EDITOR’S QUESTION
WHAT TIPS
WOULD YOU GIVE
TO COMPANIES
LOOKING TO
UNDERTAKE DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION?
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I
DC has revealed that 90% of CIOs in
Africa and the Middle East are either
currently engaged in, or are planning,
some level of Digital Transformation. The
rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet
of Things (IoT) and the Fourth Industrial
Revolution (4IR) are fundamentally changing
the way companies work, the way individuals
engage with technology, and the ethics of
digital and disruption.
Kieran Frost, Research Manager for Software
focused on Sub-Saharan Africa for IDC, said:
“The past year saw the industry grapple
with the issues associated with these
technologies. The Cambridge Analytica
scandal exposed how much digitally
disruptive companies know about the
consumer. Globally, questions were being
asked around the process, the people and
the ethics of capturing, storing, processing
and selling personal information.”
Last year, GDPR came into effect as a
prescriptive piece of legislation with the
most impact. The same year saw the world
realise to what extent technology could
influence elections and world views, with
even the business of government digitally
disrupted. China, for example, is beginning
to implement a social scoring system that
determines everything from whether a
person can use public transport to a loan.
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INTELLIGENTCIO
Alongside the social pressure has increased
as organisations and the public sector
wrestle with resolutions that allow them to
facilitate growth.
“These challenges are both internal and
external in nature,” added Frost.
“Externally, in South Africa, the most
pervasive challenge is skills. Whether you’re
a start-up or a large organisation, the
skills required to build out AI platforms or
perform complex data analytics are scarce.
Security is also a priority – the frequency and
sophistication of attacks continue to grow
and 2019 is likely to be a bumper year.”
The consumer is also driving this change,
despite issues around ethics and data. They
want immediacy and the kind of service
that can only be associated with a digitally
disruptive organisation. But they want this
with a fair dollop of security and assurances
of privacy. While legislation such as POPIA
and GDPR are implemented, or about to be,
the discussion remains centre stage.
“Internally, the biggest challenge facing
the organisation is that it knows it needs to
change but it isn’t sure how,” said Frost.
“This often results in projects that remain
the sole responsibility of IT or are perhaps
only focused on one particular area of the
business. This approach virtually guarantees
that the status quo remains.”
Digital disruption requires a foundational
shift in an organisation’s very make up. This
means that the business needs to find ways
of overcoming the challenges and refreshing
the status quo. When it comes to skills,
IDC research has found that organisations
around the world are likely to look to
alternative working arrangements in order to
meet their skills requirements. This will see
more companies take advantage of the gig
economy style of labour. Industries will also
develop the skills they need specifically, such
as through establishing training academies
to teach people straight out of matric all
the development languages, tools and
methodologies that they use.
“Organisations must ensure that their Digital
Transformation isn’t left up to IT,” said Frost.
“IT may have the skills, but they need the
executive and cultural buy-in of the whole
organisation to define the operational
process and ensure project success. Every
business at the foundational level should be
looking at cloud, Big Data and analytics, and
mobility. Each of these technologies provides
platforms on which to build truly disruptive
offerings to take to market.”
www.intelligentcio.com