At the most basic level, digital transformation involves using digital technologies to change a business process to become more efficient or effective. It can involve many things, whether it’s process automation, a new website, improved user experience, or a migration to the cloud. The idea is to use technology not to replicate an existing service in a digital form, but to transform that service into something significantly better. Does your organization have a digital transformation strategy in place?

A recent study by Mordor Intelligence valued digital transformation at US$263 billion, and it is projected to reach US$767 billion by 2026. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, unpredictability has become the new normal in nearly every sector of business. Gartner’s forecasts indicate that IT spending will reach US$4.4 trillion this year. Leveraging digital transformation can help businesses build resilience to accelerate their growth, remain competitive, and take advantage of unique market opportunities.

Broad Culture Shifts for Companies

Changing business processes and corporate culture are just as vital to the success of digital transformation as the technical implementations. Company culture can heavily impact employees’ perception of change, and an unresponsive culture can result in wasted time and money. 

According to an article on ZDNet, there are five skills every company needs to achieve successful transformation: 

1. Digital fluency – Depending on the industry, digital fluency can range from a basic knowledge of Microsoft Suite to an in depth understanding of cloud computing.
2. Data analytics – Data analysis skills are needed to process data and use it in a way that’s both permissible and productive.
3. Digital marketing – Marketing skills are essential in engaging your customer base and ensuring a product’s financial success.
4. Cyber security – Cover potential risk areas by hiring those with cyber security skills
5. Leadership – Company leaders should possess a multitude of “soft” skills, such as expertise in communication, influence, empathy, and strategic thinking.

Digital transformation is about investing in a complete transformation of the business to increase the competitiveness and value of the organization. To increase the growth and ROI of technology investments, companies must be proactive in developing a digital transformation strategy that details the intended transformation of processes, work styles, and more.

Creating a More Sustainable Business

Digital transformation has played a key role in enabling remote working. There is a growing focus on leveraging IoT technologies to drive a seamless experience for the employees while creating carbon-neutral office spaces. Digital transformation has also helped employees to focus less on manual, monotonous activities and instead channel their efforts into more purposeful work thereby enabling a better work-life balance.

Sustainability and digital transformation initiatives impact one another in tandem. A sustainable business model alongside a digital business model makes sense, because transforming business processes to be more data-driven and efficient inevitably improves sustainability. Companies should start by renovating their economic models, work processes, and communication paradigms. 

Start Your Digital Transformation Journey

It’s important to prepare for your organization’s digital transformation journey beforehand. Check out Digital Transformation: Moving Toward a Digital Society, a five-course program from IEEE that provides the background knowledge needed to smartly implement digital tools into organizations.

Contact an IEEE Account Specialist to get organizational access.

Check it out for yourself on the IEEE Learning Network.

Resources

Charpentier, Laurent. (23 August 2022). Decades Into The ‘New’ Millennium, Finance Teams Still Struggle With (Lack Of) Digital Transformation. Forbes.

Ene, Carmen. (25 August 2022). The Next Frontier of Digital: Technology as A Sustainable Business Asset. Forbes.

Ganapathi, Chidambaram. (8 August 2022). Digital transformation is paving the way for a sustainable workplace. The Times of India.

Kenkare, Pallavi. (10 August 2022). Digital transformation: Top 5 skills you need to succeed. ZDNET. 

Ramalho, Tiago. (22 August 2022). Why You Can’t Have Digital Transformation Without Sustainability. Readwrite.

Samuels, Mark. (5 August 2022). What is digital transformation? Everything you need to know about how technology is changing business. ZDNET.

Williams, Daniel. (18 August 2022). How CIOs can approach digital transformation investments to increase value. TechRepublic.

Digital transformation isn’t only a process of adopting new technological tools – it is a series of changes that will impact every facet of your organization. As such, it’s important for organizations to anticipate the impact digital transformation will have across their departments, employees, and customers.

“Organization leaders need to look at why they want to transform their business,” states Michael Henry, CTO of Singapore Sports Hub and an expert in Experience Driven Transformation, Workforce Strategy and Customer Experience, in Forbes. “They need to be able to link what they’re doing to an experience improvement. Will this change the experience for our workforce? Will it change the experience of how we interact with our customers or sell products? It’s crucial to anchor all that you’re doing to experience and get away from defaulting to technology as something ‘we use’ to something ‘that enables’—forget about using technology just for the sake of using technology.”

