Johannesburg, 11 Oct 2022
The past several years have been a whirlwind for organisations. Even though digital systems made themselves available and visible several decades ago, the maturity and evolution of technologies and how they elevate businesses continually gained speed. They eventually reached such a breakneck pace that we've had to name the phenomenon: digital transformation. Whether you want to talk about cloud, connectivity, mobility or any other digital forces shaping our world, they all fall under the umbrella term.
Yet, digital transformation continues to create confusion among companies for such a simple combination of two words. Winston Ritson, Chief Operations Officer, Liquid C2., says this confusion is where digital ambitions go wrong:
"From my perspective, digital transformation is not a destination. And that's where it typically falters and fails within businesses or encounters resistance. Businesses have a view that digital transformation is a thing you do, and then it is complete. But it's continual business optimisation using digital tools – improving business outcomes, business processes, increased utilisation of digital tools. That really is what digital transformation is."
Compute becomes a units of production
If we delve deeper into this definition, we can distinguish two levels of the phenomenon. There is digital transformation as a long-term event, essentially the computerisation of business and society. Then there are the more immediate milestones defined by the current technology trends.
"Current best strategies hinge on the cloud as an enabler of digital transformation. There are far more available resources - compute, power, storage, complex tools - available within the typical business or enterprise. The optimisation at this juncture is about using tools that a business would not be able to afford to build out support on their own."
One can identify events and trends at this granular level. But if you embrace digital transformation as a continuum, the grassroots changes start looking more like waves. They start small, build up speed and mass, and eventually peak and settle in. But settling in is not the same as stagnation. Instead, they reflect the maturity of a technology trend and its adopters.
"We are reaching a point now where compute has become a unit of production. In prior waves, compute would support and optimise the back of the house. Now, it is really key to how the business succeeds or fails. You can apply specific metrics - shopfront visitors, transactions, time spent on the storefront. All of these are measurements of units of production. Business customers didn't engage with a digital landscape where, nowadays, digital is first and foremost what a customer typically engages with when they're reaching out to a business for a product or service."
Many digital transformation projects stumble because of overtly expecting a destination - a view often reinforced by how tech companies promote the concept and pragmatically because it fits with how companies rationalise projects through milestones. But these pigeonhole digital transformation and strip it from a highly-critical requirement.
"It needs to be looked at from a change management angle and a change management programmatic lens. Businesses have been viewing it very specifically from an IT engagement perspective, whereas it is change management across the business. A lot of digital transformation efforts, even if we were measuring them by the milestone, typically falter or fail, because there is no change management attached to it. But IT are enablers within a business rather than setting the strategy and the long-term objectives of a business. This is why business has to own its digital transformation."
Why frameworks and culture matter
Such a more comprehensive scope is why Ritson insists on organisations adopting cloud adoption frameworks to guide their transformation intentions.
"An adoption framework is really key. Businesses shouldn't ring-fence one aspect of the business and one tool that they need to implement in order to check off the box that says digital transformation. They need to look at the business end-to-end: view every single aspect of their business, how would they modernise it, and how do they take it to the next step?"
Companies like Amazon have achieved great success with digital transformation because they take and maintain this approach. In Amazon's case, continual evaluation of digital opportunities powers its famous Day 1 culture that puts customers at the centre of everything it does. Today, many business leaders celebrate that philosophy. But it was much less considered in 1997, when Jeff Bezos first articulated the Day 1 concept. Using digital to reinforce Day 1's expectations, Amazon found and maintained great success. Every business can do something similar.
"If you look at it as every day being Day 1 within your business, it doesn't matter if you are Head of Sales, Head of Marketing, Head of Production, etc, every day there is an opportunity to optimise the business. And digital is one of the easiest ways for business to optimise its internal processes."
If you see digital transformation as a continuum and its trends as waves, it makes complete sense that businesses should lead those projects. They must use IT as an enabler, adoption frameworks as guidance, and progressive optimisation culture as the driver. This is what we've learned about digital transformation. The sooner we put that into practice, the quicker we realise the ongoing benefits of our digital age.
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