Page 12 - IFV_Issue 8_2022

Business

ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION

IS THE ANSWER TO DIGITAL

TRANSFORMATION

usinesses of tomorrow are
the ones that can successfully
Btransition from ‘things
and people’ to ‘technology and
networks’. This is evident in the recent
proliferation of the adjective ‘Digital’
in most C-suite titles and businesses
either being ‘born-in-the-cloud’ or
traditional businesses undergoing
some form of digital transformation.
However, there is no consensus
as to what ‘going digital’ actually
means. To some executives, it is the
deployment of technology in their
current business – also called business
process optimisation (BPM). To
others, it is about a whole new way of
engaging with customers, also called
the digital customer experience. Then
for others, it’s about an entire new Instead, the yardstick is the size
way of conducting business – the of the data lake, the speed of data
exponential digital business mind-set. retrieval, data mobility and the
One would presume that the various reduction of the ICT opex budget.
definitions depend on the individual Before you know it, a few years have
business circumstances including passed, hundreds of millions of Rands
competition, cost pressures, customer have been spent and the failed project
expectations, industry disruptions and is attributed to poor organisational
regulations. But FIRtech CEO, Ugan structures, inadequate organisational
Maistry, says whilst none of these change management and a lack of
definitions are incorrect, every digital executive support.
transformation journey needs to be Maistry says perhaps the focus should
guided by strategy, a business model be evolution and not revolution. “In
that supports that strategy, enablers the era of the knowledge worker, the
that are needed to execute the FIRtech CEO, Ugan Maistry quick wins should be around how we
business model, and the orchestration Unrealistic expectations often free up business knowledge workers
of enablers to reach one’s destination. create complexity in the planning to be active participants and leaders
“In defining the digital business and execution phases. The project in the digital transformation journey.
strategy, most executives are taking becomes inundated with technology After all, they are the ones with the
a blue-sky thinking approach in imperatives: cloud, artificial knowledge of the organisational
redefining the purpose of the intelligence, big data and IoT, without nuances.”
organisation. This might seem due consideration of where and how “Before the transformation, they
revolutionary and necessary at the each of these imperatives will add would be spending their time
time, but it could create an execution direct financial benefit, create value manually manipulating a melange
challenge for IT,” he explains. differentiation or build brand equity. of structured and unstructured data

10 • Issue 8 2022 • The Villager