How to Leverage the “Business Model Canvas” for Digital Transformation

Before your organization ventures off on its digital transformation journey, first take the time to map out the various aspects of your business. This will give you a good starting point for understanding the ripple effect digital transformation will have across each. 

Start by focusing on your business model and the objectives you are trying to achieve, recommends Benjamin Mueller, professor for digital business at the University of Bremen and an associate researcher at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Below is a summary of four steps he suggests, originally published in Harvard Business Review.

Map out your organization’s business model:

Determine the nine key elements of your business model. These include: 1) Key partners, 2) Key activities, 3) Key resources, 4) Value propositions, 5) Customer relationships, 6) Channels, 7) Customer segments, 8) Cost structure, and 9) Revenue streams. 

Identifying these elements will create a canvas of your business model that will help you understand how these different areas overlap. It will also help you understand how digital transformation in one area of your business will impact the rest.

Identify and experiment with digital transformation opportunities:

Now that you have pinpointed the key elements of your business model, you can start identifying the main areas you need to pay attention to, then slowly introduce necessary digital transformations, carefully experimenting and examining the “ripple effects” of these changes as you move forward. Rather than focusing on the process of your digital transformation, focus instead on the goal. 

Make the necessary transformations:

During this step, it’s not only important to determine the changes you need to make, but to also anticipate the impact they will have on the various elements in your map. For example, you may find that training your employees is just as important as choosing the best technical applications for achieving your goals. 

Ensure you have reached your objective:

Digital transformation is not one effort, but rather, a series of efforts that work across your organization. For this reason, staying focused on the business model will help you achieve your overall objective throughout all the various processes. “In other words, rather than focusing on technology, the focus should be on what you can do now that you could not do before,” writes Mueller. 

Are you ready to meet your digital transformation objectives? Be sure to consider these steps and understand your goals before you start.

Starting Your Digital Transformation Journey

It’s important to prepare for your organization’s digital transformation journey beforehand. Check out Digital Transformation: Moving Toward a Digital Society, a five-course program from IEEE that provides the background knowledge needed to smartly implement digital tools into organizations.

Contact an IEEE Account Specialist to get organizational access, or check it out for yourself on the IEEE Learning Network.

Resources

Henry, Michael. (12 May 2022). Why Your Company’s Digital Transformation Needs To Be Experience-Driven. Forbes.

Mueller, Benjamin. (27 April 2022). How to Map Out Your Digital Transformation. Harvard Business Review.

If you thought your digital transformation was going to be a slow-moving transition, think again. According to a recent research report from Information Services Group (ISG), the COVID-19 pandemic has expedited enterprise digital transformation by three to five years. Also, it’s a major trend in modern business fueling demand for technology and service providers, reports by Help Net Security.

“The pandemic has forced enterprises to explore new ways to enable remote work, manage supply and demand and remain competitive,” Prashant Kelker, partner and America’s leader, ISG Digital, told the publication. “Providers are supporting transformations that involve not just technology but a company’s entire operations and organization.”

How Can You Ensure Success for Your Organization in 2022?

Below is a summary of four Do’s and Don’ts for starting your digital transformation, according to Rajan Sethuraman, CEO of LatentView Analytics, originally published in Enterpriser Projects:

Focus on security:
With thousands of organizations transitioning to remote and hybrid office environments, many are at risk of cyber attacks. These new online environments mean that IT departments will have an even more difficult time making sure their employees aren’t falling prey to phishing and other scams. Organizations need to prioritize security with processes such as auditing employees’ remote work equipment and retraining them on IT guidelines for remote work as needed.

Don’t begin your digital transformation initiative without relying on your data:
Because your data is key to knowing where and how to start your digital transformation, it can guide you on how to make the best use of your resources and prevent bottlenecks in your workflow. 

Establish an effective, long-term hybrid work model:
With the ongoing pandemic, there is a good chance that hybrid work will become a new normal. It’s important to think about how to make your hybrid work model effective. For example, how will  your employees work together across different time zones? Also, how frequently will you require them to come to the office?

