IT Impact on the Breadth and Depth of Digital Transformation

The very characteristics of digital are hyperconnectivity, interdependence, and hyper dynamism; and increasingly, enterprises find themselves enmeshed in "ecosystems." IT becomes change drivers and strategy enabler for business, and IT transformation is a significant part of the business transformation. The word "transformation" in itself means change and change for the better, new ways and methodologies of doing things; the high mature digital organization starts to appreciate such attributes as 'readiness,’ 'ownership,' ‘integration,’ 'full open communication,’ customized structuring as well as developing 'partnerships broadly.’ IT makes a significant impact on the breadth and depth of digital transformation.
The breadth of digital transformation: The digital enterprise is nothing more than a ‘switch’ in the network lattice of the digital ecosystem. The aspect which matters is ensuring that the enterprise is connected to all the appropriate eco-system, lattice or otherwise, touch points; moreover, these changes do not happen in isolation from each other in a predictable way; and thus, digital businesses should become highly responsive to changes and highly innovative to thrive in the over complex ecosystem. Information & Technology are the backbones of the digital ecosystem with hyper-connectivity, hyper-diversity, hyper-dynamism. In order to function, an enterprise has to be linked to the many and varied ‘touch points’ between itself and the marketplace environment of which it is a part. It is important to leverage technology to enable integral design and seamless customer experience, rather than use it as a constraint; it is also critical to keep information flow smoothly across the functional or even organizational boundaries in order to make sure the right people getting the right information to make right decisions for solving the right problems timely.
The depth of digital transformation: Digital transformation is an overarching approach that has to dig underneath of the surface of businesses and take a structural way to integrate both hard and soft business elements to the long-term organizational competency. The dynamic digital organizations need to get away from letting things fall through and start creating “integrated wholes” by leveraging IT for utilizing the underlying business processes and building the unique set of business capability and ultimately bridging the chasm between strategy and execution. Digital is never just about the pretty interface or a few fancy gadgets. The optimal internal structure of the digital enterprise from autocratic to democratic is the one which provides the greatest effectiveness and efficiency, and depends, in large measure, on the nature and purpose of the enterprise. From information management perspective, the cost benefits of managing data are in the design of the overall system (people, process, systems) and not the tools. That is why cross-functional collaboration matters, keep tuning organizational structure; explore technical abilities; increase business agility via emergent digital technologies, etc. Business change is hyper accelerating, especially as it relates to the people and value creation dimensions and it is more important than ever to engage profound digital leaders to help the enterprise chart the course and set a better sail.   
A transformation needs to work cross boxes instead within the box; to manage a successful transformation journey, business and IT should set up clear strategy and guidelines to broaden the horizon of changes and dive into the depth of underlying functionality as well. It is important that the opportunity is not squandered, the maximum benefit is derived from the business, and full digital potential of the business is unleashed.

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