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Hardly any achievement influences the world as comprehensively and fundamentally as information technology (I.T.) as we are currently experiencing it ...
The most obvious way to understand this is that the services of the Google company are used so naturally in many work processes. Google is only 17 years old as a company.
Digitalisation is Not a Marketing Trend - It is a Business Driver.
The iPhone with its innovative (simple) user interface was introduced in 2007. I.T. changes working and living conditions, enables different processes, creates value propositions, customer experiences new services, products and management techniques. In summary: It is the driving force that no industry and no company or business sector can escape.
We are witnessing in the Covid 19 impact the boom of video meetings and lifve streams.
The
fact that digitalisation is important for corporate success has now been accepted in many executive suites. But this realisation does not always manifest itself in the initiation and implementation of measures that make the company more competitive.
In the digital world, there is no longer a business strategy that is not also a digital strategy. And something else is crucial: it can only be successful if as many different departments as possible participate in its creation and, above all, if new, IT-supported business areas are at its core. This is especially true in the use of data, information and their evaluation.
What is the Challenge for Entrepreneurs & Leaders in the Digital Transformation?
The challenge is first of all to find out what opportunities are offered by a digital business model and digital processes.
In concrete terms, this means that information can be used in two ways: On the one hand, with its help, it accelerates and optimises business processes and workflows; on the other hand, data helps to analyse and, if possible, automate processes. Both possibilities can help create added value in different ways.
What should you pay attention to in the context of digitalisation and thus in improving competitiveness? - What are the approaches?
- When people are supported in cognitive processes with data, this helps them to accelerate business processes.
- In the context of automation, on the other hand, the aim is to make the human element and its intervention replaceable, in that the data ensures that individual processes become superfluous.In consulting projects on Big Data evaluations, we have already been able to demonstrate that new knowledge or decisions from data evaluation are successful and new insights can be gained.
ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Planning systems - programmes that ensure that components are available in the right place at the right time and in the right quantity) are an apt example of how processes and procedures are to be made cheaper, faster and less prone to disruptions and errors.
What Does Digitalisation Mean for the I.T. Manager or CIO?
We find in our consulting that I.T. investment is usually aligned with business strategy. However, I.T. strategy is often seen as secondary and downstream, similar to what we see with the supply chain. All too often, the I.T. leader or CIO, together with his team, is responsible for implementing the goals and requirements of the other departments or users - we often hear the expression "wish list" as accurately as possible - and then developing a portfolio of feasible projects or initiatives.
In discussions with I.T. managers, it has been confirmed time and again that it is difficult to clearly formulate the wishes and ideas of the individual departments and functions for and to I.T. Since the I.T. managers were not and are not always successful in discussions with their colleagues, it was not uncommon for them to act on their own initiative. In quite a few cases, this led to the chances of a jointly defined strategy and the potential for business innovations being implemented rather poorly with the help of I.T.
In the opinion of the consultants from Dreher Consulting, it is high time to no longer regard I.T. and business strategy as two different pairs of shoes. Today, it is a matter of integrating IT into the innermost fabric of the company through digitalisation and thus making it part of the strategic management and thought processes in the company.
Today, I.T. is able to shape strategic options itself and make them realisable. Unfortunately, we had to observe in our projects that this realisation is not yet very widespread.
I.T. is often only thought of when a project is already on its way, or requirements are generated for IT that stem from the project work. Then the requirements are often defined, so that the design and optimisation knowledge of I.T. is not used.
What Distinguishes a Digital Strategy?
While an I.T. strategy is primarily about building the I.T. investment portfolio, a company that pursues a true digital strategy aligns itself completely with this goal.
This is for good reason. Because if you don't stay on the ball today, you will have problems efficiently generating your value contribution in the future. Sales, marketing, communication and the supply chain, none of these areas will be able to fulfil their tasks in the future without the use of digital processes.
Recommendation for Digitalisation and the Digital Strategy:
- If a company wants to develop digital competence, then it must know the possibilities of I.T. benefits and their potentials. This only happens in the cooperation of all functional areas and in discussions between all parties involved.
- This inevitably leads to a new role for the I.T. manager: from technology manager to executive. Tasks will shift from technological to strategic. The seamless integration of strategic goals with technological knowledge to optimise the value chain is the goal. I.T. managers today have to think, work and communicate differently than their colleagues in earlier times.
- The consultants of Dreher Consulting support the definition of a digital strategy and the requirements of Industry 4.0 for a company. Presentations, workshops, best practice approaches and, above all, implementation are our topics with which we realise and advance your digitalisation.
