There are three main layers of digital transformation. Culture, infrastructure, and data. It is not easy to uncover the value of infa without cultural transformation, and the value of cultural transformation without data transformation. Therefore, it is of great importance that these three concepts transform and develop in harmony with each other.
The digital world is in a rapid transformation. Pandemic, chip crises, logistical problems, wars, changing all our habits and finding new ways for ourselves are very difficult for us, and will continue to do so. In this context, we need to change our ways of doing business in accordance with this change.
When we look at the past, the first teams that come to mind in companies when it comes to digital transformation were information technology teams. Digital transformation is now leaving the IT teams and spreading to the whole organization, leaving its place to business transformation. In this task that passes to business units, of course, technology is not left out of the picture, on the contrary, technology is at the forefront of every step of this transformation. At this point, it is very important that IT and business units work in harmony.
No matter how we define this transformation, every transformation is a journey, and the most important issue in this journey is our ideas and dreams. As technology and business leaders, we have thousands of ideas running through our minds every day, creating new business models, new revenue models.
We try to imagine the corresponding technological renewal and requirements. But how many of these are we able to implement? At this point, the right starting point is to change our perspective and mindset. I think there will be three main obstacles in front of us in this transformation:
Failure of 1.BT and business units to work together: Digital transformation is a process that requires a future-oriented approach and using technology as a main catalyst at every point of the business area. At this point, technology teams are expected to develop solutions that support and facilitate these ideas in the implementation of ideas in business lines.
On the other hand, the strategy and vision of the business units need to be assimilated and adopted by all IT teams. That is, the starting point of transformation is shifting from IT units to business units. At this point, many questions arise that await both business lines and technology teams, and answering these questions requires both parties to work together in harmony: “How much investment will I make, how long will it take to return on this, do I have enough human resources?”
2.Lack of infrastructure resources, technology and manpower: When business units want to implement their ideas, they will want IT teams to take quick action to realize these ideas. The shorter it takes for the idea to come to life, the sooner it will be to find a place in the market before all competitors. However, in this transformation process, various resource constraints come to the agenda in terms of both manpower and technological infrastructure in the technology layer.
The systems required by the idea to be implemented may not be provided quickly depending on the load they will meet. As you know, hardware procurement processes have increased due to the recent chip crisis and logistics problems. On the other hand, if your idea receives more demand than you expect, your systems may not be able to meet this demand, they will not be able to grow rapidly in a flexible structure, and this will be an obstacle to your income increase. From the point of view of IT, human resources, management of systems, the stress of the need to actively stand 24-7; It can also cause them to create an automatic resistance to every new idea that will come across from business units.
3.Prolongation of decision-making processes: One of the biggest stages in the realization of ideas is the internal decision processes. When a business model comes to our minds, after briefly analyzing this idea and making a management evaluation, a long-term decision process begins in front of us.
In the approval steps, we encounter the following questions: What is our target audience? How much revenue do we expect? What will it cost us? What is profitability? These are very natural and necessary questions.
The speed of the process of finding answers to these questions determines the speed of the decision process. But how possible is it to know every detail at the very beginning of the idea? What do we need to achieve this?
In order to realize the business model you imagine, the cycle of evaluating, testing, implementing and revising the idea in the decision processes needs to be fast and consistent.
In response to these three barriers, three main solutions stand out as follows:
Digital transformation initiatives are far-reaching. It becomes valuable and effective when all leaders, not just IT teams, are connected to an understanding of how this vision will impact the entire organization. Despite the still need to involve all stakeholders today, CIOs, CTOs, and CDOs continue to lead technology decisions. CIOs are the biggest advocates of digital transformation.
However, among the wider C-Level executives, technologies such as digital transformation and cloud are becoming more known. This allows not only technology leaders, but also business leaders to identify well-targeted digital initiatives and collaborate to support growth.
The most common model proposed here is “shared leadership commitment”. An inclusive culture and leadership model that opens up space for the sharing and discussion of new ideas. When this does not happen, either the decision processes are prolonged or the departments that are not involved in the decision have difficulty contributing. Thus, no matter how strong the digital transformation vision is, it is inevitable that projects will be prolonged or fail even if we do not want to.
For infrastructure and resource problems, the fastest solution is the use of cloud platforms. The Cloud platform allows organizations to share their growth ideas relatively
it breaks down the boundaries of innovation by allowing it to test quickly with minimal upfront commitment.
After testing ideas, the cloud allows them to quickly bring the best ideas to market at scale. IDC reports that using the cloud drives 25 percent higher developer productivity and delivers three times more features than on-premises environments. The research estimates that with the cloud, organizations experience 94 percent fewer unplanned outages and a 14 percent increase in business user productivity.
The speed and efficiency in our decision processes pass through the power and limitlessness of data. It requires an environment where the whole organization looks through the same window and can make decisions based on the same data. The concept of “data democratization” enters our lives.
The key point here is; recognizing the intrinsic value of data, using it wisely, and creating a culture that embraces its power. At the study level; This mental model emphasizes collecting, storing, and analyzing data to generate insights that improve customer service, reduce costs, and uncover new revenue opportunities.
Summarize; There are three main layers of digital transformation. Culture, infrastructure, and data. It is not easy to uncover the value of infa without cultural transformation, and the value of cultural transformation without data transformation. Therefore, it is of great importance that these three concepts transform and develop in harmony with each other.
Finally, let me suggest a book: Digital for Good, by Chris Skinner. Enjoyable reading.