FINAL WORD
and wider business resources are not spread too thinly across multiple projects . Senior leadership ’ s key role will be to provide the resources and direction to ensure projects stay focused on its goals and can deliver meaningful results . Stakeholder engagement is critical here – the scale of the opportunity , the size of the transformation and the commercial risks of inaction need to be communicated clearly to critical stakeholders from employees and managers to shareholders and the board .
Develop and evolve the business case
From the outset , it is important to understand that the business case for deploying Edge technologies is likely to evolve over time . While assumptions will need to be made at the start of the process , in order to give the project direction , this will likely change and evolve once businesses gain more practical experience implementing Edge-based solutions and are in a better place to understand the true benefits for customers and the organisation .
The key factor in evolving business cases will be responding to feedback from the end user or employees . While enterprises may have to adjust the solution as they hit technological barriers or come up against an unwillingness to invest from senior stakeholders , the biggest success factor in delivering on the business case will be understanding and responding to any adverse consumer and employee reactions over how these technologies might be used and how they might impact personal privacy . Trust and transparency are going to be key to implementation .
Security and risk management
As with any large-scale transformation , adopting Edge-based strategies has inherent security challenges and risks , and many have raised concerns about the potential invasion of privacy and misuse of customer data . Operationally , the critical risk here is not investing enough in mind-set change , digital literacy across the business and the capability of IT to lead and deliver Edge strategies .
According to Fast Future ’ s book , the most voted for security fear is that Edge solutions could potentially create thousands of points of risk exposure across the network for hackers to take advantage of ( 82 %). Every enterprise that moves towards the edge must act to pre-empt the security threats inherent to a network newly flooded with connected devices . Fundamental to these opportunities is the need for robust , centrally-managed network infrastructure – one that provides visibility and control in an increasingly complex and potentially vulnerable , enterprise environment . Enterprises must also work on the basis of an open technology ecosystem that leaves them with the room to adapt and evolve over time , as priorities change . Businesses will have to show stakeholders that the benefits of Edge technologies far outweigh any privacy fears and that any data captured will only be used to evolve and improve their experiences .
It ’ s clear that , if implemented correctly , Edge is going to be key to evolving businesses and getting a digital advantage over competitors , fast becoming the single most important trend for enterprises in the coming years , which will be able to contend with the quickly evolving expectations of consumers for more seamless , customised and on-demand services . But in order to implement these solutions effectively , enterprises must take heed of both the benefits and challenges such an extensive implementation may cause and pre-empt them ahead of time . Companies need to focus not just on installing technology but upgrading the institutional mindset towards a more experimental approach and improving digital literacy across the board . Those that lay the foundation now from a technical and structural standpoint , will be best placed to take advantage of the Edge potential . •
66