-year digital transformation survey found the companies that make significant investments in technological capabilities, talent, leadership and resources reap the benefits. The top-performing decile of survey respondents were well ahead of their competitors in all four of those area: one example is the top 20% are twice as likely as others to say they fill key technology roles with high-quality talent in a timely manner.
The results of McKinsey’s survey track with what we’ve heard from customer as well- 77% of digital transformation programs spend over $1 million and 30% spend over $5 million annually. These efforts involve collaboration between technology leaders, strategic leaders and functional leaders, along with many others. Successful digital transformation is challenging, but with the right and focused vision, appropriate resources, a dedicated team and a clear implementation strategy, the payoff is exponential.
2) Benefits of Precisely Focused Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is such a broad proposition with so many dimensions that plenty of companies struggle with step one: where to start? Some opt to simultaneous tackle multiple challenges, often to their detriment. On average, manufacturers start with eight digital pilot projects but 75% of those fail to scale, which can call into question the program’s longevity and funding and damage competitiveness.
While this mix approach may make intuitive sense because DX initiatives take many different forms and take time to payoff, pilot purgatory is the unfortunately typical end results. With too much to consider, decision fatigue and analysis paralysis set in and the initiatives flounder. Companies that identify their most pressing problems, gauge the benefits of resolving them, invest confidently and execute effectively will be rewarded for it. In addition to external expert advice, the key to a successful digital transformation initiative is close collaboration between the business functions impacted by the changes and the IT departments to determine their critical needs.
3) Advantages of Employee Digital Experiences
Accenture’s recent research report « The future of work: a hybrid work model » found that most workers (83%) prefer an approach where they can contribute onsite or off. That makes perfect sense, given many employees have grown accustomed to such flexibility over the past couple of year. With the report also finding that 63% of high-growth companies have already adopted a « productivity anywhere » model, the onus is on employers to ensure that their workforce is equipped with the proper resources and support to be successful.
Digital-first and connected experiences that increase productivity and retain talent will serve as a significant competitive advantage for companies. Augmented reality is already being utilized in everything from training the US Air Force to assisting with industrial machine. Companies have seen the savings form reduced travel expenditures over the past two years. Why not continue?
4) Growth of generative AI in digital transformation
As Gartner observes when looking ahead toward next year’s top tech trends. Generative AI is one to watch. Generative AI « refers to machine learning methods that learn about content or objects from their data and then use that information to generate brand-new original artifacts », according to Gartner. This capability is already a part of existing digital transformation programs and will become more integrated as the technology matures by 2025. Gartner expects generative AI to account for 10% of all data produced, up to from less than 1% today.
As machine learning continues to make strides, one area where it already provides significant value is design. Using generative design, engineers can iterate on new ideas quickly and creatively, letting software guide them to novel and more sustainable solutions. Today, this technology shapes a variety of products, including cars on the road and suits in outer space. As time goes on, it will play an even more prominent role in how companies engineer and manufacture the next wave of products.
5) Increasing Pace of Change and Customization in IT Infrastructure
Uncertainty reared its head in an especially ugly way during the past couple years. In a Deloitte article on strategy and digital transformation, more than three-quarters of executives surveyed said they expect more change over the next five years than there was in the previous five. More than half of that cohort believe the rapid pace of technology is “not good” for their organizations or customers.
Having the ability to adjust on the fly will be table stakes to compete. What’s also likely, as companies chart different paths to accomplish their goals, is for the combination of on-premise and cloud to turn into on-premise and clouds. SaaS is on the march because it provides greater mobility, better collaboration, faster innovation, simple scalability and a lower total cost.
The evolution of hybrid cloud to multi-cloud and SaaS will help businesses better meet their IT needs, favoring partners that can provide these types of services and integrate them seamlessly.
Technology is the lifeblood of digital transformation and both will keep pushing ahead in 2022. Keeping the above trends in mind will help companies pursue successful digital transformation initiatives and position themselves for long-term success even as the ground shifts.
