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HOW TO MAKE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION A REALITY

Digital transformation isn’t about using technology to do the same things you’ve always done—it’s about doing things that weren’t possible before. Digital transformation is a state of mind versus a set of tools. We can’t just say it—we have to map it out.

Steps to digital transformation: Automate, automate, automate Standardize as much as possible Develop staff Pick the right pilot project 1. Automate, automate, automate Many IT departments expend too many resources manually provisioning cloud apps and services. That’s because they’re still doing things the old way, using GUIs and command-line interfaces. The first step in achieving digital transformation is automating as many of these processes as possible, using REST APIs, templates, and scripts. 2. Standardize as much as possible We can’t iterate processes and achieve incremental improvements if we’re doing everything for the first time every time. If everyone in our organization gets a custom solution tuned to their precise needs, we’ll end up reinventing the wheel over and over while getting nowhere fast. Though some customization is probably inevitable, we want to standardize configurations as much as possible and limit user options to a small menu of services. 3. Develop staff We may be sitting on technology that can be used in a more efficient and integrated way, but our people don’t know how to do it yet. Automating our IT infrastructure will require us to get out of our comfort zones. New tools and skillsets will be needed, which means we’ll need to invest in training your staff or finding new hires with the requisite skills. This may involve changing our team structure. Instead of vertically integrated teams organized around specific functions, we may need to follow the DevOps model and pull together ad hoc teams to address particular issues the business is facing. If we only change the technology, we’ll probably fail. We need to take an equally innovative look at our teams and how they relate to the rest of the business. 4. Pick the right pilot project Inevitably, we’ll need to demonstrate success via a pilot project. We need to choose that project wisely. While it’s tempting to go for fast wins by picking the easiest thing to automate, that may not be the wisest path. When we choose a pilot project to demonstrate our new templated and industrialized IT delivery model, we need to pick one that’s both achievable over a relatively short time frame and has the most visible impact on improving business value. That will set the tone for the rest of our automation strategy.  

Digital transformation is about using technology to fundamentally change the nature of your business. To get there, we’ll need to automate our infrastructure, standardize our processes, and train our people.

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