Don’t underestimate customer experience:
Digital transformation and customer experience are deeply entwined. Be sure to keep customer experience central to your transition. Consider where in the process you can enhance customer service. For example, creating a more “robust and organized database” will allow your customer service team to better respond to customers. To do this, you need deep knowledge of the customer journey. This means familiarizing yourself with every aspect of the customer experience, so you can make improvements as necessary. 

Your organization’s efforts are almost certain to face setbacks and uncertainty, especially as the pandemic continues to trigger unexpected supply chain and labor force hiccups. Staying focused on what you know while learning to navigate the unexpected will be essential to the success of your transformation.

Prepare Your Organization for Digital Transformation

Get your organization ready for digital transformation. The IEEE five-course program, Digital Transformation: Moving Toward a Digital Society, aims to foster a discussion around how digital transformation can transform various industries while also providing the background knowledge needed to smartly implement digital tools into organizations.

Contact an IEEE Account Specialist to get organizational access, or check it out for yourself on the IEEE Learning Network.

Resources

(11 January 2022). How the pandemic fueled enterprise digital transformation. Help Net Security.

Sethuraman, Rajan. (3 January 2022). Digital transformation: 4 do’s and don’ts for 2022. Enterpriser Project.

In less than a month, 2022 is expected to usher in new automation trends for the digital transformation era. According to Enterprise Talk, a few major trends to look out for include the following.

• As organizations continue to transition to cloud technologies, they will shift from robotic process automation (RPA) to an application programming interface (API) approach. While both RPA and API allow applications to “talk” to each other, API is often popular for its backend capabilities and cost savings. 
• Hyper automation will unleash greater business potential, as automation will go from simply being a project feature to “the driving force for today’s digital enterprise,” in which businesses decentralize. 
• Organizations will embrace an “automation mindset” that enables “siloed combinations of line-of-business (LOB) teams” to improve the platforms and data they are already using. 

How to Make Your Digital Transformation A Success

A successful digital transformation is not the result of new technology, but rather, of employees adopting new technical skills and behaviors in order to become “a data-driven organization,” according to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Chief Innovation Officer at ManpowerGroup, a professor of business psychology at University College London and Columbia University, and an associate at Harvard’s Entrepreneurial Finance Lab. Writing in Harvard Business Review, Chamorro-Premuzic says there are “five essential components” to digital transformation, including:

People: Organizations are often focused on data, but may forget that humans are behind that data— be they customers, clients, or employees. Small businesses tend to have more personal relationships with the people they work with and serve. However, as a large/complex organization, being able to form more personal relationships with the humans behind your data is often more difficult. 

Data: For large organizations to achieve successful relationships with the people they serve, they need to leverage recorded data based on interactions with customers, employees, and clients in a way that helps the organization understand what they want. This is ‘digitization,’ the process of datafying human behavior. Chamorro-Premuzic defines this process as useful because it focuses on capturing valuable data rather than creating cheaper systems. “It is useful to remember this, because the real benefits from technology are not ‘hard’ (i.e., cheaper systems or infrastructure), but ‘soft’ (i.e., capturing valuable data).”

Insights: Data by itself is often too messy to understand. In order to be leveraged successfully, systems and processes need to be in place to clean, organize, and refine the raw data in order to turn it into analytics. This will allow you to create predictive models that will help you better understand what changes your organization needs to implement. 

Action: Once you have your insights, you need a way to turn your insights into action. For example, if your insights predict that some of your customers are likely to leave you for a competitor, what plan will you make to retain them? “AI can make predictions, and data can give us insights, but the ‘so what’ part requires actions, and these actions need the relevant skills, processes, and change management,” Chamorro-Premuzic writes. “This is why talent plays such a critical role in unlocking (or indeed blocking) your digital transformation.”

Results: Once you’ve gone through all these stages, you can examine the results before going back to the data. “The results themselves become part of the new, richer, dataset, which will be augmented and improved with the findings of the process,” he advises. 

As the new year approaches, organizations should prepare for an accelerated shift to digital transformation. Understanding the technical trends is only a small part of this. The human component is equally, if not more important, to ensuring your transition is successful. 

Prepare Your Organization for Digital Transformation

Get your organization ready for digital transformation. The IEEE five-course program, Digital Transformation: Moving Toward a Digital Society, aims to foster a discussion around how digital transformation can transform various industries and provide the background knowledge needed to smartly implement digital tools into organizations.

Contact an IEEE Account Specialist to get access for your organization.

