Читать книгу Digital @ Scale - Swaminathan Anand - Страница 12

The answers to the What question resulted in a list of priorities to be addressed on the road to the digital transformation. Now it’s time for the How. Successful transformations require profound changes to structures, processes, management instruments, and IT. Again, a three-stage structure is needed, which sorts the relevant points by priority.

Create a Plan

At the top of the list is a road map to the digital future: calibrate people and processes for the digital world. Second, it’s always about the customer – digitize all contact points that customers have with the company according to importance. And to ensure we find the digital solutions, we radically abolish the functional silos in the company, and form overarching teams supplemented with digital talent.

The plan outlines the direction and priority, and is often the cornerstone of a transformation program that almost always lasts years. Chapter 7 describes how companies can meet the requirements of the plan.

Ramping Up the Digital Company

The next level down defines the elements of the digital company. This is where companies need to optimize their development according to the motto “Pace before perfection” in a culture of testing and learning.

New products and services are quickly tested in the market; the results are measured, and then further optimized if necessary. Budgets are tied to the achievement of interim targets, progress is analyzed in fixed cycles, and projects are immediately canceled if necessary – in short, the digital operating system. Chapter 8 explains how this works.

Consistent Scaling

The third level deals with consistent implementation, focusing on scaling and rolling out the transformation process to the entire company and its ecosystem. A twin-track IT structure is needed: day-to-day business where all the sensitive data is handled in the stable structures as usual, and agile IT systems for the fast-developing new projects. The biggest challenge at this level, however, is the rapid, company-wide installation of solutions tested in pilots – Digital@Scale, as explained in Chapter 9.

Digitization begins with the strengths of the company. Companies that build their business models on outstanding customer service need to consider which new service offerings are made possible by digital technology. Companies that process large volumes of data each day should first look for big data solutions that allow them to offer new services to their customer base. For example, a networked health care model combines tried-and-tested communications technologies with new IT concepts. It’s a combination that’s already demonstrating its potentials. Thanks to big data, treatment paths can be personalized, while the smart evaluation of data enables predictive diagnostics, benefiting both physicians and patients.

And companies such as discount retailers that focus on the efficiency of their processes have much to gain from the digitization of the supply chain. For example, sensors can be fitted to transported goods, and the generated data can be analyzed to help develop improved routes and more efficient supply chains.