“Digital Master” Book Monthly Tuning: IT Driven Digital Transformation Feb. 2017

Digital makes a significant impact on every aspect of the business from people, process to technology, both horizontally and vertically. Digital becomes the very fabric of high performing business, being outside-in and customer-centric is the new mantra for forward-looking and high mature digital organizations today. At the heart of digital, it is people and how to build a customer-centric organization. But how to assess the digital fitness of your organization for such a paradigm shift.  IT-Driven Digital Transformation  Feb. 2017Making IT Assessment for Leading Digital Transformation? Due to increasing speed of changes and exponential growth of information, more often than not, technology is the driver of business changes or the accelerator of the digital transformation. How can IT shift from a back office support function to the digital brain yard and forerunner? How should IT leaders and managers make an objective and comprehensive IT management assessment in order to lead changes and digital transformation effortlessly?
The IT Conundrum with Digital Transformation Due to the importance of information and disruptive nature of digital technologies, organizations are increasingly looking to the IT function for introducing beneficial change into their business models to improve strategic performance, achieve operational excellence, enforce customer experience, and to gain the long-term competency of the enterprise etc. However, too often, IT acts like an order taker, many businesses still view IT exclusively as a cost center and a support desk. If the business doesn’t view IT as being on the same level, they won’t properly communicate or align with the IT department. So, how to deal with the IT conundrum and run a high effective digital organization?Refresh CIO Leadership to Accelerate Digital Transformation The CIO role is considerably a newer top executive role compared to other business executive positions. At the static industrial age, IT was perceived as a cost center, and CIOs were labeled as the technical geek and tactical manager, and the majority of IT organizations get stuck in the lower level of maturity.  However, due to the exponential growth of information and increasing speed of changes, technologies are often the disruptive force behind digital technologies. IT plays a more significant role in leading businesses forward at the front. So, how to refresh CIO leadership to accelerate digital transformation?
Three IT Competencies to Make a Leap of Digital Transformation: The goal of all businesses is to generate revenue, increase net-new business, enlarge their footprint, and monetize their core competencies. Developing core competencies is particularly important for IT organizations because IT is an important business enabler which can weave all necessary elements of the company into strategic capabilities and unique advantage of the entire company. Here are three IT competencies to make a leap of digital transformation.
CIOs as “Chief Interaction Officer”: Building Digital Clusters to Accelerate Business Transformation: The world is leapfrogging from taxonomy to folksonomy. The digital convenience we enjoy today breaks down the physical territories and brings unprecedented opportunities to reinvent business and unleash human potential. Today’s digital businesses are becoming more interconnected and interdependent with its macro-environment by engaging conversation with partners, customers, community group, industry expertise, and IT plays a crucial role in building the backbone of digital business with hyperconnectivity and high-responsiveness. So, CIOs as “Chief Interaction Officer,” how to build digital clusters to accelerate such a business transformation?
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