Interested in the course for yourself? Check out the course program on the IEEE Learning Network.

Resources

Muktewar, Vishal. (25 November 2021). Top Four Digital Transformation Trends in 2022 (part I). Enterprise Talk.

Chamorro-Premuzic, Tomas. (23 November 2021). The Essential Components of Digital Transformation. Harvard Business Review.

Bowman, Dylan. (9 January 2020). RPA vs API Integration: How to Choose Your Automation Technologies. UiPath.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created major disruptions for business leaders, including a sudden shift to digital transformation. This change has forced many to rethink how they lead newly established remote and hybrid teams. While this change has been difficult for some, it’s nothing an effective leader can’t handle. According to Benoni Tagoe, the president of Raedio, an “audio everywhere” company, there are six ways to improve leadership in this new environment. Below is a summary of his tips, originally published in Rolling Stone: 

1. Be transparent and listen: Leaders who are implementing new ways to work should take time to understand how this affects their teams. “Spend a few meetings observing and listening to them,” states Tagoe. “You’ll gain more by letting them speak first, before responding to their ideas and opinions.”

2. Establish policies that encourage staff “to protect their space”: To help your employees work better from home, consider budgeting for work-from-home office setups.

3. Check-in with your employees: Take time to get to know your team members and form connections with them beyond the office. This can be done through virtual lunches or other gatherings. “With my team, I sent everyone a gift card for Goldbelly that allowed them to order food from restaurants around the country,” writes Tagoe. “My note was simple: Since we all can’t visit our favorite restaurants, we’re bringing your favorite menu items to you. Then I followed up on a team meeting and asked them what they ordered, which allowed the entire team to bond over their favorite meals.”

4. Establish “rules of engagement” for video calls: You don’t always need to conduct team meetings over video but you should probably use video for client meetings, writes Tagoe. Leaders should also make sure calls on the calendar are absolutely necessary. This will help prevent unneeded calls that could have been emails. 

5. Regularly update your employees on remote policies: Leaders planning a return to physical offices should keep their employees informed with a general timeline. 

6. Keep in mind that most employees want the ability to choose: Staff value being able to choose who they work with, what projects they work on, and how they perform their tasks. “As a leader, your mandate is to make sure you engineer events that create camaraderie and allow fellow team members to create a bond around the work,” Tagoe writes. One way to accomplish this would be to restate company goals, explain decisions made that impact them directly, and make sure they are up-to date with financials and business challenges so that they feel a sense of transparency and can also make informed decisions.  

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rattle global markets, leaders will continue to face challenges. However, you may find it easier to navigate this new world of remote/hybrid work by following these simple tips. 

Create Leaders in Organization

IEEE has partnered with Rutgers Business School to offer the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA. Designed specifically for groups of ten or more within an organization, this program operates entirely online. It features topics including business strategy, managing product development, finance, negotiation, managing human capital, intellectual property strategy, and transformational agility.

Participants will learn how to make organizational decisions with both technical and operational considerations. After developing an understanding of how different functional groups interact to achieve overall goals, they will learn to apply their newly developed business skills to better align their technical capabilities with business strategy.

The program offers the option of a customized capstone project, completely aligned to the needs of your organization. As part of the project, you’ll receive feedback from program professors who have worked as engineering leaders themselves.

To learn more about the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for your organization, contact an IEEE Account Manager today.

Resources

Tagoe, Benoni. (15 November 2021). 6 Tips for Effective Leadership in Uncertain Times. Rolling Stone.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rattle industries, many organizations are turning to digital transformation to ease disruptions. While this shift requires business leaders to make a great deal of technological change, digital transformation also requires them to re-examine their attitudes and culture.

“As I’ve gone down this route, I’ve become increasingly aware of how much digital transformation is really about behaviour change within an organisation,” Matthew Reinbold, former director of API & event streaming platform services at Capital One, told Information Age. “It’s not enough to simply do what we did yesterday using new tools. It’s about changing how we behave when given certain problems or certain opportunities. And behaviour change for people is really, really hard.” 

One of the key digital transformation changes organizations will need to implement is adopting a “data-driven decision making culture,” according to Cynthia A. Conway, CEO Peer Advisory Group Chair of Vistage Worldwide, Inc. and Mitch Codkind, president of Initiative Consulting, a division of Initiatives, Inc. To implement such a culture, Conway and Codkind recommend hiring a data scientist who can help you interpret and implement the data that your digitization efforts will rely on, and who can create a “technology architectural plan.”

