Digital Transformation is packed with exciting technology and is powered by the latest in innovation and ground-breaking solutions that can change the face of the business. However, according to Mandla Mbonamibi, CEO of Africonology, organisations need to change the way they change the way they approach emerging technologies.
There is an appetite for change and automation, and this is both subtle and aggressive at the same time – everyone wants to be first, but nobody wants to go first until they know the quality and standards of the products.
Decision-makers are finding ways of accommodating these technologies into their existing infrastructure and investing relentlessly into Digital Transformation. But if you unpack this landscape, if you really look at the motivation that spurs on this momentum, it is that nobody wants to be left behind. Everybody wants to be on par with the market.
Unfortunately, many organisations end up investing in technologies and solutions that they already have or don’t need. They aren’t asking the right questions, the questions that will see them invest in Digital Transformation solutions that have sustainable relevance. Instead, they end up investing in new, and often irrelevant, technology instead of leveraging what they already have. What they should be asking is, ‘how do we invest and modernise with an understanding of our existing infrastructure?’
So many businesses want Blockchain, IoT or AI – they want to prepare for what lies ahead, to ensure that their infrastructure and organisations are future proof and ready. There is a lot of hype around Digital Transformation but there is a catch – the organisation needs to understand what they are buying and what they are buying it for. First, solve the mystery that surrounds your existing technology investment, then invest.
Companies should be identifying the challenges and the loopholes rather than following where the next hype cycle will take them.
It is a significant shift in thinking as most are thinking that if their competitor releases X, then they need to release it as well. Things move so quickly that few take time to observe. Everyone is too scared to be left behind. But it is far better to be late than to be early and waste money. It isn’t cheap following the hype and usually, solutions follow on at a lower price point and allow for those who waited to do so much more. Rather focus on what you need, monitor your return on investment, and consistently use testing and questioning to ask how these solutions are going to deliver.
Digital Transformation has disrupted more than just the speed of decision-making but also those who make the decisions. The investment in and testing of new technologies and solutions has moved out from being solely the remit of IT and into the business. The line of business wants to own the digital shift; the CEO and the CFO are driving their own onboarding and agendas and the calls for testing solutions are coming from the business and not IT.
This trend is driven primarily by two needs – visibility and control. They want to keep the projects closer to where the budget is seated and they want fresh approaches to testing models for AI, IoT, Machine Learning and Robotics. We have found that this has really changed the dialogue in the industry, and it has informed our customer approach significantly. We deliver the dashboards, visibility, and the tools that the decision makers need to frame their digital transformation investment.
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