As part of my approach when supporting teams in striving for delivery excellence, I always conduct a look-back review to consolidate lessons learned and enhance the plan for moving forward. With this in mind, I wanted to share my thoughts and observations for the trends I personally saw in Digital Transformation that have been the key focus of my clients in 2019. My list is based on my consulting, coaching and speaking engagements and is a reflection on questions, coffee chats, panel discussions and workshops conducted. In my next article, I’ll examine future trends for 2020 and the areas that will impact my clients the most.
1. Cloud migrations accelerate
While not at the speed industry vendors would have you believe, in 2019 I had an increase in requests for Cloud consulting. Many of my clients were wanting to migrate applications from their data centres to public Clouds such as AWS, Azure and IBM. The business advantages of Cloud are agility and access to new technologies. Cost savings are a factor but that’s only realized after a year or two of optimizing your Cloud services.
2. Increased recognition of IT
Although technology is becoming democratized and more readily available to more people outside of IT, in 2019 I saw an increase in boards and C-Suite requesting input and advice from CIOs and IT leaders.
Senior business leaders are increasingly looking to CIOs for more information on how to leverage technology to grow their businesses and improve efficiencies.
3. Changing role of the CIO
To build on my last point, the role of the CIO is evolving to be increasingly focused on business growth rather than just running IT systems. Previously, CIOs felt their organizations under-invested in IT with many treating IT as a business commodity rather than a business enabler. This is changing. Leadership teams are recognizing that the CIO is key in driving digital change for the business by leveraging technology innovation to drive company growth. Building on this, CIOs need to be able to make a case for balancing cost, while investing in technology that addresses current and future needs.
4. More Innovation
Continuous innovation is how companies and individuals grow and is even more important for all companies in this digital era. A common question from my 2019 speaking events was ‘how do we become more innovative while keeping the lights on?’. I wrote a LinkedIn article on this topic and the best place to start is to look for ways to remove friction from your existing processes. Also, be curious about how things are done at other companies and in other industries. Gaining exposure to new ways of thinking is a sure way to grow innovation.
5. Better data not more data
In 2018, data was the new oil. In 2019, my view on this changed. It’s not about data volume, it’s about data value. Gathering data is easy but what you do with that data to create business value is what counts. Rather than what data do you have, ask “What data do I need?”. In 2019 I saw an increase in clients wanting help with Data Strategies, data analytics and how to create value from data.
6. Trust issues are top of mind
With the continued proliferation of new technologies and easier access to more data, Cyber security, Ethics and Privacy are more relevant than ever. According to David Cearley, VP and Gartner fellow, “Any discussion on privacy must be grounded in the broader topic of digital ethics and the trust of your customers, constituents and employees”. It’s reassuring and necessary to see these areas included in Digital Transformation conversations. With Digital Transformation, cyber security solutions are more sophisticated but this emphasizes the need to address attack vectors opened up by humans, such as phishing or weak passwords.
7. Increasing focus on happy workforce and customers
It has become the cornerstone of strong Digital Transformation to enhance both the user experience of both employees and market or customers.
There has been a decline in businessesimplement technology exclusively for cost reduction purposes. More companies are recognizing that a key to success includes focusing on the user experience.
By adopting new technologies to help workers do their jobs, employee satisfaction and productivity will increase.
Summary
I’m pleased to see these trends in 2019 (plus the debut of Baby Yoda!) and looking forward to seeing how they mature in 2020. These trends are not as far ahead as industry vendors would have us believe. For example, I’m having lots of discussions on Blockchain, AI and RPA but there is less development in these areas. This is a good place to be for digital nascent companies: keep an eye on newer technologies while focusing your development on more mature Digital Transformation technologies including Cloud, Data Analytics and Machine Learning.
I’ll be looking at where I see these technologies developing in 2020 along with my predictions on future trends and technologies of 2020 in my next article.