Micro Focus CEO: Technological advances are driving business change
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Micro Focus CEO: Technological advances are driving business change

The CEO of Micro Focus has stated that technological advances are driving the acceleration of business change and questioned why some Digital Transformations do not succeed.

Stephen Murdoch, CEO of Micro Focus, told Micro Focus Virtual Universe 2020’s online audience that in today’s world the rules of business, the expectations on public sector institutions and the definitions of success are all changing.

“The pace of change is only doing one thing – it’s accelerating,” he said. “That acceleration is driven by technology advances and changes in how we think about processes driven by digitisation, an unbelievable increase in customer expectations and increasing rise of disruptive and fundamentally new business models of ways of doing business.

“And every company, us included, is looking at how we find a balance of both running our business today and transforming it for what we believe it needs to be in the future.

“The reality is we have to find and capture new sources of revenue, on top of our existing business infrastructure, business processes and our organisational structures. We need to evolve but we have to build on what we have.

“That’s about finding this balance of innovating at speed but doing so with a cost and a risk profile, that’s appropriate for the enterprise.”

 Mr Murdoch added that the IT infrastructure has gone through an ‘unbelievable’ amount of change during our lifetimes with an explosion of innovation but also a great deal of complexity.

“The reality is today most of our customers live in a multi-generational, multi-process and development model environment,” he said.

“And the key is, how do you innovate in the reality of that environment? How do you embrace new opportunities through the Internet of Things? How do you bring in new capabilities from emerging start-up vendors and SAS capabilities. And how do you do all of that with the correct balance of cost, risk and speed?”

Mr Murdoch explained why some Digital Transformations fail.

“I think the Harvard Business Review summed it up well in terms of the review of why, and their study of, why Digital Transformations fail.

“And it’s really this idea of not being connected to the business strategy. So not thinking through people, processes and technology, and being overly focused on ‘new’ rather than how ‘new’ gets incorporated and delivered and exploited within the organisation.

“So, as we at Micro Focus think about this, we try to take a much more disciplined and pragmatic approach to how you deliver Digital Transformation. And that starts with assessment.

“So these are the insights necessary to identify what you can continue to exploit from your existing capability: What can be modernised and enhanced?; What could be retired to free up investment capability for those resources and dollars to enhance and build and embrace new capabilities and new modernisation opportunities?; And how do we help you do that in a controlled structured and managed way?”

Those virtually attending Micro Focus’s premier customer and partner event, which continues until March 19, can hear how it can help companies innovate faster with less risk in the race to Digital Transformation.

A statement from the company said: “We all know that competing in today’s diverse market is no joke. Successful organisations must remain at the forefront of technology while controlling budgets, leveraging data and ensuring security. Gain access to the strategy and technical details you need in sessions delivered by Micro Focus executives, product experts, partners and customers.“

There will be multiple sessions organised into four main tracks covering Application Delivery, Application Modernisation and Connectivity, IT Operations Management and Security, Risk and Governance.

You can register here.

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