WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

Even before congested ports and parts and labor shortages began to snarl supply chains in 2020, companies needed to update their supply-chain technology. They haven’t done themselves any favors by clinging to manual systems and antiquated software, including one widely used application that’s so old the provider will soon stop supporting it.

The post-pandemic workplace continues to shift and requires collaboration between remote workers and office workers. Digital transformation has accelerated across every organization and CIOs must maneuver to keep pace. Customer expectations have shifted, and spending habits are moving away from in-person activities to online. IT must improve its maturity in key capabilities to maintain relevance in the organization.

Enterprise architects still have an important role to play at large incumbents, but they need to evolve in three ways.

McKinsey Global Survey on technology and the business suggests that even in the crisis’s earlier days,1 respondents were reporting progress on their integration of technology and business—and that these efforts were creating tangible business value across four measures, including new revenue streams and lower costs. The results also suggest that, on average, some transformation activities result in more impact than others (namely, those related to talent and capabilities). And according to the data, the companies with top-performing IT organizations have differentiated themselves from others in their efforts to create value, adopt new technologies, and bring technology and business closer together. More specifically, the results point to seven key lessons about technology transformations.

The DIACC is pleased to publish the first iteration of the Directory of Products That Assess Identification Documents & Verify Identity. This Directory is designed to provide an overview of providers’ solutions which use government issued photo identification cards, combined with biometric facial scans, to establish Digital Identity.

New numbers show 2020 was the first year that Chromebooks outsold Macs, posting impressive market share gains at the expense of Windows. Computers powered by Google's Chrome OS have outsold Apple'

However, an unwillingness to admit—or the inability to realize—that the issues are more complex and require more work than anticipated means that problems continue and often get worse. The research is quite clear on this point. Early cost and schedule overruns end up, on average, much worse in most programs, often costing twice as much as anticipated—and that’s despite the interventions of program leaders (see Exhibit 2 for an example analysis).

Global boardroom awareness of the increased scale and sophistication of cyberattacks, and their financial and reputational impact, has skyrocketed. To improve response and recovery, security and risk management leaders must align business continuity management with cybersecurity incident response.

Acting on this understanding, the CIO partnered with business leaders to design a new model for how business and technology would partner. That included, for example, creating a single “point of entry” for any technology requests and frequent meetings to jointly review and prioritize them. Each month, they reviewed the tech road map against the business strategy. One result was the creation of a fast track for product requests that didn’t require significant work, a simple solution to the previous monolithic development process that every request had to go through.

Gartner's Emerging Technology Roadmap provides a peer-based view of how organizations plan to adopt technologies over a 12- to a 24-month time period. CIOs and IT leaders at midsize enterprises can use this infographic to benchmark their adoption plans with their peers and to review key adoption trends. Analysis of this year’s adoption plans revealed seven key trends across three themes — remote work, productivity and operations.

An agile approach to overhauling data architecture improves speed, flexibility, and innovation.

ITSM tools enable infrastructure and operations leaders to deliver and support IT services. To select the appropriate tool, I&O leaders must map their organizations’ I&O maturity levels and associated functional demands to ITSM product capabilities.

Now is the time to empower effective change in your business. Eighty-eight percent of shoppers say they rely on digital product content to decide where to buy. The technology systems of the past cannot keep pace with the detailed, personalized, and contextualized experience consumers demand. The role of information technology is undergoing significant shifts.
This ebook outlines a new approach to product information management: combing true agility and necessary data governance. Product data is a key component of the consumer experience. Static data will leave your business behind in the emerging market of tomorrow. To adapt to digital commerce, businesses must re-evaluate their current ecosystems and update their approach to product information management.
- How to balance the increasing need for both data quality and data agility
- The technology required to drive internal efficiency and grow sales and market share on the digital shelf
- A step-by-step process to empower business users without sacrificing data governance
- A set of questions to help assess whether your organization’s needs will be met by any new system

In our 35-criterion evaluation of enterprise architecture management suites (EAMS) providers, we identified the 12 most significant ones — Ardoq, Atoll Technologies, Avolution, BiZZdesign, BOC Group, LeanIX, MEGA International, Orbus Software, Planview, QPR Software, Software AG, and UNICOM Systems — and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps enterprise architecture (EA) professionals select the right one for their needs.

Some IT leaders are growing weary of the phrase “digital transformation.” Find here 10 articles on the subject to help grasp some wisdom:

1. How Landauer CIO built a revenue-generating mindset in IT

2. SunTrust CIO's formula for speed relies on cloud, DevOps

3. Increasing IT’s speed: 3 levers CIOs can use

4. Teaching IT to embrace change: 9 execs share advice

5. Matson CIO: The most painful, gut-wrenching part of leading transformation

6. How hybrid cloud aids digital transformation

7. Budgeting smarts for digital transformation: 4 tips

8. Digital transformation: 3 strategies to manage change

9. Digital transformation: 5 principles for the retail industry

10. What absolutely won’t work when it comes to digital transformation