Digital transformation must start with customer needs if it is to be truly innovative, meaning leaders need to move out of the IT department and onto the front line of their organisations more than ever. The message Charles Nasser will take to Cloud Expo Europe is that for IT to be genuinely transformational, it has to leap-frog the current activities of businesses and listen to the basic needs of customers – the purpose of any business.
Charles Nasser, founder and CEO of Claranet, commented: “Businesses are always looking for new ways to serve their customers and from our experience IT leaders must be at the forefront of this improvement. Companies that embrace change are moving faster, but organisations that are slower to react face a challenging future, with legacy systems and old-fashioned business processes impeding progress. In order to foster innovation, and to prevent companies from lagging behind, it is recommended that senior decision makers need a highly strategic mind-set that sits right next to the customer, to help their businesses become digitally mature organisations.
“However, there is an idea that digital transformation means wholesale, overnight change. For most, this is simply unrealistic and a more iterative process of change is a better way to serve customers. Businesses cannot afford to reimagine their entire IT estate all at once. Companies are recommended to focus on building flexibility, agility and the right security into their IT environments so they can respond to changing conditions and can get the IT department in a position to lead innovation.
“For Claranet, ‘digital’ refers to applications and data and in implementing an effective customer-first approach. Organisations should consider where their applications and data are best located for maximum customer and competitive benefit. Having applications and data managed in the right location enables organisations to continually optimise availability, performance, security, scalability and cost.
“Organisations want to focus on continuously improving their business but if they don’t have the right infrastructure foundations, automation and customer-centric culture, it’s almost impossible to make improvements at a pace that customers now demand. Businesses can reduce this burden by working closely with a trusted provider who can help them to gain and sustain competitive advantage. The right partner is increasingly viewed as an extension of the IT team – freeing businesses up to focus on activities that lead to differentiation” concludes Nasser.
