ROADMAP NEEDED FOR CIOS AND I.T. LEADERS
They need to rethink their role within the broader organisation, and determine the best way to ensure accuracy and integrity of data, write and
MANY businesses today are scrutinising their operations to figure out how to join the digital transformation revolution. Malaysian enterprises are no exception.
The country recently launched its Digital Transformation Acceleration Programme (DTAP) to provide companies with a structured approach to digital transformation. The programme will leverage on Digital Transformation Labs’ expertise to help businesses adopt emerging digital technologies.
With a score of 64, the impact driven from digital initiatives in Malaysia is higher than the Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) score of 56 and global score of 53. This ability to transform digitally is reflected in the fact that 83 per cent of businesses in Malaysia perceive themselves as significantly ahead of competitors as a result of their digital investments. In addition, 48 per cent see themselves as disrupting their industry, because of the advanced digital initiatives they have adopted.
The research indicates that Malaysia’s enterprises are responding to the pressures to meet their customers’ increasing expectations, and that their digital transformation efforts are having a positive effect on customer engagements. Seventyeight per cent of enterprises in Malaysia have reported moderate to significant improvements in customer experience due to digital transformation; with customer satisfaction at 46 per cent and customer retention at 45 per cent.
Businesses today understand that to become more competitive and customer-centric, they need processes that are flexible, integrated, insightful and scalable. They understand harnessing data and infusing business processes with it is the key to success.
Unfortunately, poor data practices, which cost businesses US$3 trillion (RM12.47 trillion) a year, are a key blocker. To turn that enormous loss into opportunities, chief information officers (CIOs) need to better operationalise data at enterprise scale — putting qualified, clean, reliable data into the hands of more employees for them to analyse and make fast, informed decisions.
With the new emphasis on agility through digital transformation, CIOs now have the power to enable rapid change within their businesses by developing digital strategies with data at the core. These leaders have to change the departmental view that data is solely an asset utilised primarily by data scientists, and expand it to encompass data usage by the entire enterprise.
CIOs also need to rethink their role within the broader organisation — shifting from simply being a caretaker of utility-type technologies that run the business to being a facilitator that helps users leverage data to gain insights. CIOs and IT leaders need to create a foundational roadmap.
As new external data sets and applications (such as cloud, IoT, and smartphone) are incorporated into enterprise data lakes, CIOs need to determine the best way to ensure the accuracy and integrity of this data, while also providing broader access to it. Without solid data integrity practices, bad data will thwart a company’s digital transformation and hinder its competitiveness. Bad data practices often lead to hours of lost productivity.
Today’s IT leaders also need to understand they can no longer afford to be a gatekeeper to a company’s data treasure trove. Forward-thinking companies understand that everyone should have access to the corporate information they need to unlock insights that will drive the business forward. They understand there should be no restrictions on data volume, data availability, or access.
CIOs also need to enable access to enterprise data lakes using a variety of easy-to-use, self-service applications and tools that provide data manipulation and analysis expertise to business users. They need to integrate intelligence into data management applications and work-flows to help users better leverage advanced technologies such as machine learning and natural language processing.
The pace of technology innovation is accelerating and most companies admit they find it hard to keep up.
Today’s organisations need to take advantage of the very latest cloud and big data technologies, including Apache Beam, Hadoop, Spark, Redshift, AWS Kinesis, and MS Azure, among others, to connect and process data at speed and scale.
With visibility into all parts of a modern business, CIOs can unify business leaders and IT under a clear data roadmap, and be the catalyst for data-driven organisational changes that will help their companies remain competitive.
With the new emphasis on agility through digital transformation, CIOs now have the power to enable rapid change within their businesses by developing digital strategies with data at the core.
Jason Bissell is general manager of Asia Pacific and Japan; and Calvin Hoon is regional vice-resident of sales, Asia Pacific, of an enterprise software company