digital

Informing the pursuit of digital era ambitions and challenges

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I never intend to halt my public writing. It just happens. A client invites me to work on interesting problem, which can lead to another interesting problem or client, and before long only the crickets remain here. During this latest, much prolonged, cricket chorus I’ve been helping clients pursue digital agenda items. It is critical to […]

Designing and Managing a Multichannel Architecture

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2014 was the year when digital became a significant priority for organisations, for the first time customers were becoming more advanced in the use of technologies and with this came a greater level of expectation. Customers (Including me) expected things in digital to be quicker, and just work. However most were left disappointed (including me) when Read More

Want better answers? Ask better questions.

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Some years ago, I was engaged in a discussion with leadership peers on tackling a particularly challenging issue that seemingly had no answer to satisfy the trifecta of ambitions, resource constraints and ability to execute. We’ve all been in this meeting. You circle until one of two things happens. Some person or faction gives in, […]

Public Sector Digital Strategy Meets Public Safety – in Northern Virginia, Fairfax County

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The Northern Virginia Technology Council’s (NVTC) Digital Strategy Committee (#nvtcdigstrat) recent event regarding Digital Strategy and Public Safety, featuring Richard R. Bowers – Chief, Fairfax Fire Department – revealed several very interesting and useful challenges for the NOVA business community.

Not least of which was the current challenges around focused, resourced digital strategy planning across the County constituent agencies, and among local jurisdictions.

Many targeted capabilities and improvements in “front-end” digital tools, outreach and engagement, plus initiatives on the “back-end” to handle system-specific data and information management are certainly underway, but information-sharing among the public safety stakeholders – businesses, government and the public – remains a strategic planning, governance and education hurdle to address. In other words, a B2G2C digital strategy challenge.

Link: Why Nordstrom’s Digital Strategy Works (and Yours Probably Doesn’t) – HBR

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From the esteemed Jeanne W. Ross on studying customer obsessed, digitally ambitious Nordstrom: DON’T: Only a small percentage of companies will gain competitive advantage from [social, mobile, analytics, cloud, and internet of things] SMACIT technologies. Those that do will focus less on the individual technologies and more on how they rally all those technologies, in […]

Understanding and owning the customer ecosystem

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The world of digital is changing the face of the business landscape. Established household names are now going toe to toe with new kids on the block, and in some cases their customers are becoming the competition. The product is no longer the differentiator, it is about owning the eco system, and it is the Read More

Call for Book Chapters: Beyond IT Strategy: Digital Strategies for the 21st Century

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In the 21st century, the presence of technology is ubiquitous. Computers have moved from batch processing in the back-office through word processing in the front office to being the medium that glues together organisations, supply chains, and customers. Being digital across any channel and any device sits at the core of any winning business strategy. […]

Link: Three Approaches to Managing Total Digitization – Peter Weill and Stephanie Woerner

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“How are enterprises managing the spread and scope of total digitization? We at MIT CISR have found that enterprises are using one or more of three approaches to managing total digitization: convergence, coordination, or a separate digital innovation stacks approach. Each approach has very different objectives and measures of success.”

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“Convergence is about reducing cost, reducing risk, and achieving synergies. Coordination is the right choice for enterprises that are trying to achieve a few enterprise-wide goals such as improving customer experience or asset utilization. Finally, the separate digital innovation stacks approach is right for enterprises that believe autonomy helps improve innovation and local customer responsiveness.”

“We believe that managing total digitization is one of the biggest opportunities and challenges facing enterprises — and their CIOs — today.”

Source:  HBR Blogs

via my Diigo

Link: The Nine Elements of Digital Transformation | MIT Sloan Management Review

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Another perspective, similar findings:

“Companies in all industries and regions are experimenting with — and benefiting from — digital transformation. Whether it is in the way individuals work and collaborate, the way business processes are executed within and across organizational boundaries, or in the way a company understands and serves customers, digital technology provides a wealth of opportunity.”

MIT Center for Digital Business research surfaced 9 elements across three categories:

Transforming Customer Experience

  • Customer Understanding
  • Top-Line Growth
  • Customer Touch Points

Transforming Operational Processes

  • Process Digitization
  • Worker Enablement
  • Performance Management

Transforming Business Models

  • Digitally Modified Businesses
  • New Digital Businesses
  • Digital Globalization

For the details:  The Nine Elements of Digital Transformation | MIT Sloan Management Review.

Link: G.E.’s ‘Industrial Internet’ Goes Big – NYTimes.com

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Another on G.E.’s Industrial Internet:

“The executive in charge of the project for G.E. also said that by next year almost all equipment made by the company will have sensors and Big Data software.

“Everyone wants prediction about performance, and better asset management,” said William Ruh, vice president of global software at G.E. “The ideas of speed, of information velocity, is what will differentiate the winners from the losers.”

“The so-called Industrial Internet involves putting different kinds of sensors, sometimes by the thousands, in machines and the places they work, then remotely monitoring performance to maximize profitability.”

Source: NYTimes

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