Now considered essential to driving profits, digital transformations are shifting from platform-first strategies to initiatives that leverage emerging technologies in service of clear customer and operational goals.
Digital transformation has moved beyond a nice-to-have to let’s get cracking. Once a top priority for early adopters and cutting-edge enterprises, digital transformation has moved into the mainstream. Few would argue that digital transformation initiatives are vital to the success of their organization.
In fact, 64 percent of respondents to a 2017 Constellation Research survey said digital transformation is essential to driving profits.
A recent Frost & Sullivan survey looking at end-user perspectives on navigating digital transformation globally, found that improving digital presence will be a top driver for IT investment over the next two years. Other broad goals respondents have for their organizations include reducing operational costs, improving the customer experience, and aligning IT with business strategy.
Here is a look at some specific digital transformation trends that are on organizations’ radars right now — as well as once hot initiatives that are beginning to cool.
Heating up: Location services
Location services will indicate the best place to park when patients arrive at the parking lot, as well as how to navigate the hospital to get to where they need to be. Some Dignity Health facilities have beacons that, when patients arrive in the parking lot, “wake up your phone and say, ‘Welcome, do you need directions to get to where you’re going?’ This will help us connect with people and simplify their journey,” he says.
Cooling down: Cloud-first strategy
What makes the most sense is being able to “blur the lines between a cloud or on-premises environment — and that it’s not a binary choice anymore,’’ he says. For a long time, people felt they couldn’t move to the cloud because of security issues, or their data was too sensitive or because of concerns about being locked in to a provider, Mayo says. Then there were the pro-cloud zealots who preached that everything should move to the cloud for all the benefits organizations would reap, including reduced costs, storage and scalability.
Source: 6 hot digital transformation trends — and 4 going cold