– WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?


“When digital transformation is done right it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. But when it’s done wrong all you have is a very fast caterpillar.” George Westerman, MIT Sloan initiative on the digital economy.


Digital transformation is having a moment. You might say it’s been having a moment for a decade – and you wouldn’t be wrong. After all it is probably the most talked about business paradigm shift in living memory. Why now? Well, before COVID-19 entered our vernacular, many businesses held back on the extent of their digital transformation due to the perceived imbalance between the disruption caused by the change management requirement versus the value created.


However, since COVID, many organisations have been accelerating their transformation programmes because in the current hyper-turbulent market conditions and commodities super cycle everyone is looking for a competitive edge, and the smart thinking now concurs that value delivered by digitalisation goes way beyond that of mere cost savings or process efficiencies. The package of benefits that includes data insights, learning that drives continuous improvement alongside scalability, risk management, and resilience is the true Koh-i-noor in the crown.


WHAT IS THE OPPORTUNITY? Back in 2016, the World Economic Forum estimated that $100 trillion would be added to the world economy through digital transformation by 2025. It went on to predict that by 2025, interactions driven by platforms were expected to enable roughly two-thirds of the $100 trillion value at stake from digitalisation.


According to Gartner 91% of businesses are now engaged in some form of digital initiative and 87% of all senior business leaders say digitalisation is a priority.


What can we draw from these eye-watering predictions and high levels of commitment to the cause? Digitalisation is a big deal. A deal maker and a deal breaker for all organisations across all sectors.


DIGITISATION OR DIGITALISATION? At this point it is probably worth pointing out that the terms digitisation and digitalisation are often used inter-changeably. However, there are important distinctions:


Digitisation according to Gartner is ‘the process of changing from analogue to digital.’ It is making information available and accessible as a digital asset and therefore it is the information and not the processes that are being digitised. Most importantly, there’s no fundamental change to the workflow. Whilst there may well be advantages of taking paper-based or manual processes and digitising them with little or no transformative thought to the accompanying workflows, the real magic and value delivered comes through the process of workflow transformation and that requires change management.


Digitalisation is the use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities. Digitalisation brings about total transformation of the workflow from start to finish. If this is done well you liberate vast amounts of value through cost saving, process improvement, efficiency, scalability, risk mitigation, business resilience, and access to data to inform and drive the business forwards at speed and with the insights needed for continuous improvement.


ACCORDING TO GARTNER 91% OF BUSINESSES ARE NOW ENGAGED IN SOME FORM OF DIGITAL INITIATIVE AND 87% OF ALL SENIOR BUSINESS LEADERS SAY DIGITALISATION IS A PRIORITY


Put very simply, Digitisation is mostly about doing the same things in a slightly different way – a faster caterpillar if you will. While digitalisation opens up the possibility of doing new, better things (and hopefully doing less manual, repetitive, boring, unpleasant work too) which in turn supports the change that organisations seek for their processes and their people, to allow the butterfly to fly.


While “digitisation” and “digitalisation” share twelve letters in common, the outcomes that can be created by the latter far outstrip those typically associated with the former. No caterpillar can out crawl a butterfly.


5 | ADMISI - The Ghost In The Machine | Q3 Edition 2022


DIGITISATION V DIGITALISATION


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40