EDITOR’S QUESTION
WHAT ARE THE
CURRENT BARRIERS
TO DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION?
HOW CAN CIOS
OVERCOME THESE?
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In this edition’s Editor’s Question we take
a close look at the barriers to Digital
Transformation and what CIOs can do to
defeat them.
Fikile Sibiya, CIO of e4, tells us:
“Some of the real barriers include legacy
systems, data incoherence, lack of
organisational flexibility to change, lack
of collaboration between business and
technology teams, the inability to work across
silos and sometimes a lack of integrated
digital vision or blueprints in organisations.
“Another barrier is the inability to effectively
manage change at an enterprise level.
The change management discipline is
important to manage the challenges of
the human impact of digitalisation. Digital
Transformation is not an IT change, it is a
business change and that change should be
managed at the appropriate level.
“Related to change management is the
issue of poor visibility of the employee and
client experience – users need some insight
into how Digital Transformation impacts
their experience and how that ties into their
day-to-day performance and ultimately the
performance of the organisation.
“Finally, a key challenge to Digital
Transformation is the skills gap in the digital
sector and comprehensive understanding of
next generation technologies. Organisations
struggle to attract and retain the talent with
the right skills that can set the direction for
and execute on Digital Transformation.
“How can CIOs overcome these? CIOs
need to find creative ways to get people
excited about their Digital Transformation
plans. Employees need to find the positive
connection between their work and the
transformation. IT cannot be the only
sponsor of the transformation; it needs to
be bought into by the rest of the executive
team. CIOs need to pass the ownership
of the transformation to the business
stakeholders. The whole organisation needs
to be integrated into the journey.
“CIOs need to carefully evaluate an
optimal approach of implementing a
Digital Transformation stream alongside
the existing legacy technology in a way
that is not disruptive to business and
does not contaminate the new platforms
with old complexity. It is key to get the
fundamental building blocks (such as data
management) in place and align those with
the transformation into digital.”
Fikile Sibiya, CIO of e4
“
CIOS NEED TO FIND
CREATIVE WAYS
TO GET PEOPLE
EXCITED ABOUT
THEIR DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
PLANS.
26 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com