Navigating The Many Priorities Of Digital Transformation

We are living in an age of digital transformation, and there’s no doubt that it has touched different sectors. Across industries, new technologies are changing the way organizations manage everything from customer experience to internal processes.

In a post-pandemic world, using digital transformation is an ever-evolving reality for many businesses, and it’s important to look at the various priorities of digital transformation. While most business owners acknowledge the significance of digital transformation, not all understand what it takes to implement its strategy at a scale.

At the dx100 Symposium and Awards in Diani, Kwale County, Red Hat led a conversation about how to best work with the various priorities of Digital Transformation. The Director for Technology Sales at Red Hat, Anirban Mukherjee, did a presentation to the delegates at the Diani event about navigating the many priorities of Digital Transformation.

Digital Transformation on its own is such a very broad topic that people from different sectors have their own understanding on the subject. As an introduction to his presentation, Anirban asked the delegates what came to their minds when they hear the word digital transformation. The responses were proof enough of the existence of many priorities of digital transformation.

According to Anirban, digital transformation translated to different aspects for IT Leaders. He gave examples of agility, scalability, availability. Reliability, operability, usability, observability. IT leaders need to use technology to translate all the above named conveniences without changing anything and give it to their respective companies at the least costs as well.

These IT leaders, although, all work in different sectors and industries. From banking to hospitality, to entertainment and all the various sectors, IT leaders are needed to help leverage on digital transformation to grow the various sectors.

“An important thing that these IT Leaders need to accept in all these sectors is change. In this era of digital transformation, it is more difficult to resist change than to work through the change, because it is all inevitable,” Anirban said in his presentation.

He further explained that using the IKEA effect which he described as: “The exaggeratedly high value and attachment placed on your products that you build yourself, regardless of the end result quality.”

Anirban also talked about the various barriers to the growth of digital transformation. Fear of the unknown is one of the reasons as it leads to people resisting change. There is also the big bang approach that is brought about by time & budget constraints.

In Africa, there is also a knowledge gap that is brought about by lack of skilled resources. This has crippled the continent in the race against catching up with digital transformation in other parts of the globe. There is also the inability to demonstrate improvements that result from digital transformation.

Anirban’s presentation was only but a part of the 3-day dx100 Symposium and Awards.