Building a Digital Enterprise is more than Rearranging Deck Chairs

POINT OF VIEW

Digital Enterprises seek to engage with their markets over the Internet wherever and whenever their customers need attention. The only way to consistently respond to unpredictable demand, at unpredictable times, with unpredictable requests – is to automate.

The European Digital Single Market aims to open up digital opportunities for people and business in order to enhance Europe’s position as a world leader in the digital economy.

Digital enterprise will affect everyone and every company. The 2019-2021 COVID experience added to the urgency of these initiatives, and emphasised their importance.

The Digital Single Market is not just about banking and PSD2. It’s not just another set of regulations that need to be “managed away”. It is an opportunity that has been highlighted to have significant merit by the Covid-19 pandemic, and by a sharp shift to conducting business over the Internet.

Empowering customers and generating trust is a long-held goal for retailers, banks, and governments alike. Becoming digital is about giving customers the access, control, and assurances they need to continue their business.

The bar just got lifted for Digital Enterprise

The benefits of Digital Enterprise are real. The technology and impetus to access the benefits has been a long time coming. Most of the pieces are to be found scattered across the company.

Digital Enterprise pulls together existing capabilities, with a new emphasis on customer data, corporate controls, and Omni-channel. It delivers around the clock access to products and services.

Digital Enterprise pulls together existing capabilities in new ways, with emphasis on customer data, corporate controls, and Omni-channel.

It delivers around the clock access to products and services with the added ability to deal with peaks and troughs in a cost-effective way that does not compromise customer service.

To start on the journey, you will need a clear vision and roadmap and a technology partner who can deliver the parts to schedule.

Critical Success Factors are that the IT environment will be continually changing, and that the demands and technology choices of customers will be tending to the impossible.

• Support Omni-channel and EU regulations (GDPR, etc)
• Consider all data as an enterprise asset
• Operate in real-time, including DevOps

Digital Confusion

For some executives becoming Digital is about technology and responding to a mobile society. For others it is about putting the customer first, empowering customers and staff to control their data and the way an organisation behaves towards them.

To successfully transform to a digital enterprise you must have a clear vision and statement of what it means for you, and what it does not mean.

For many it is an entirely new way to do business; one that changes everything from the way customers are engaged, treated, and acquired – to the way data becomes an enterprise asset and great insights are used to optimise everything from staff activity to customer retention.

Such diverse perspectives often trip up leadership teams because they reflect a lack of alignment and common vision about where the business needs to go.

Clarity of Vision – Good Digital Technology

If executives don’t agree on the intentions and benefits of “becoming digital” then the technology teams will struggle to deliver to expectations, and will not support an ever-changing business strategy.

This can result in fragmentary initiatives or misguided efforts, that lead to missed opportunities, sluggish performance, and false starts.

Digital IT is a new way of thinking about how technology-based capabilities are delivered to the enterprise.

Digital IT is a new way of thinking about how technology-based capabilities are delivered to the enterprise. One that actively supports bi-modal IT, DevOps and agile working, but also includes new capabilities that are critical to delivering customer empowerment and distinctive mobile offerings.

Delivered with proper forethought and technical insight, we believe that a Digital platform should be capable of supporting all of the above. It should be flexible enough to respond to changing social norms, and provide a strategic foundation for any company to compete in the Digital Society.

Clarity of Vision – Customer Control

Customer Empowerment means that your customers can control how their data is used, how they are contacted, and for what purpose. They can interact with any of your services using a multitude of devices, and can move seamlessly between self-service and help-desk interactions.

Mobile Engagement means that your mobile offerings are available across a plethora of mobile devices and can be moved to new technology quickly and cheaply. Different user experiences are available to access the same function through a number of different applications.

Maybe you don’t care

If you are in a business that is not competing for market share, under attack from the likes of Amazon, Apple, and does not do business with EU citizens; then you can stop reading now.

For the rest of us becoming digital is simply necessary to survive the next decade.

Society trends and Government strategy are toward making more use of internet communications, and to leverage the digital society to reduce the cost of printing bills, notifications, and reduce delays.

The great differentiators will be reputation, the new shop front, customer service, innovation, and price.

Every company, whatever their industry, will be competing with all companies. The great differentiators will be reputation, the new shop front, and price. All of these must be supported by your digital IT platform.

EU Digital Single Market

The EU is removing barriers to cross border trade and e-communications. The result is that (even more than today) consumers will buy goods from across the world and have them delivered inside a week.

The Digital Single Market strategy, adopted on the 6 May 2015, includes 16 initiatives to be delivered by the end of 2016. It is an EU initiative to enable a new digital economy and eGovernment. It is being “encouraged” by a raft of legislation aimed at further harmonisation and enablement of internet services across Europe.

GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation

A new more onerous data protection regulation that is applied to all companies that hold or process data about an EU citizen; regardless of where the company operates from or where the data is processed. Fines upto 4% of WW revenue for breaches of the act.

PSD2/XS2 Payment Services Directive v2

PSD2/XS2 is regulation that applies to all financial institutions that hold current accounts or have access to payment services. It forces them to provide API access to those services and data.

And the rest

Other regulations that can be discovered and learned for your entertainment. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/digital-single-market (Jun2016).

Social Attitudes and Expectations

The way our society expects to use technology and expects to be treated on-line has changed dramatically over the last five years.

• Do you prefer to fly with an airline that provides an excellent mobile app or one that forces you to check-in at the counter?
• How many flights are with your competitors because your app is not good enough?
• Do you choose to use a bank that provides secure but accessible mobile banking?
• Do you prefer to shop from home or wander around deserted high streets on the off chance that you see what you want?

Ten years ago, none of this and none of the mobile infrastructure (4G and mobile data) was capable of supporting such demand. Imagine what the next two years will bring.

Our Point of View

The most practical approach to becoming Digital is to have a clear vision, a clear statement of intention and scope, and then to create a roadmap that achieves the vision without a big-bang, and that delivers value at every stage of the journey.

Critical technical principles will include good isolation and encapsulation, separation of concerns, and designing for agility only where it makes sense; not everything needs to change rapidly, some things need to be handled with more care than others. We call this bi-modal IT.

See our other papers on designing for change and the importance of Enterprise Mediation for IT landscapes that must deliver agility to their business.

Responsiv can help from Design to Operation

Responsiv can empower your strategic planning and execution to move to a Digital Enterprise.

Our Enterprise Architects can support your thinking and provide expert guidance on how to structure and develop an integration environment that makes the right data available in a controlled and secure, but also reliable manner.

Having a plan and a vision is difficult but most companies manage the challenge. Executing on the plan? Now that requires focus, skills, and knowhow.

Many companies fail to deliver on their plans and fail to create shareholder value from their investments. Responsiv are here to support your planning and assure your delivery.

Responsiv knows how to lead.

Around 54% of projects fail due to inadequate project management; only around 17% fail for technical or people reasons.

Our Products

Responsiv Consulting

Responsiv Consulting is an asset-based professional services organisation. Our consultants use our accelerators, experience, and skills to assure on-time delivery to the agreed specification.

We provide trusted advice to C-level and technical leaders. Our advice is often technology agnostic, focusing instead on how to successfully deliver large projects, how to align technology to business strategy, and how to ensure that projects and contracts are properly constructed.

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Responsiv Assist provides incident support to maintain your services and is accessed through the Responsiv Assist portal (responsiv.co.uk/support).

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