Writing in Harvard Business Review, they say your plan should outline how to store your company’s data and include:

• technology solutions that allow you to meet your corporate governance requirements 
• analytical capabilities that “connect and share information” throughout your organization
• “a data visualization layer” that helps you see your “prioritized performance metrics quickly and easily” for more efficient decision making

“With this in place, you, your data scientist, and their peers will develop processes across your organization to foster a data-driven decision-making culture for a customer-centric organization — without bias,” Conway and Codkind said.

How To Know Your Digitization Efforts Are Working

Once you’ve implemented digital transformation at your organization, how will you know these efforts are paying off? According to Andrew Butt, co-founder and CEO of Enable, a cloud-based B2B software solution for rebate management, there are five ways to gauge success:

1. Your employee’s productivity has gone up. If staff engagement and productivity have improved and employees are able to dedicate their time to more important activities, you know your digitization efforts are proving effective. To ensure you are meeting this goal, determine a way to track employee productivity.
2. You see a return on your investment. Instead of looking solely at your revenue, compare sales before and after the digitization. Consider variables like project costs and shifting economic and market conditions. 
3. Your employees have been able to fully adapt to your digital transformation. To measure adaptation, you need a system or process in place to determine if and how your employees are using new software. This tool will help you make decisions about what technologies and systems are bringing value to your organization.
4. Your rate of innovation has improved. The amount of innovation that comes out of your digitization efforts is a good indication that these efforts have been successful. This goes beyond providing new digital products and services — it means “making digital experiences as intuitive and streamlined as possible.”
5. You are reaching a greater number of customers. To understand how many customers you are reaching, you should track how they are finding you online using digital tools, and use this data to make improvements and further boost your retention.

Digital transformation requires organizations to undergo an evolution in technology and culture. By implementing a strong data-driven culture and a plan for measuring success, they can reap huge benefits. 

Prepare Your Organization for Digital Transformation

Get your organization ready for digital transformation. The IEEE five-course program, Digital Transformation: Moving Toward a Digital Society, aims to foster a discussion around how digital transformation can transform various industries and provide the background knowledge needed to smartly implement digital tools into organizations.

Contact an IEEE Account Specialist to get access for your organization.

Interested in the course for yourself? Check out the course program on the IEEE Learning Network.

Resources

(2 September 2021). Digital transformation – it’s a people problem. Information Age.

Butt, Andrew. (30 August 2021). Digital transformation metrics: 5 questions to ask. Enterprise Project. 

Conway, Cynthia A. and Codkind, Mitch. (24 August 2021). Where Digital Transformations Go Wrong in Small and Midsize Companies. Harvard Business Review.

Thousands of organizations all over the world underwent digital transformations during pandemic-related shutdowns as a means of survival. Now, as they emerge from lockdowns, many are beginning to use digital transformation as a tool for growth. Moving forward, organizational leaders need to determine key metrics that can help them meet their growth goals. Here are six metrics they should consider, according to The Enterprisers Project.

1. As one-time transformation metrics are evolving into ongoing transformation metrics, your organization should determine how to scale digital transformation in a way that adds value across products and services.
2. Automation and cloud-native tools can make your organization more adaptable. Implementing end-to-end processes in the cloud can help your organization learn from human interaction and quickly adapt to users’ evolving needs. 
3. Determine how and where to invest revenue—whether it’s building a direct-to-consumer retail platform or deciding how innovation is affecting your earnings.
4. Track the percentage of your most vital AI-supported business processes and systems. This will help you appropriately scale the use of your AI capabilities.
5. Explore different ways you can invest in digital transformation to enhance employee experience and productivity.
6. Implement digital transformation initiatives that will help you reach your business model’s sustainability goals. This could include tracking your technology footprint across infrastructure, apps, and data, as well as implementing platforms that measure sustainability for clients and markets.
7. Lastly, how your organization leverages digital transformation for growth will depend on your unique needs.

“While digital native companies focus on how to deliver value to the edge, others can turn to technology that offers an instant impact by making processes more efficient–perhaps developing digital models for traditional retailers or escalating supply chain processes for fluctuating in-demand products and services,” writes Dean Stoecker, co-founder, former CEO and executive chairman of Alteryx, in Forbes.

