Digital and Disruptive

Two phrases keep appearing in conversation: “Digital Transformation” and “Disruptive” change and technology. I believe both of these are here to stay for a while, but neither of them are completely new. I will set out what these really mean and what organisations have to do to in order not only survive, but thrive within these new constructs.

As ever, there appears to be a number of different interpretations. So I will start by setting out what I believe Digital Transformation and Disruptive to be.

Digital Transformation is taking advantage of new technology to:

• reach customers on mobile devices while they are out and about;
• liberate your own staff and partners; and
• exploit the pool of data.

Reaching customers while they are out and about is not only about developing new apps for mobile devices but really thinking how this has changed customer and supplier behaviour, making the service end to end, making use of all your knowledge about the customer including their past, recent and current activity and location then delivering the service to the customers’ chosen location.

Liberating your own staff through digital transformation is a vital part of meeting “Disruptive”. This includes both front and back office and out in the street. No new start-up would contemplate not having full workplace mobility in and outside the office with full access to data and a suite of communication methods from email and text messaging to discussion groups: text, voice and video of course.

Exploiting the pool of data is probably the hardest for companies with a legacy of data. The expectation now is that you and your suppliers and partners already know everything you need to know about the customer and their needs. The expectation is that you already have it to hand, have read it and are acting upon it.

Most of this is very similar to twenty years ago, just taken a little further. You could say mobile phones are just another channel, the workforce and your partners did need to meet and communicate and it was good practice to only gather information once and store and share it responsibly. The key differences are the speed, the extent and the level of expectation.

Disruptive has been about since the beginning of time. It is the act of doing something differently and disrupting the marketplace. It is the introduction or change that takes part or all of your capability and does it differently or better to such an extent that the old approach is no longer competitive. Just naming a few disruptive companies: First Direct, Amazon, Uber, Apple, Aldi. The new twist is that in the digital world this can be done at speed.

Developing new software takes a fraction of the time it takes to sometimes even only modify legacy systems. Challenger banks in the UK have shown this to the old guard and are taking a slice out of the market. Improved ability to interface with other parties and to transfer data has made it easier to take out small parts of processes and do them elsewhere and differently.

However disruptive is not just about technology, it is also what it has enabled. Full workforce mobility enables new and fluid working structures to drive innovation, rapid development and rapid deployment to new spaces.

Organisations need to be structured to either be disruptive themselves, resist disruptive or be in a position to exploit disruptive. Again this is not new, it is the speed and ease with which it is happening that has changed.

What we do about Digital Transformation and Disruptive is not easy, but it is an extension of what organisations have been doing in the past. Disruption is quick and digital is extensive. Organisations have to invest in the ability to continually transform. I believe there are three core activities that every organisation must take control of:

• know what your capabilities are, how they work together to add value to your customers, and where you want to go;
• set your organisation up so it can continually change; and
• know the technology opportunities and be able to share them with the business.

Many organisations just do not know what they do. They do not know how their capabilities come together to deliver their products and services to their customers.  There are usually several alternative versions of the truth, and they are all true. Without a clear Business Architecture and Operating Model it is challenging to identify and agree where an organisation adds value to its customers and how it interacts with its suppliers and partners, where its key decisions are made and where its data is managed. Without this knowledge it is difficult to know and agree where the attention should be focused, what is core and what is exposed to disruption. Change has now become continuous, so this knowledge must be continuous too.

Data is king. Legislation including PDS2, Open Banking and GDPR is pushing us towards what should just be good practice. What has complicated it is legacy technology, mergers, splits, restructures and internal politics. An essential part of Digital Transformation is being able to know, access and use the data. This should be an integral part of the Business and Enterprise Architecture.

To exploit digital, just like any innovation, needs an open and honest environment with a common understanding where people share. Innovation often comes down to empowering those that are in the know to speak up, to encourage and nurture risk with the appropriate controls. New approaches to developing software are evolving rapidly, there is not time for extensive fact finding and research: the facts and the customer must be known already. For an effective transformation all the stakeholders, including staff, suppliers and partners need a shared view that they agree and understand and can then contribute to.

Finally there is the technology. I cannot speak about this I can only watch. It is changing and every time I look it has changed again. Whatever the technology it cannot deliver unless the organisation knows and agrees what they want to do. Change and software development is continuous so knowledge and a change environment must also be continuous.

I have been applying these disciplines for many years and they have not changed, they just need to be done and done well:

• have a customer centric, value added focus to priorities, know your customers don’t just research them;
• have a good Business Architecture to the appropriate depth that is shared, understood and agreed by all and includes capture, use and ownership of data;
• include the full ecosystem including suppliers, partners and customers;
• have an open, honest and effective innovation environment and a workforce that can be mobile;
• have a robust transformation approach that not only makes decisions but also brings the stakeholders along getting them Ready, Willing and Able; and
• sort out the data.

Couple this with an in depth knowledge of current and emerging technologies and adoption of agile and disruptive technology development techniques and any organisation will be able to take part in the digital and disruptive environment.