FINAL WORD
THE UNDERLYING PREMISE OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS ABOUT CREATING THE FUTURE WITHOUT THE CONSTRAINTS OF THE PAST .
dividends . Researchers found that digital leaders achieve earnings growth that is 1.8 times higher than digital laggards .
Not surprisingly , hundreds of lowcode vendors have entered the marketplace to capitalise on this urgent need . But to obtain the benefits of Digital Transformation , businesses need to be sure a lowcode platform will support digital solutions without compromising architecture and meet specific cloud deployment needs and devops requirements . The right platform also leverages more of the enterprise ’ s workforce – beyond just IT – for solution development . Finally , the platform should be able to handle a wide number of use cases requiring both data-centric and process- centric approaches .
Adding people , portfolio , plus process to the equation for success
By itself , even world-class technology is not enough . It is crucial to harness the people power of fusion teams that include both business domain and IT experts to leverage technology to achieve enterprise goals . A common stumbling block occurs when ‘ companies try to boil the ocean ’, said Gordon Van Huizen , Mendix ’ s Vice President , Platform Strategy .
“ Problems crop up when organisations do too much at the same time , launching big , ambitious projects and investing in technology to quickly put digital infrastructure in place .” While ambitious , such approaches lead to fragmented efforts that don ’ t deliver hoped-for results . Instead , Van Huizen recommends decision-makers focus on specific use cases first . These iterative , highimpact selections are the natural outcome of an enterprise-wide , digital maturity assessment .
Van Huizen cites four stages to digital maturity : legacy transformation , efficiency improvements for both process and productivity , customer experience and developing new lines of business . He also cautions that enterprises should not wait for their legacy systems to be fully modernised before tackling necessary transformation projects that may be smaller in scope but create a big impact . When the entire enterprise supports a strategic vision using an agile discovery process that validates and shares its success metrics , the ROI of digitally optimising or transforming business processes can be greatly accelerated .
“ Organisations invest many years and resources on transforming legacy systems before they start accruing benefits ,” said Van Huizen . “ It ’ s better to find small projects and develop cross-functional teams where you can improve efficiencies , show early results and enlist new people to the transformational process .”
Preparing for the next chapter – composability
Transforming the enterprise with in-house talent that can leverage their digital expertise in response to market disruptions builds resilience into any business model . The next element for competitive advantage in the accelerated digital-first economy is for the enterprise to embrace composable thinking .
Simply put , ‘ composability ’ is when businesses use pre-built software modules or digital components ( such as templates or packaged business services ) and assemble them into a targeted solution . This approach can dramatically reduce the level of effort and accelerate the time to value . Often , employees , key partners , independent software vendors and customers can supply these easily adapted templates or packaged functionality that will accelerate the digitalisation journey . The ability to find or deliver value-added capabilities breaks the stalemate between commercial off-theshelf software that cannot be customised and the expensive undertaking of developing highly targeted , high-code software .
“ Organisations can implement digital solutions at vastly accelerated speeds by composing and adapting these capabilities from an everbroadening ecosystem of proven sources ,” said Van Huizen . This approach , which Gartner describes as ‘ the composable enterprise ’, is the final element for successful Digital Transformation . It enables businesses to become agile and scale , quickly adapting to changing market conditions or disruptions , meeting evolving customer demands and seizing opportunities with new lines of business .
Van Huizen said : “ A composable approach unites creative solutions from the widest possible community with the targeted needs of business . That ’ s how to inject innovation across the enterprise as an on-going practice on a daily basis .” x
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