Over the last number of years it has become clear that we are seeing new convergence of technology around cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things – enabling us all to participate in entirely new disruptive ways of working and thinking. It is only a matter of time until this digital transformation sweeps across every industry and no company or governmental agency will be immune to its impact.
Today we are seeing bursts of evolutionary business changes – a mass extinction among corporations and mass speciation of new kinds of companies. The scope and impact of these changes and the evolution required for organizations to survive are the reasons that we see so many legacy businesses failing and suddenly become irrelevant in their market space. Companies are failing to innovate because it means changing their focus from what appeared to be working to something unproven and risky.
Companies that will survive through the era of digital transformation are those that recognize that survival is survival – regardless of how it happens – and that environments change and resources fluctuate rapidly. The digital transformation discussion is about supply and demand for your services and products. Transformation needs to not only occur in what you do to support the supply and the delivery of that supply. What transformative steps you take to support the creation process (e.g. finance, sales, marketing, etc.), while important, are merely supportive of your deliverable service or product. What you do to create is different than what you create. What you create IS your core business and only your core business (i.e. that which your customer consumes) will create a differentiated and competitive advantage.
Many companies have “transformed” their non-core business activities, but have not yet pulled their core business into a state that is digitally transformed.
Here are four key technologies are driving digital transformation: Cloud Computing, Big Data, AI, and IoT/IIoT:
- Cloud Computing has democratized IT by providing an ability to rapidly and dynamically expand and contract to satisfy computer and storage resource needs. This allows organizations of any size to apply AI to datasets of any size. Organizations unable or unwilling to embrace cloud computing will be at a severe disadvantage compared to their competitors. Cloud computing includes selected provisioning of “X-as-a-Service”-like infrastructure, platforms, and software (IaaS, PatS, and SaaS).
- All the data we currently collect and will collect is Big Data and can now be stored and analyzed, regardless of its source, format, frequency, or whether it is structured or unstructured. Big Data enables us to combine entire data sets, creating massive supersets of data that we can feed into sophisticated AI algorithms.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the science of making computer programs and machines capable of learning and problem-solving in highly effective and efficient ways. The number and complexity of AI applications are expanding rapidly and will benefit businesses in untold ways.
- The Internet of Things (IoT) or Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), is the concept of connecting any device equipped with the capabilities to send and receive data over the internet or extranets. With IoT now delivering significant Edge computing capabilities, the Cloud is now being extended to the very edge of the network so that Big Data and AI are simultaneously coming into play via IoT.
Digital Transformation is not just a technology investment. Digital Transformation requires support from all of the CxO’s, business management units, data scientists, portfolio, program and project managers, business analysts, developers, and people across the entire enterprise. In the current wave of digital transformation, consultancies like Excellerate are helping clients use data to reinvent their business models.
Contact Excellerate Inc. to help you with your Digital Transformation.
