When I was first involved in Digital Transformation it was all about technology. If you look at the history of IT refresh it is usually about a 10 year cycle. The year 2000 was the "compelling reason" where I watched people buying systems, because they had to. Many of these systems were purchased on the basis they would be replaced 10 year after that.
The only issue was that Lehman's went down and messed that all up. This meant that people were extending the life of IT systems, often well past their sell by date.
One client I had in my previous company to access their systems required two PCs with different web browser versions. Millennials would join and then leave after 6 months citing the crap IT as a reason.
There has been many years now where people have moved systems to the cloud. The reasons for this are many, lower cost being one. This move to the cloud has also been called "digital transformation".
Let me be controversial for a second. Digital transformation is not about moving IT to the cloud.
Digital Transformation is about the people and process in your organisation to be more efficient and effective via the use of digital. Digital Transformation is all about people and process.
We have seen a massive switch over the last year where CMOs are coming to us and saying "marketing is working anymore" and we are also seeing CMOs who are being fired for implementing old school tactics.
Why is this?
We are seeing a new style of manager coming through. Managers that use technology in their everyday lives. I'm not sure why, but people that use, Uber, Uber Eats, etc etc, seem to have a greater handle on what is happening in the world today.
We have seen massive strides with our social programs, transforming business across Sales, Human Resources, Marketing, Customer Services etc. The curious thing is the number of people that are implementing competitive strategies using social. Not just using it to increase incremental revenue and reducing cost but as a way to pro-actively take competitors out.
Fifty-seven percent cite “integrating all social, mobile, web, commerce, service efforts and investments to deliver an integrated, frictionless, and omnichannel customer experience” as a long term goal; fifty-four percent cite it as a short term one.
