Category: Digital Solutions

  • COVID-19 and its Impact on Digital Transformation

    COVID-19 and its Impact on Digital Transformation

    When 2020 began, CIOs across the world were focusing on their digital transformation initiatives: modernizing legacy systems, implementing modern technologies, making sense of business data, and more.

    But the COVID-19 outbreak has brought everything to a stand still. Today, CIOs are struggling to enable work-from-home programs for employees due to which digital transformation has taken a complete backseat. But it doesn’t have to be that way!

    Although it might seem like the COVID-19 pandemic has closed many doors, it has also opened many – especially for those companies who’ve been late to the digital transformation game.

    The challenges COVID-19 has brought to the fore

    The corona virus outbreak has changed everything. Although the risk to human life is the greatest fear, the bearing COVID-19 has had on the business world cannot be overlooked.

    Stock markets have crashed, airlines are experiencing irreparable losses and several small and medium businesses are shutting shops because they do not have what it takes to survive in this uncertain world.

    Surviving in these challenging times is not easy, mainly because of the challenges COVID-19 has brought to the fore:

    • With no digital strategy in place and no tools or infrastructure to get employees to work from their homes, businesses are struggling to survive.
    • Enabling effective real-time communication and collaboration across different locations, time zone sand languages has become a pressing issue.
    • Ensuring employee productivity, enabling teamwork across the geographically dispersed workforce, and driving innovation seems like a distant dream.
    • Overcoming intermittent or poor home network connections means enterprises need to devise solutions that work in offline and low-bandwidth situations.
    The opportunities it offers

    Despite all the furor COVID-19 has caused to personal, professional, and community life, it also opened up a world of opportunities for businesses. Since technology, when used correctly, enhances productivity and efficiency, the outbreak provides the right chance for businesses to work on their digital transformation journey.

    Prioritize tech investments

    With COVID-19 showing no signs of a slowdown, it’s the right time for businesses to prioritize their digital transformation investments. Instead of putting money in modern office spaces or in acquiring companies or in advertising, companies should channel tech investment to sustain and drive growth. This includes investing in new digitized systems and products and new distribution channels to drive competitive advantage.

    Find ways to improve collaboration

    As employees across the globe are being asked to work from home for their safety (as well as the safety of others), implementing systems that enable real-time communication is the need of the hour. Systems that have video conferencing, file sharing and chat capabilities are the only systems to implement now, so more and more people can seamlessly communicate with each other and carry out daily tasks with ease and efficiency. Purchasing systems that deal with poor network connectivity is also important to overcome connectivity issues that employees might face with their home networks.

    Focus on securing endpoints

    Although businesses across the world realize the importance of building threat-resistant networks and endpoints, COVID-19 has completely changed the security landscape. With more and more employee using their personal mobile phones, laptops, and home networks to perform daily tasks, enterprise security has gone for a toss. In these trying times, it is essential organizations adopt security tools that monitor applications for remote access. Enabling single sign-on mechanisms or multi-factor authentication is a good way to eliminate unauthorized access and ensure the safety and security of data.

    Build a business continuity plan

    Survival has never been more important. With COVID-19 making it very difficult for businesses to maintain status-quo, the focus should be on adjusting (or building foolproof) business continuity plans, so they can emerge as winners when all this is over. Enterprises must drive efforts towards projects and initiatives that are essential to keeping the business running. They must also ensure the plan overcomes day-to-day risks across infrastructure, cyber, employee, business, operational, and communication.

    Ensure scalability of systems

    In these uncertain times, it is also important for organizations to focus on building platforms that offer functionality at scale. Since there is no certainty of when the world will spring back to action, companies need to have a plan in place to build out platforms over time and to rethink the scope of projects already underway. Deploying systems that are highly flexible and scalable and extending the functionality of existing systems is advisable.

    Don’t cut back on IT spending; instead channel it to boost business resiliency

    Despite how unsure organizations might be about the current crisis, the truth is, it will eventually pass, and the journey to a digital world will continue. Therefore, don’t cut back on IT spending. Instead, prioritize your investments, so you can focus on strategies and processes that work not just during the pandemic, but also long after it.

    Remember, the success of your organization will depend on how you leverage technology, so your employees can safely and efficiently work from home, collaborate with peers and be just as productive from their homes as they were from office.

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    Nitin

    Nitin Tappe

    After successful stint in a corporate role, Nitin is back to what he enjoys most – conceptualizing new software solutions to solve business problems. Nitin is a postgraduate from IIT, Mumbai, India and in his 24 years of career, has played key roles in building a desktop as well as enterprise solutions right from idealization to launch which are adopted by many Fortune 500 companies. As a Founder member of Pratiti Technologies, he is committed to applying his management learning as well as the passion for building new solutions to realize your innovation with certainty.

  • Here is What Digital Transformation Means to These Industries

    Here is What Digital Transformation Means to These Industries

    As the business ecosystem advances, organizations across the world are seeking ways to keep up with the pace of change. Today, many are trying to make the most of digital technologies to enhance business process efficiency and achieve a competitive advantage in the market.