The Next Phase of Digital Transformation Will Be Human Centered

As organizations prepare for growth, they need to shift their focus away from the technological aspects of digital transformation to the human ones.

“Amid this rocky start to the new decade, we’re embarking on the next iteration of business evolution—Digital Transformation 2.0,” Stoecker writes. “Unlike its 1.0 predecessor, this next attempt at transformation will benefit from putting more trust in humans and their ability to engage with technology to produce results.”

For this next iteration of digital transformation to smoothly unfold, organizations must focus on effective change management. As employees quickly adapt to new technologies and processes, leaders need to adjust to the new demands of their workforce, ensuring that workers have the right coaching, training, and mentoring. Otherwise, employees may grow frustrated and take their talent elsewhere.

Many organizations are upskilling their existing workforces to meet the new demands of digital transformation. The global professional services firm PwC, for example, has taken an internal approach to digital transformation by investing in data-focused training for its employees, rather than hiring outside talent to fill these roles. 

Digital transformation will continue to accelerate across industries. By focusing internally on specific areas where digital transformation is most needed and supporting their human needs, organizations can successfully leverage digital transformation for growth.

Prepare Your Organization for Digital Transformation

Get your organization ready for digital transformation. The IEEE five-course program, Digital Transformation: Moving Toward a Digital Society, is aimed to foster a discussion around how digital transformation can transform various industries and provide the background knowledge needed to smartly implement digital tools into organizations.

Contact an IEEE Account Specialist to get access for your organization.

Interested in the course for yourself? Check out the courses below on the IEEE Learning Network.

• Understanding Digital Transformation: The Key Concepts
• Forecasting Digital Transformation: Tools and Methods
• Drivers of Digital Transformation: Communications, Big Data, and AI

Resources

Overby, Stephanie. (26 May 2021). Digital transformation: 11 skills CIOs need to get it done. The Enterprisers Project.

Stoecker, Dean. (12 May 2021). Digital Transformation For A New Decade, Powered By Humans. Forbes. 

Overby, Stephanie. (5 May 2021). 10 digital transformation metrics to measure success in 2021. The Enterprisers Project.

As COVID-19 continues to keep many offices closed, some organizations have digitally transformed their workforces to improve the flow of business, a change that for many will be permanent. By the time the pandemic is over, a number of organizations will have embraced a hybrid in-person/virtual workforce, while also having shifted to multiple cloud and hybrid cloud services.

Many organizations in the early steps of adoption may find themselves at a crossroads between different cloud providers whose offerings range from software-as-a-service (SaaS), infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and platform-as-a-service (PaaS). With a number of third parties hosting their data, organizations will need to consider the security risks and take steps to mitigate them. One way to get ahead of the problem is to create a single cloud strategy that will ensure streamlined governance over cloud platforms.

“A best practice is to ensure that for all requested cloud services, [the services] are subjected to proper architecture and security reviews on any IaaS, PaaS, or SaaS vendor platforms, before being approved for use in the enterprise,” Ryan Smith, Chief Information Officer at healthcare provider Intermountain Healthcare, told CIO. “Guidance and guardrails must be established before any public cloud vendor tools can be provided to the organization, including ongoing monitoring of all usage.”

How to Create a Digital Transformation Cloud Strategy

Before you take your organization down the digital transformation path, you’ll want to make sure you have a strong strategy in place that will allow for easier adaption to a multi-cloud model. Here are three things organizations should consider, according to The Enterprise Project:  

Revise your strategy:
Revamp your strategy to take into account the integration of enhanced security systems, data center providers, voice technology updates, and other necessary changes. You should also document everything as you proceed, and be sure to involve your senior leadership.

Prioritize security:
Make network security your top priority by embedding it into the digital transformation process and establishing protocols that ensure all steps are taken. Consider public versus private cloud solutions (each of which carries its own data risks); establish a robust Mobile Device Management (MDM) or Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) platform; and train your staff on how to identify common scams such as phishing, which is the number-one way hackers break into data centers. A good strategy is to implement a multi-layered security strategy with routine testing, assessments, and training. 

