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Thousands of businesses are in the process of undergoing so-called ‘digital transformation’ in order to strengthen themselves to face the challenges posed by the modern marketplace.
Of course, the temptation is to think of this transformation as being a one-time process; once complete, the organization will be adequately prepared for whatever lies ahead. In reality, this is not the case, as companies of all sizes need to be prepared to adapt and innovate on a perpetual basis due to the ever-evolving nature of technology and its impact on the world.
This is where Agile IT comes into the scenario, as the principle goes; it is designed to combine businesses with tools and resources that are not only impactful today, but will be flexible enough to help them cope with changes that might come about months or years down the line.
Here is a look at how digital transformation and Agile IT are increasingly intertwined and the kind of services that are essential to the firms who want to thrive no matter what the next generation of tech brings to the table.
Mastering data management
Arguably the most important aspect of any digital transformation initiative is the consideration of how information is sourced, generated, stored, analyzed and made actionable. This is why DataOps has risen to prominence as a key practice for businesses across a range of industries in recent years.
DataOps is not only about making it possible for you to manage the vast volumes of information that are streaming in and out of your organization on a daily basis, but more critically about ensuring that you can achieve this in the simplest possible way. The means of managing data have been obscured for a long time, with firms relying on outdated infrastructures which they are nevertheless chained to because of the fear that making any changes will lead to costly outages or outright data loss disasters.
Agility is also at the core of a good data management strategy, since you need to plan not only for your needs as they stand today but also for the requirements you may have as your business grows.
You want to be able to plot usage, track trends, identify peaks and troughs as well as their causes, ensure that data is validated to provide accurate insights and also opt for solutions that allow data to be delivered swiftly and efficiently, especially if a host of other applications and systems is reliant upon its availability.
This is why cloud computing has become so widely used, with businesses not only turning to public cloud solutions to store, monitor and analyze data, but also to hybrid configurations which give them even more agility. A mixture of in-house and remotely hosted IT resources can give organizations both big and small the ability to respond to fluctuations in demand in real-time, while also allowing for agility when new innovations emerge and need to be integrated to avoid falling behind in the competition.
Engaging with customers effectively
While the behind-the-scenes agility of a digital transformation project will focus on data, the customer-facing aspects of any efforts in this area must be created in order to stimulate engagement and exceed the expectations of an increasingly tech-savvy and discerning target audience.
Indeed, it is these ever-increasing expectations that exist in many customer groups which make agility a major concern when building digital products and services. There are well-known examples of industries that were initially resistant to the impact that digitization was having on customer habits but eventually had to embrace this rather than fight against it, with stellar results generated because of this.
Luckily other industries have learned lessons from this and now it is well understood that customer engagement on digital platforms is a central point of making any effective Agile transformations possible.
From the use of augmented reality in furniture sales to the application which controls every aspect of the modern home, brands can connect with customers through software more successfully than ever before. Keeping the application updated and rich with content and features is a part of Agile IT, and the applications sit at the heart of digital transformations almost across the board. Thus, it remains an exciting time for businesses that are both innovative and ambitious.