    Although the transformation is picking up steam across every sector, here’s what digital transformation means to these four industries:

    Manufacturing

    In the manufacturing sector, getting insight into supply chain and manufacturing lifecycles has become critical to efficiently manage production complexities. Digital transformation in manufacturing has a lot to do with embracing technologies that ensure round-the-clock availability while ensuring the safety of workers.
    To enable digital transformation in the manufacturing sector, companies can

    • Leverage modern technological innovations across IoT, AR, and AI to enable real-time manufacturing operations monitoring across field sales, procurement, and logistics. Construction major L&T, for instance, is focusing on implementing new-age technologies to make operations across construction sites, quality management, and people management more smart and efficient.
    • Embrace advancements in big data analytics and machine learning to glean insight from data and make intelligent, evidence-based decisions across demand forecasting, inventory management, equipment health monitoring, worker safety, and more. Tata Steel, for instance, uses advanced analytics to make better real-time, data-driven decisions and improve the efficiency of plant operations.
    • Automate processes, workflows, and information management systems to simplify complex and redundant activities and drive innovation and creativity for better throughput. Global car major Toyota has been automating processes since the very beginning to streamline production, increase efficiency, and reduce waste.
    Healthcare

    As the digitization of industries happens at an accelerated pace, the healthcare industry is looking to invest in modern technologies to enhance the patient experience, optimize operations, and bring down overall cost and risk of healthcare. Using technologies such as AI, robotics, IoT, 3D printing, and big data analysis, healthcare companies are all set to boost operational efficiency while ensuring compliance and quality of care.

    To kickstart the digital transformation journey in the healthcare sector, companies can

    • Use IoT technology to integrate data from myriad hospital systems into a single repository and accelerate diagnosis and treatment schedules. Apollo, for instance, leverages AI and smart technology to connect diagnostic and other healthcare equipment and enable operational and clinical teams to make better decisions.
    • Leap into the world of telehealth to provide healthcare services to patients – irrespective of where they are located – and manage their health remotely. Teladoc Health, for instance, employs a virtual care center that allows doctors to interact with patients remotely, understand their symptoms, provide prescription while enabling them to self-manage their health.
    • Leverage advancements in machine learning and AI to sift through patients’ medical history and undermine the chances of illness, the effect of medicines, and the susceptibility to allergies. Ochsner Health System, for instance, is all set to launch a program that analyzes patients’ medical history and identifies high-risk patients so diseases can be detected early or even prevented.
    Energy

    Digital transformation in the energy sector opens up a world of opportunities for companies looking to optimize energy production and reduce wastage. As competition intensifies and as market forces evolve, embracing modern technological innovations such as IoT, data science, renewable energy software, and cloud computing is the only way to effectively manage energy generation and consumption.

    To drive digital transformation in the energy sector, companies can

    • Invest in Digital Twin technology to monitor key performance indicators, receive alerts in the event of issues, and take the necessary course of action for remediation. GE, for instance, has more than a million digital twins deployed, keeping tabs on more than 70% of the jet engines currently being utilized throughout the world.
    • Embrace the world of cloud and AI to optimize power generation, benchmark asset performance, and boost plant yield. American Oil and Gas company Exxon Mobil makes use of analytics to analyze drilling data, optimize well performance, and get an end-to-end view of operations.
    • Use IoT sensor technology to remotely assess the efficiency of distributed energy assets and make changes to optimize energy production. Indian energy company Suzlon leverages IoT and analytics to get real-time insight into field conditions, improve energy yield of turbines, and enable better scheduling and forecasting.
    Finance

    As the financial sector becomes a battleground for established veterans and new-age startups, companies are looking to embrace advance technologies such as cloud, AI, and data analytics to survive and thrive. Deutsche Bank, for instance, is all set to cut staff by 18,000 to reduce costs and spend €13bn on technology by 2022 to digitize and optimize underlying infrastructure.

    To drive digital transformation in the financial sector, companies can

    • Automate manual, error-prone administrative tasks using RPA and improve the quality and efficiency of service provided to customers. SBI uses automation to overcome challenges associated with the time-consuming, complex, error-prone traditional onboarding process.
    • Explore the world of blockchain to build trust between different intermediaries, drive greater transparency in transactions, and eliminate the challenges that centralized control brings. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), for instance, has successfully completed a proof-of-concept test for blockchain-powered trade finance. The platform is built to enable customers to securely and quickly update purchase orders, invoices, and logistics information.
    • Embrace cloud to end data storage problems and enable better accessibility to and scalability of data across the global enterprise. ICICI bank, for example, uses cloud technology to enhance internal operations and deliver a streamlined digital banking experience to customers.

    The opportunities to enhance efficiency and throughput using technology are manifold. How are you planning to drive digital transformation? To learn more about use cases pertaining to your industry, connect with us today.

