I began realigning worker experiences from analog to digital almost 30 years ago. So, what does Digital Transformation mean for companies that have been digital for decades? Are they transforming, evolving, what?
I think for many being 'digital' is akin to a company thinking they are international just because they have a FedEx number... and that's for both those that have been doing it for decades as well as newcomers. Creating an app that mirrors the analog isn't transformation.
I've always looked at it as layers. For example, I used to implement and manage a full technology stack. This included multiple servers, operating systems, applications, files, data, etc. spread across multiple pieces of local hardware.
Then came virtualization. Same thing, but virtual servers on a single piece of hardware. A new lever of abstraction.
Then we moved to the cloud where also (still) mimic this and in other ways bypass it completely.
For me, there was also tying systems/applications together with a unified abstraction layer that exposed the end-to-end process, and not just the underlying functional applications.
Basically, I think digital (and hopefully the word just goes away some day) is simply innovating with higher order solutions, building upon earlier foundations in search of that ever-elusive perfect process: trigger -> result
I work for a company that has finally gone almost completely cloud based technology. We are far from what I'd call digital. We have customer info all over the place, programs that don't talk to each other. SAAS solutions that are mediocre at one task, etc.
There is another company in our industry that built from the ground up one system that flow from what a rep in the field does all the way through accounting, production, shipping etc.
I think for many being 'digital' is akin to a company thinking they are international just because they have a FedEx number... and that's for both those that have been doing it for decades as well as newcomers. Creating an app that mirrors the analog isn't transformation.
I've always looked at it as layers. For example, I used to implement and manage a full technology stack. This included multiple servers, operating systems, applications, files, data, etc. spread across multiple pieces of local hardware.
Then came virtualization. Same thing, but virtual servers on a single piece of hardware. A new lever of abstraction.
Then we moved to the cloud where also (still) mimic this and in other ways bypass it completely.
For me, there was also tying systems/applications together with a unified abstraction layer that exposed the end-to-end process, and not just the underlying functional applications.
Basically, I think digital (and hopefully the word just goes away some day) is simply innovating with higher order solutions, building upon earlier foundations in search of that ever-elusive perfect process: trigger -> result
We're never going back to "analog"
I work for a company that has finally gone almost completely cloud based technology. We are far from what I'd call digital. We have customer info all over the place, programs that don't talk to each other. SAAS solutions that are mediocre at one task, etc.
There is another company in our industry that built from the ground up one system that flow from what a rep in the field does all the way through accounting, production, shipping etc.
Having customer information all in one place is possible in a notebook. Highly inconvenient, but...