Spend Wisely, Demystify IT
So, now you know what digital can do for you. But then, how do you decipher this amorphous blob called “IT”. You can, when it’s demystified for you – into discrete, simple, understandable segments that you can put your arms around: infrastructure, core, business operations, [digital] marketing and innovation. So, what comprises these, and, how do you manage them, how much do you spend, how is/should costs be allocated? All critical questions to have answers for, right from the beginning.
The next step is a myriad of questions, for example: What about your data center – you may have spent 100's of thousands or even, millions over the years – what happens to those assets? Do you move them to the Cloud? Which Cloud? Azure, AWS, or something else? Or both - one Cloud or multi-cloud, public Cloud or private, or, is it a hybrid Cloud? What do you move and what don’t you? Where? How? What about basic office automation needs? Microsoft or Google or both? What about Salesforce? What about Teams? Do you need Teams and Zoom? Or, both, or something else? If the last several months of the pandemic crisis has taught us anything, it’s that: reliable, and robust suite of office automation with seamless communications and collaboration systems is a lifesaver. Which one do you use? How does that inter-operate with all your custom software? Can your employees work from anywhere at any time on any device – and, do it securely? What is the enterprise architecture? What about your corporate network – if your company is in several locations/cities – that is critical. Do you have custom development needs? What’s the architecture? Which technology do you use? Who can do this for you? Do you build up your team? What about contractors/consultants? Onsite or offshore? What are the risks and how do you mitigate them? What about digital marketing [strategies]? What about data? Are you leveraging your data? Do you have a data strategy? Does your data “speak” to you? What capabilities do you have with data: …descriptive? …diagnostic? …predictive? …prescriptive? Do you dream about what AI can do for you? How far along the data analytics maturity scale are you? How can you get there? And, remember, you’ve got to ensure that Cybersecurity is embedded in everything that you do, and that you are compliant with the continuously evolving myriad of data privacy regulations. These seemingly never-ending questions can go on forever. And, what makes this difficult is every one of these digital components can have [some] interdependency with one or more of the others (and, if you miss one, problems can appear in places you least expect). So, the trick is to address all of these together, at the same time; to create one digital vision.
