Page 38 - Waterfall Issue 9_2022

Waterfall Business

ROBOTIC PROCESS

AUTOMATION

is the answer to Digital Transformation

FIRtech CEO,
Ugan Maistry

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

36 Waterfall Issue 9 2022