Define what “cloud” means to your organization:
Before you execute your digital transformation, decide exactly what utilizing the cloud means to your organization, as well as what your cloud strategy will entail. Consider questions such as: 

• How should the cloud be defined in a work-from-home environment?
• What do we need cloud computing to accomplish?

By asking questions like these, you will be able to avoid unnecessary cloud projects that could waste your organization’s time and money.  

Digital transformation will come with many risks and rewards. However, organizations that adopt an appropriate cloud strategy will be able to quickly identify and solve problems in advance, and enjoy a much easier transition in the process.

Prepare Your Organization for Digital Transformation

Get your organization ready for Digital Transformation. The IEEE five-course program, Digital Transformation: Moving Toward a Digital Society, is aimed to foster a discussion around how digital transformation can transform various industries and provide the background knowledge needed to smartly implement digital tools into organizations.

Contact an IEEE Account Specialist to get access for your organization.

Interested in the course for yourself? Check out the courses below on the IEEE Learning Network.

• Understanding Digital Transformation: The Key Concepts
• Forecasting Digital Transformation: Tools and Methods
• Drivers of Digital Transformation: Communications, Big Data, and AI

Resources

Demetrius, Jim. (25 March 2021). Digital transformation: 3 ways to get infrastructure updates back on track. The Enterprise Project.

Violins, Bob. (8 March 2021). Mitigating the hidden risks of digital transformation. CIO.

The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing organizations all over the world to digitally transform their operations as more employees work from home. As remote work becomes the new normal, many organizations are transitioning data storage not only to the cloud, but to the “edge” in a major shift towards digital transformation. Edge computing, a form of cloud computing where data is stored along the “edge” of the cloud, brings data closest to where it’s produced and consumed, and as a result, reduces latency while boosting speed. Digital transformation through edge computing is allowing organizations around the globe to operate faster and more efficiently, while reducing costs.

Two-Thirds of Organizations in Global Survey Are Adopting Edge Computing

According to a recent global survey from the International Data Corporation (IDC), two-thirds of IT leaders who participated in the survey have begun to adopt edge computing, with 40% planning to adopt new edge technology in under a year. Motivating factors include edge computing’s improved bandwidth and reduced latency and costs. 

“Enterprises around the world are being confronted by a basic law of physics—distance neutralizes speed, causing latency or a delay between an action and an application’s response,” survey sponsor Lumen Technologies stated in a blog post about the survey. “Controlling latency has never been more important, whether data flows to a distributed workforce or a multitude of smart gadgets that make up the Internet of Things.”

How Organizations Will Use Edge Computing this Year

According to a recent TechRepublic survey, 70% of organizations surveyed transitioned to edge computing to deliver enhanced experience for customers and 46% said they use or intend to use the technology to minimize operational costs. 

Among the main applications for which organizations are currently using or intend to use edge computing include laptops and mobile devices (54%), remote networks and servers (50%), locally deployed software and systems (37%), monitoring of remote assets (27%), virtual mobile networks (12%), other IoT applications (8%), and autonomous vehicles (5%). When asked what edge computing technologies they want to roll out over 6 months, remote servers and networks, as well as laptops and remote mobile devices, ranked equally at 42%. Locally deployed software and systems, ranked at 33%, followed.  

How Digital Transformation for Edge Computing Will Accelerate The Internet of Things

The digital transformation to edge computing technology will also give organizations a greater ability to embrace the Internet of Things. This will empower them to solve problems in revolutionary ways. For example, edge computing combined with Internet of Things technology, such as sensors, will allow businesses to roll out super-efficient “smart factories.” Featuring highly connected equipment, employees will be able to quickly spot and fix problems in production lines more easily.

“The industry will continue to move toward more decentralized compute environments, and the edge will add significant value to digital transformation initiatives,” writes Keith Higgins in RFID Journal.  

Digital transformation will continue well beyond 2021, and there’s little doubt that edge computing will continue to play a major role. 

Bring Your Organization to the Edge

Many organizations don’t fully understand edge computing and the impact it can have on their business. From providing real-time data analysis to reducing system malfunctions, edge computing can be customized to meet an organization’s specific needs.

Prepare your organization for edge computing integration. Designed to train your entire team to support edge computing, IEEE Introduction to Edge Computing is an online five-course program. To learn more about getting access to these courses for your organization, connect with an IEEE Content Specialist today.