    Our Services

    Nitin
    Nitin Tappe
    After successful stint in a corporate role, Nitin is back to what he enjoys most – conceptualizing new software solutions to solve business problems. Nitin is a postgraduate from IIT, Mumbai, India and in his 24 years of career, has played key roles in building a desktop as well as enterprise solutions right from idealization to launch which are adopted by many Fortune 500 companies. As a Founder member of Pratiti Technologies, he is committed to applying his management learning as well as the passion for building new solutions to realize your innovation with certainty.
  • Key Areas to Focus on In Your Digital Transformation Journey

    Key Areas to Focus on In Your Digital Transformation Journey

    Digital transformation is making several headways across industries and geographies.

    With the potential to impact organizational outcomes in profound ways, today, almost every company is on the road to digital transformation – or they risk becoming obsolete.

    According to IDC, 85% of enterprise decision-makers say they have a time frame of two years to make significant inroads into digital transformation, or they will fall behind their competitors and suffer financially.

    If you too are looking to adopt and integrate disruptive technologies and fundamentally change how your business operates (and how value is delivered to customers), now is the time to transform digitally.

    Here are key areas to focus on in your digital transformation journey:
    Adopt new tech: The stepping-stone of any digital transformation strategy is the adoption of new technology. Leveraging the myriad benefits modern technologies offer is the best way to improve operational efficiency, enhance customer experience, and fuel innovation. This means getting rid of rigid legacy systems that hamper growth, upgrading/migrating systems to drive more value, making the most of emerging programming languages, and implementing new tools, systems and applications that fuel collaboration and boost efficiency. And just adopting new tech is not enough; you need to constantly train your teams to ensure they are using the technology in the most optimum manner and drive far higher value from your tech investments.

    Innovate through data: Another very critical component of successful digital transformation initiatives is the ability to unearth insight from data. With organizations getting crushed under the weight of data about employees, machines, processes, customers, competition, markets, and regulatory frameworks, innovating through data is a great way to drive enterprise-wide transformation. This includes using technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Internet of Things to glean insight from data, and make intelligent, evidence-based decisions. From customer segmentation to predictive maintenance, enrichment of customer touch-points to better inventory management – AI and IoT will pave the way for data-informed cognitive analytics, and be the reason for competitive advantage. It is no surprise then that the IoT market is expected to grow to 5.8 billion endpoints in 2020.

    Break down silos and embrace Agile: Digital transformation also requires you to continuously work in an iterative manner so you can explore new technologies and develop functionalities more rapidly. This means you have to break down silos that hamper efficiency, growth and innovation, so the entire organization is ready for transformation – not just individual business units. It also makes sense to embrace an Agile mindset, so teams can set priorities and design solutions – while constantly focusing on value creation. Driving efforts in building capabilities that empower your teams to develop prototypes and engage with customers is essential to achieve faster to market and be in alignment with the voice of your customers.

    Embrace cloud: For many organizations, success (or failure) is directly proportional to the effectiveness of their IT service delivery environment. Cloud is a key driver of digital transformation and can enable you to reach your digital goals faster. By allocating more IT resources (and staff) to the development and continuous improvement of products, you can drive the transformation that improves the overall customer experience. Cloud offers the scale and speed needed to support changing business priorities – with ease. It allows you to consistently manage your existing applications and achieve higher levels of availability, reliability, and security – while helping you develop, deploy, and deliver software faster.

    Focus on skill transformation: No digital transformation can be successful if you do not have people with the right tech skillset. With typical technology capabilities quickly transforming into specialized skill sets, you need to focus on skill transformation to accelerate time to value. Keep track of trending skills and see how your organization can benefit from those skill sets. Assess the skills of your existing employees, train them, so they can improve upon their skills. Alternatively, hire candidates with skills across data science, automation, DevOps, and more from the market. You can also cater to this emerging need for specialized skill sets by forging strategic partnerships, driving mergers and acquisitions, and setting up Global Centers of Excellence.

    Find the right blend

    The digital transformation fever has taken the entire world under its embrace. With spending expected to reach $2 trillion by 2022, organizations need to do everything they can to drive transformation: adopt new tech, innovate through data, break down silos, embrace the cloud, and focus on skill transformation, among others.

    As you set towards the journey, remember that digital transformation is neither about a pure technology or a pure business transformation; it is about establishing an organizational structure (and culture) that is a perfect amalgamation of business, technology, and people.

    Our Services

    Nitin

    Nitin Tappe

    After successful stint in a corporate role, Nitin is back to what he enjoys most – conceptualizing new software solutions to solve business problems. Nitin is a postgraduate from IIT, Mumbai, India and in his 24 years of career, has played key roles in building a desktop as well as enterprise solutions right from idealization to launch which are adopted by many Fortune 500 companies. As a Founder member of Pratiti Technologies, he is committed to applying his management learning as well as the passion for building new solutions to realize your innovation with certainty.

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