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EDITOR’S QUESTION
DAVE IVES, DIGITAL
ADVISORY EXECUTIVE AT
ALTRON KARABINA
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I
rrespective of the industry sector,
digitisation can help drive growth.
However, it must be done through the
lens of the customer and how to make
their lives easier. The operating model
has continually shifted to one where
companies are looking to produce quality
items faster and more cost-effectively,
source it better and even operate more
environmentally responsibly.
Inevitably, much of this revolves around using
technology in smarter ways to bring value for
the customer and enhance their experience.
The primary goal for most organisations is
to deliver value in the best ways possible.
Moreover, immediate organisational priorities
must still be addressed.
Technology must fit in with the business
and be used appropriately. Sure, a company
can have a sophisticated solution (think
Robotics) but it needs to fulfil a need within
the business. Firstly, business leaders must
understand the technology and buy into
its use. With business and technology
leadership, digitisation can become a reality.
Of course, just because sophisticated
technologies are available, it does not
necessarily mean the adoption cycle must
change. As with anything, those disruptive
forces will eventually become mainstream. It
therefore does not make any sense to be an
early adopter just for the sake of it. And this
is where the C-suite has an integral role to
play. They must understand the innovations
happening in the market and how they can
be applied to their industry sector.
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Sophisticated technology becomes just a
precursor to delivering a better customer
experience while driving a need for new
skills in the market. Part of this evolving skills
environment will be to address the Big Data
explosion which has still not been solved.
CIOs must use technology optimally in a
distributed work environment as well as
leverage analytics to understand data better
for more informed decision-making. There
is a requirement for business leaders to
be able to interpret and use data in more
advanced ways. They must realise that the
value is not in how much data you have, but
what you do with it. More attention will be
placed on the cloud, security, data and the
management of devices. Digital workers
must therefore be able to connect to cloud
services seamlessly, understand the impact
of security and manage the influx of data
from connected devices.
Today, every function in the organisation
has a technology element associated with
it, requiring the CIO to examine new ways
of integrating everything to manage the
business’s processes better. This does not
only revolve around putting hardware,
software, or cloud solutions in place and
hoping for the best. Instead, it is finding
the balance between technology and
managing people in the most effective
ways possible.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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