- Okay, definition time.
What exactly is digital transformation?
Now here's a good definition that I got from InfoWorld.
Digital transformation
is the application of digital technologies
to fundamentally impact all aspects of business and society.
Let's unpack this a little bit though.
As we've already mentioned,
the digitalization of information
has been going on for awhile.
Companies have been moving their hard copy data
online for years.
Nothing that new there.
What is new is how that data is being used.
Older business systems
could still be seen as systems of record.
Even though you had taken all of those spreadsheets
and moved them into Excel workbooks,
if you wanted to do anything
with the information they contained,
you still opened up that workbook
and dealt with it as a standalone document.
As businesses progress down
the digital transformation continuum,
they start moving from systems of record
to systems of engagement.
Not just consuming static bits of information,
but having the ability to interact with it,
combine it with other information,
model it to achieve new insights.
Example: Power Pivot for Excel
lets you take content from multiple data sources at once,
workbooks, Access or other databases, SAP, et cetera,
and combine those to create dynamic pivot tables and charts
that end users can easily filter and sort
to drill down to exactly the info they need.
Or Microsoft Power BI,
an online tool that can extract the same type of information
and serve it back in interactive dashboards.
Yes, it's the technology that enables this,
but it's the different way of thinking about the information
that's the true key to effectively transforming a business.
The thing is if you really want to transform,
you're going to have to change.
You need to start thinking in new ways
and examining how new methods
and systems provide alternatives.
Yes, you still need systems of record,
but you should be looking for ways to make those records
available to your business
in ways that people can engage with it.
Your technology department and the business as a whole
need to be flexible and willing to transform.
Bottom line, you may have digitized your information,
but if you're not willing to change your processes
to take advantage of that,
you really haven't transformed anything.