Contact an IEEE Content Specialist to learn more about how this program can benefit your organization.

Interested in getting access for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN) today!

Resources

Vigilarolo, Brandon. (29 January 2021). Business leaders want low latency, not speed, study finds. TechRepublic.

(28 January 2021). Global Business Leaders Rate Latency Higher Priority Than Speed. Multivu.com. 

Higgins, Keith.  (10 January 2021). Trendspotting: Industrial Digital Transformation Matures. RFID Journal.

Edge computing adoption to increase through 2026; organizations cautious about adding 5G to the mix. Tech Republic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many organizations around the world to digitize their workforces. As the pandemic continues and remote work becomes the new norm for many organizations, leaders who fail to effectively transition into the digital realm may struggle. However, there are steps they can take to adopt the increasingly digital workspace and become digitally savvy leaders.

Employees Want Digitally Savvy Leaders

According to a newly released report from MIT Sloan Management Review, 93% of employees across regions and industries think digital savviness is necessary to succeed. Having a sense of purpose is also important. 72% of workers surveyed stated that they “strongly agree that it is very important to them to work for an organization with a purpose they believe in,” according to the Leadership’s Digital Transformation report. Additionally, 88% of workers surveyed reported that having leaders who are digitally savvy is critical to their company’s ability to achieve that purpose. 

However, less than half of those surveyed said their organizations have created project teams that are intentionally diverse when it comes to digital savviness. Furthermore, only 31% thought their companies were assessing the digital skills of their managers. Less than 20% thought their companies were ensuring digital know-how among their high ranking managers. 

Focus on Purpose

Your workers can often sense if you aren’t passionate about the organization and its purpose. If you want them to feel more confident in your leadership, you need to regularly communicate the organization’s strategic purposes to your team. It can help to specify how the organization’s purposes align with their productivity and goals.

“Having a compelling mission statement isn’t enough,” the report states. “Serious leaders must appear as genuinely passionate about enterprise purpose as they are about strategy, agility, and customer centricity. The key is to authentically embed and enable purpose as part of the organization’s digital transformation trajectory. Purpose thus has an operational as well as an aspirational rationale that invites new leadership accountability.”

Develop “Digital Situational Awareness”

Since the pandemic began, remote work has blurred the traditional boundaries between work and home. Even when the work day is over, many workers still find themselves fielding emails. Often, they have to choose between work and family obligations. 

Just 28% of workers surveyed said their company had policies on how and when to contact them beyond work hours. Furthermore, only 24% said their company stuck to these policies if they had them. 

For many, gone are the days when workers could simply knock on their manager’s door. Remote employees need clarity around when and how to reach out to their bosses. This means leaders need to establish boundaries and make an effort to respect these guidelines.

“The key to being measurably more effective is becoming measurably more affective,” the report states. “Leaders who want to succeed have no choice but to digitally transform themselves. Leaders who are unwilling or unable to proactively use data and analytics to understand how their leadership is experienced will underperform.”

Take Advantage of “Mutual Mentoring”

One way leaders can digitally transform themselves is through “mutual” or “reverse” mentoring, in which younger employees mentor those who are older. Although 71% of survey respondents thought younger workers were more successful at obtaining value from digital tools at their organizations, just 19% said their organizations engaged in this kind of mentorship.

The pandemic will eventually end, but remote work is here to stay for many people. If leaders want to be successful, they need to adjust to a new way of managing employees, and for many, digital transformation will be key to their success.

Create Leaders in Your Organization

IEEE has partnered with Rutgers Business School to offer the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for Engineers. Designed specifically for groups of ten or more within an organization, this program operates entirely online. It features topics including business strategy, managing product development, finance, negotiation, managing human capital, intellectual property strategy, and transformational agility.

Participants will learn how to make organizational decisions with both technical and operational considerations. After developing an understanding of how different functional groups interact to achieve overall goals, they will learn to apply their newly developed business skills to better align their technical capabilities with business strategy.

The program offers the option of a customized capstone project, completely aligned to the needs of your organization. As part of the project, you’ll receive feedback from program professors who have worked as engineering leaders themselves.

To learn more about the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for Engineers for your organization, contact an IEEE Account Manager today.

Resources

(26 January 2021). Leadership’s Digital Transformation: Leading Purposely in an Era of Context Collapse. MIT Sloan Management Review.