Technology priorities for digital transformation revealed: security, mobility and automation
Computing survey finds security, automation and mobility are main areas of focus
Digital transformation is largely about culture; getting people used to new, more flexible, and often less hierarchical ways of working. But there are technological imperatives too, the key ones being security, automation and mobility, according to a recent Computing study.
Computing asked more than 100 business and IT decision makers what their digital transformations were about. "Digital" encompasses a broad array of technology, much of it interdependent. Similarly, digital strategies vary in their focus from business to business, but we found that security, automation and mobility are central to most.
Concern about security is fuelled by almost daily news stories of hacks and data breaches and their consequences in terms of damaged reputations, sackings and hefty fines. As the profile and importance of data security has increased with digital, so has the difficulty of delivering it as the number of connected devices multiplies and data is sent and stored in all directions.
Having a workable mobile strategy is therefore closely tied up with issues of security. The biggest challenge is arriving at a system that allows employees to use mobile devices with ease, is flexible enough to incorporate new devices as they emerge, and yet ensures that data held on these devices and transmitted between them is secure. Getting the balance right between security and functionality was seen as the main ingredient of a successful mobility strategy by 65 per cent of those polled, followed by ease of use (38 per cent) and an organisation that can adapt to change (34 per cent).
The priority given to automation makes sense when we look at the goals that going digital is meant to achieve.
As this figure shows, digital transformation is mostly about improving the customer experience and making business processes more efficient. Automating repetitive and mundane back-office processes has the potential to save a great deal of resources, freeing up people to concentrate on more strategic or customer-facing activity. Research in the banking sector by analyst McKinsey suggests that it is more profitable to focus digital strategy on back-office work flows than on the customer experience.
Although improving the experience of employees lags behind the other priorities, in many sectors attracting and retaining talent depends on keeping up with technological development, with many of those polled saying they struggle with staffing. If your technology is older than the people you're employing, the chances are you're going to struggle to hang onto them.