WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: a good checklist when thinking about how to setup a data-driven organizations. But don't go there to look for how to do it.

WHY IT MATTERS: wow! not often do I stumble upon a trend report that actually has valuable insights, trends and recommendations. And not too biased towards Shopify!

I pulled one chart on the importance of customer service but there are many more. Must read for anyone serious about eCommerce, big or small.

WHY IT MATTERS: for those that still need stats to convince colleagues that #AI is here and useful.

WHY IT MATTERS: this list of technology questions for 2022 feels like an answer to the question "what is digital disruption?".

We have reached a moment in time where old technologies - eCommerce or videoconferencing for example - are finally breaking into established industries. And the impact, at scale, cannot be found in technology but rather in every single industry it disrupts.

Very thoughtful piece, very good questions.

WHY IT MATTERS: so much has been written and this article raises interesting questions and possible solutions. Best quote: "Others talk of the office as a destination, a place that has to make the idea of getting out of bed earlier, in order to mingle with people who may have covid-19, seem attractive."

WHY IT MATTERS: a complement to the emerging technologies article for 2021-2023.

WHY IT MATTERS: I like the fact that Gartner highlights the risk of those technologies, as this is not often done. Of interest, note that there is a lot of red in the diagram. OVerall, the diagram is useful to identify technologies in a strategic planning session. Unfortunately, the document is only a visual summary: I assume the details require Gartner membership. So go out and find a CIO friend with an access ;-)

Also versions for mid-size enterprise or other (small?).

WHY IT MATTERS: there are now enough company experience to start drawing conclusions and best practice. What's interesting here is that IT transformation (not *All* digital transformations) have bigger success when they focus on bottom line improvements than top line ones. Yet, most projects focus on the top line. Hhhhmmmm, this should make some CIOs review their project portfolio, no?

WHY IT MATTERS: human nature will dictate return to the office or work from home.

People that DO things for a living - coding, answering calls, writing marketing copy, etc. - don't want to waste 1-2hrs per day traveling to an office to sit in front of the same computer they use at home! Return to the office will not be a huge selling point for them.

People that MANAGE others will crave the visibility and face to face interactions. They will push for a return to the office. And because they are higher up in the food chain, the pressure will be HUGE for workers to return to the office.

Thus I think working remotely will negatively impact your promotion potential within typical organizations and that most workers will goo back to the office at least 3 days per week - even if their work could as well be completed remotely.

WHY IT MATTERS: a long read about tens of new developments in the works at Apple from a long time AR-VR industry watcher (he was very bullish about Google glasses back in the day). Nevertheless, the article is a good rundown of what the future of 3D in AR and VR may be. 

What I find great is that it goes beyond the classic AR-VR use cases and into a more fundamental trend of embedding digital into the real world in 3D. The examples of what is being developed in the labs is eye opening. But remember, this is R&D and will take years to become ubiquitous. 

WHY IT MATTERS: Prime has 200M members worldwide, 143M in USA. Interesting to see what people use it for - but the survey hides an important fact: the real value of PRIME for Amazon.

I wrote about the value of PRIME in the past but this increase warrants a review of previous numbers. Back in 2016 when "only" 48M members, this report valued PRIME at 143B$.

www.vox.com/2016/10/5/13175272/amazon-prime-valuation-worth-143-billion-cowen-report

Also more here: blog.fmcs.digital/?q=amazon+prime

WHY IT MATTERS: interesting take on a hot topic. How can retailers compete with Amazon? One way for local products is le panier bleu ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: this long read from Facebook Tech provides insights into the potential of augmented reality.

WHY IT MATTERS: technology is high on CEO radar of priorities as digital transformations shifts from front-office (web, social, search, all areas of the marketing CMO) to the back office (manufacturing, security, IOT, cloud, AI). CIOs play a role but many times they can't cut it so the CTO comes in. Could be a fundamental trend, or simply tunnel vision (it is an IBM survey after all ;-). Thanks to Sean Moffitt - Future Proofing Next guru! Many more insights in the full report.

WHY IT MATTERS: a great new overview of the digital transformation (my words), with fact-based data-full slides. I especially like everything about eCommerce in there which will become reference for me in coming months. I extracted just one striking illustration of the wide variation of eCommerce penetration depending on industry. This chart highlights how different the digital transformation strategies must be in the toys&games industry vs the grocery industry. Love it. Many more in the full presentation.

WHY IT MATTERS: this post is a bit theoretical for someone not bathing in digital transformation all day as I do (mostly). It explores what could come next but more importantly stresses an important fact: we now have a new platform - the mobile phone - in our pockets that has the potential to transform our world. We have started to see this with eCommerce - physical retail stores become irrelevant and we can price compare from anywhere - but we have yet to see the real impact of eCommerce+mobile+cloud+5G. THIS is what I think about most days...

WHY IT MATTERS: "quand on veut, on peut".

WHY IT MATTERS: 

Question: who is the corporate leader for digital transformation?

Answer: covid-19!

These charts from McKinsey clearly show how much covid has accelerated digital transformation in organizations. Never waste a good crisis they say... ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: this report presents the case for the disruption of consulting by small firms like mine as it is enabled by digital technologies. Fascinating read.  

WHY IT MATTERS: this well-researched article highlights the PROs & CONs of work from anywhere - WFA - and provides best practices from large companies that have done this at scale (1300 WFA employees at GitHub). A reference for us all in digital transformation and also a showcase for the real impact of our work: large cities may struggle to attract people versus small towns that have lower cost of living and little traffic, countries may find that work visas need to be adapted to limit remote workers (how to do that), etc.

All in all, it may be the biggest transformation that digital brings: a societal change. Who knows...

WHY IT MATTERS: this report is a great summary of the digital technologies that can support the remote workers as part of digital transformation of businesses.

WHY IT MATTERS: this article shows collaboration best practice and offers useful visuals to understand the perfect use of the collaboration tools out there.

WHY IT MATTERS: no surprise, companies will hire technologists and agile methodology experts post confinement to enable their remote workforce ... and reduce the need for humans!

WHY IT MATTERS: we've seen an acceleration of eCommerce adoption during covid lockdown worldwide. McKinsey says 10 years in 3 months. Shopify stock has surged, instacart orders have grown 250x, mirakl has raised 300M$ in funding, all based on this recent trend. 

But guys that have been doing retail for a long time are skeptical - like WholeFoods CEO (now Amazon). When everyone is FORCED to stay home, then of course eCommerce and home delivery will explode they. When things go back to normal, then retail will go back to normal is their belief.

Who's right? 

If you know me, you know where I stand on this. Going digital is like being an alcoholic: the first thing you must do on the road to recovery is recognize you have a problem... ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: adopting an agile approach is a great idea. But it requires clear vision, strategy, governance and teams that leverage digital tools and solutions to make sure anarchy does not set in. We have the experience in software development after 20 years of trials and errors. Let's hope marketing teams can learn from our mistakes...