The global business environment is being disrupted by the collision of an unprecedented wave of innovation. The combination of pervasive networking, the explosion of big data, the availability of advanced analytics and social media, and the fact that mobile technology will become businesses’ new face of engagement means that, in the very near future, “digital” and “business” will be synonymous. To grapple with this fact, businesses need a new framework of understanding and action.

The need for Digital framework in Enterprises

Harnessing the disruptive force of digital requires a holistic view of the enterprise, encompassing both technology and culture. Digital must be ingrained and integrated across sales, customer service, marketing, and human resources, affecting the entire universe of business operations.

At some point, digital will impact your P&L enough that you will be forced to change, but if you wait until you see a significant shift to act, you’ll already be behind. The key is to predict the most likely and extreme areas of impact, as well as the areas you can leverage for your business, and to become a “digital first” mover rather than a reactor.

Drivers of Transformation

Four critical areas of technology are driving the changes in today’s enterprises and creating a perfect storm of innovation.

• Big Data. Companies, customers, partners and machines are all generating more data than ever before: structured, unstructured and semi-structured. Twitter streams, social media data and more are unstructured data that does not fit into neat categories, but if it can be assimilated, it is also more valuable than structured data. The rapid expansion of big data means you have got more data about customers in more places than ever before, but more data does not mean it is easier to develop a composite picture of the customer.
• Social Media. Social media is largely responsible for a shift in the balance of power from businesses to consumers. It has also created a powerful, two-way communication between consumers and businesses. As a tool, it has tremendous potential for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer engagement, building loyalty and sharing or “crowdsourcing” solutions among partners and customers in the ecosystem.
• Mobility. Enabled by mobile communications, the “anywhere, anytime” culture is pervading and transforming business. Location based offers to mobile devices target consumers near the point of sale. Productivity increases as workers access corporate resources from mobile devices. Business processes can be rethought, informed by mobility (dynamic rerouting of service calls for example). Mobile apps will ultimately be the face of customer engagement and depending on the app, the traffic could strain your infrastructure.
• Cloud Computing. Cloud computing offers new scalability and economy, but also creates shadow IT initiatives, as one department signs up for cloud resources unknown to the IT department. This in turn creates more silos.

Digital capabilities will be fundamental to companies transforming customer experience. Embracing integrated data and processes will help them thrive in an ever-redefined business environment.

The business benefits of becoming a digital enterprise

• Compete Effectively

Disrupt the disrupters to stay ahead. Today’s most innovative companies such as Uber and Airbnb have used social, mobile, cloud, big data, and other technologies to launch new digital services to attract customers. They have embraced the fact that we now live in a digital economy that is dominated by fast-moving enterprises that can launch, manage, and optimise digital services quickly. Enterprises need the right mindset, processes and tools to rapidly introduce new services to keep up with and surpass digital upstarts.

• Increase Productivity

Leverage automation to scale your business.

The effective use of automation can help companies make the digital transformation required for sustainable competitive advantage. Digital enterprise automation is critical to deliver real-time IT responsiveness that is compliant, consistent and scalable.

The scale of the challenge and the behind-the-scenes complexity underpinning modern digital services means IT must move beyond the automation of isolated tasks and processes, and head towards a service-wide, more strategic approach.

• Lower Costs

Control costs and manage capacity to optimise your investments.

Dramatic growth in new digital services has led to more complex IT infrastructures and a need to scale. Businesses are provisioning new IT environments at a breakneck speed but must be careful to keep costs under control. Left unchecked, the growth in assets can lead to unnecessary cost and wasted resources. By contrast, insufficient capacity in key areas can directly impact service quality and put a business’s reputation at risk.

• Defense against Attack

Protect your company’s brand from hackers.

Attacks by hackers have been increasing in frequency and sophistication to gain entry into corporate networks. The results of such attacks are not limited to only the data that is accessed. Corporations who maintain confidential employee, customer, and partner data can also have their brands tarnished if data is lost, and may be subject to large fines. The efforts to repair a brand can often times require more effort, and ultimately cost more, than the original hack itself.

• Attract and Retain Client

Deliver an exceptional digital workplace for employees.

Millennials (those born between 1980 and 2000) will form 50% of the global workforce by 2020. Enterprises need to get serious about meeting their expectations in the workplace. These employees are proficient in all the technologies at their disposal, and they demand greater freedom in managing where, how, and when they work. Attracting and retaining the millennial workforce has become a top priority for many forward-looking enterprises.

Digital technologies therefore offer the chance for individualized, tailored, accelerated and more effective strategy for businesses. If you want to know about the power of digital transformation, Anglo African team can help you,  do contact Naazreen on 2331636 or via e-mail at  naazreen.ghoorun@infosystems.mu.