Digital Transformation or Digital Optimization?

In early 2018, CIO Dive predicted that this year we’d see “the death of digital transformation.” What’s really happened over the past six months is a shift in our understanding and expectations of digital transformation. In a mid-year check-in, CIO Dive noted that transformation hasn’t gone away, it’s just gotten smarter:

While digital transformation used to be the label for any modernization a company wanted to do, business leadership is beginning to ask tough questions of technology leadership about the logistics of modernization.

Businesses have injected the phrase “digital transformation” with new life by asking far more realistic questions than they had in years past.

Digital transformation is still a driving force within many organizations and it isn’t going to stop being a priority anytime soon. Forbes predicts that by 2020, 83% of Enterprise workloads will be in the cloud.

The question that executives have gotten better at asking in regard to digital transformation is how to avoid the buzzworthy trend and ensure cloud moves make sense and have positive impact. Between logistical questions and a demand for real results, it’s likely that many organizations are now considering “digital business optimizations” rather than grandiose transformations. CIO.com describes digital business optimization as “using digital tools to ‘supercharge’ productivity, bolster generation of existing revenue streams and boost customer experience.”

In many cases, this optimization can be achieved in a much more reasonable fashion than larger, less focused transformations — particularly through the use of SaaS solutions. One of the biggest opportunities for optimization is “looking backwards” to see what existing processes and practices can move to the cloud. Are there processes and programs that are required for the business to function but that take time and resources to manage without adding anything to a company’s bottom line? The answer for almost every organization is “yes.” Just think about how corporate desktops are provisioned and managed. If you’re not using desktop as a service, there’s a major (and often overlooked) opportunity for optimization.

To learn more about digital transformation versus digital business optimization and to see if you’re asking the right questions or leaving “low hanging fruit” untapped, check out our latest guide: Driving Digital Transformation.