Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 07 | Page 81

FINAL WORD rapidly evolving business environments through continuous product innovation and market alignment. 6 Shift your IT from core to enterprise ICT should no longer be the ‘basement level department’ who dictates a business’s hardware, informing what systems it should be using and being a cost centre all on its own. IT should be driven from a business perspective and IT services should, essentially, be business services, supporting the business’s goals and enabling their service and product provision to market. Agility, cost reduction and enhanced customer experience – whether external or internal customer – should be primary focuses for IT today. 7 9 Collaboration and communication The ability to collaborate with resources external to your business environment can set you apart from your competition. In traditional business models, the value is created by the business and passed to the customer. In platform-based business models, the value is co- created between the business and the customer, offering the opportunity for the customer to tailor their own solution to their own requirements. Digital transformation is rapidly disrupting major industries across the globe and driving the future of business. Organisations that do embark on the journey and ride the wave will eventually get swept away by it. n Mpumi Nhlapo, Head of Marketing and Portfolio Sales at T-Systems South Africa Scalability Because customer demand is so transient and quick to change, it’s important to look to technologies which enable scalability and allow for flexible investment and use. The cloud offers up a platform which enables full business functionality with little of the capital expenditure and all of the scalability. 8 Mobility The proliferation of mobile devices, particularly smart devices, has created a whole new playing field for value customer value creation. The most digitally transformed businesses design their process and systems with a mobile first approach thereby harnessing the power that mobile brings and remaining relevant to the digital evolved customer. Key to a mobile strategy is that it should speak to all stakeholders in an organisations value chain, including staff and even suppliers. www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 81