Digital transformation: Streamline and focus on what matters
Ben Elms
Chief Executive Officer
“Digital transformation,” a term once considered nothing more than a buzzword, is now a strategic imperative that enables businesses to succeed in an increasingly cut-throat business landscape. As CEO of a global business myself, I have witnessed first-hand the impact embracing new technologies such as AI tools can have on an organization, the wider industry, and its people. Businesses that welcome such transformations are poised not only to stay competitive but take a giant leap in becoming industry leaders in their fields.
But with every organization now embarking on a digital journey of its own – it’s vital that CEOs, alongside the CIO and CTO, are driving this process forward to deliver the quantifiable results that the business aspires to achieve.
Focus on the why – not just the how
To stay competitive, or to scale their business, business leaders are always looking to find new ways to innovate and drive efficiencies. This is where the adoption of new technologies and AI tools can be vital – in streamlining processes, freeing up resources, and allowing employees to focus on more complex, challenging tasks – significantly enhancing the user experience for the end customer.
Crucially, organizations need to ensure digital transformation isn’t just about speeding up individual processes or tinkering with a suite of new tech tools for the sake of it. It’s about redesigning how work gets done to deliver greater returns for the business. After all, if end-user experiences aren’t improved and financial gains or ROI aren’t achieved – there is little point in embarking on such a strategy.
At Expereo, the recent enhancements we’ve made to our technology stack, and to our ways of working, have all been done with our customers in mind. Where we’ve automated processes, deployed new applications, and introduced tools such as AI-driven chatbots – the reshaping of our operations has always been done with our customers in mind.
Taking AI-powered chatbots as one example – their deployment has ensured customers get near-instant responses, with our customer service team freed up to focus on more complex, problem-solving tasks that require human-to-human interaction. The end result? A more satisfying experience for our customers and a team that can focus on higher-level, relationship-building tasks that truly make a difference.
The importance of network connectivity in driving digital transformation
But, even with all of these considerations in mind, digital transformations can be technically challenging to navigate and deliver in practice. Interestingly, the Expereo-commissioned IDC InfoBrief, Enterprise Horizons 2024: Technology Leaders’ Priorities on their Digital Business Journey research of over 650 global CIOs found that network performance and flexibility are among the key factors preventing companies from executing digital transformation. In fact, 38% of senior technology leaders said network performance, such as application responsiveness or latency, is preventing them from fully implementing AI or driving digital transformation, demonstrating how crucial network connectivity is during this process.
When undertaking digital transformation initiatives, a network can grow and become more and more complex. Hardware becomes outdated, licenses need to be renewed, cloud solutions implemented, the network perimeter expands, security needs to be improved — the list goes on. Even one small change or update can trigger a chain reaction across the whole network.
So, at the heart of any digital transformation journey is a commitment to robust, reliable network connectivity. This is the foundation on which organizations can leverage new applications. As well as analyze data in real-time and work seamlessly across the globe. All to meet and exceed the expectations of their customers.
To move swiftly into the future with digital transformation, organizations need a comprehensive long-term digital strategy. It should encompass all areas of the technology stack. Such a strategic approach is essential for ensuring the performance, agility, and scalability necessary for sustained high growth and transformation. Buy-in from senior leadership is also vital. Digital transformation initiatives are now too important to be ‘seen to be doing’. If organizations are to gain the real benefits, these programs need to be a priority at all levels of the business. And they should focus on the ‘why’ and not just the ‘how’.
To delve deeper into the role of enterprise digital transformation and how it's changing, you can read the full Expereo-commissioned IDC InfoBrief Enterprise Horizons 2024: Technology Leaders’ Priorities on their Digital Business Journey here.