A CIO needs to take a cautious decision on what process to digitalize and what not

Arvind Kumar, GM - IT, Genesys Group

Now a days there is a notion in most of organizations to be digitally transformed, use of technology for business growth, especially latest ones like AI, ML, Blockchain, RPA, etc. But being CIO of the company, one need to listen board / stakeholders along with journey to digitally enabled organization.

Digital transformation may be initiated via various means / modes e.g. web app, mobile app, process automation, analytics etc. It may not be necessarily a big bang approach, it could also be as small as a feedback and analysis tool for the job done by employees or employees working environment, which not only eliminates the paper work but also encourage employees to provide unrestricted thoughts and led organization to take certain decisions for improvement.

CIO has to take a cautious decision on, what process to digitalize and what not. Based on organization nature of business and benefit can bring in.

To make any organization digitally enabled CIO need to think through very deep in the current business verticals and their respective business processes, also need to work along with business stake holders (Sales, Marketing, Operation, HR, etc.) to discuss their current and future challenges that might be addressed via technology implementation or digital initiative that they already have.

Once all assessment completed in term of business processes and their challenges, then CIO / CDO along with respective team need to work on framework in term of -

1.       Current Infrastructure requirement.
2.       Scalability and availability
3.       Security and Data governance
4.       Development technology to be used
5.       Roadmap for digital deliverables

This may support current and future needs, also need to consider budget and investments over a period of time to present to board / stakeholders.

A successful digital transformation must include business stake holders in steering committee of the project, so that project can be driven by business as it’s for business.

We must start digital transformation for those areas first, which can bring more efficiency and quick turnaround time in business. This helps business teams to get confidence and acceptance for new change, followed by major project which need time, resource and business team support.

There may be times when you need to force cut off legacy system and start new one, due to non-feasibility to run 2 systems in parallel with partial transaction in one and partial on another. In those cases need to build complete solution with thorough use case / user acceptance testing and make sure all the existing process / system bugs are fixed which were encountered during use case and user testing, before going live. Remember end user training is the key of any digital transformation success. So do not forget to plan it well in advance even before go live.

A CIO also needs to setup a post go live support centre, at least for 2-3 months to provide proper user handshake and prompt support for a successful implementation.

Once you all set then use AI / ML as analytics tool engine for predictive analysis and business forecast.