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3 Reasons Why CIOs Wrestle with Digital Transformation

“We need another application.” As a CIO, this statement will probably make you shudder. 

recent global survey of over 1,000 businesses revealed 63% of respondents indicated that their business neglects the implications and depth of systems change required when trying to build new engaging services and user experiences. So for today’s CIOs, how does the business expect you to respond?

Unfortunately, most are faced with a backdrop of limited resources and ever-increasing demands from across the business. Finding a way to overcome these challenges is vital to success as a CIO, and for the future of the entire business.

These are the three most common reasons why CIOs are currently struggling with digital transformation:

 

1 – PACE: We want everything and we want it now

Picture this: a decision has been made to modernize your existing IT infrastructure and the pressure to get it done is mounting quickly. The board is demanding quick results. But your ability to deliver a rapid pace of change is hampered by siloed systems which you’ve been trying to get the business to understand for months. Typically, this powerful but clunky tech isn’t built to facilitate rapid change. So. a rethink of IT’s architectural blueprint is required to enable agility.

You know that light technologies that drive change and avoid large-scale implementations should be the first port of call. So, the trick is in demonstrating why organizational goals should focus on building momentum by delivering rapid results through minimum viable products that you can quickly iterate. And explaining that it’s OK to fail. Of course, this mentality will only yield results if all stakeholders understand that the ‘time to digital’ is different from usual delivery timelines.

 

2 – STREAMLINING: Connecting legacy systems

A lot of the technology that businesses use is too rigid and they end up adapting their business model to their legacy technology. But it should be the other way.

The company essentially operates as a disparate organization of silos that struggle to collaborate effectively. The challenge for you and your team is that you now have to streamline these broken systems to better serve customers, but they don’t have the tools to connect them.

Technology can be a catalyst for much of the internal change needed to help companies be more responsive. This is where digital platform technologies can help.

Digital Process Automation (DPA) platforms enable organizations to implement a process ‘wrapper’ that is both agile and quick to deploy around siloed systems. The layer brings disconnected systems together, consolidates fragmented data, and empowers employees with connected information to better serve customers. The ability to deliver the right information at the right time to employees is the way to create a superior customer experience and a competitive edge.

 

3 – INNOVATION: Experiment and iterate

Your digital transformation imperative demands that you forego development methods that don’t compliment rapid experimentation. With the right technology in place, a cultural change will be imminent. Agile technology platforms empower the business to be more responsive to customers and deliver products to market faster.

For digital transformation programs to succeed they need to be built on agile experimentation. It’s all about providing the tools for people to create digital solutions faster, whilst also ensuring that those solutions can speak to each other and re-use elements of innovation. Making that innovation rapidly repeatable is a core component of every digital transformation strategy.

How can these ideas help you plan your transformation? Download the ‘How to create a digital transformation timeline’ eBook to find out how your pressures compare with those faced by business leaders.

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