Keep your digital transformation plans from failing

Modernizing IT and future-proofing data storage infrastructure have been two main goals of digitization for the past couple of years. However, only 3 out of 10 companies reach their digitization goals, according to McKinsey, and these failures lead to excessive spend, wasted time and effort, and mismatched systems and application across the board. How can you plan and execute a successful digital transformation initiative without falling prey to stagnation?

Plan and prepare
Before you do anything, a complete IT and OT assessment should be performed to determine how your informational technology and operational technology mesh and work together. From there, you can identify legacy systems that should be retired, evaluate workflows, and figure out which processes can be moved to the cloud and which need to stay on-premise for the best chance of operability and security. You'll also need to secure top-down buy-ion for adoption to be successful, or your transformation will die an abrupt death due to resistance from within.

Foster departmental collaboration
While many executives hear "digital transformation" and think "Oh, that's IT," there's plenty of digitization to do in all departments of your company. True transformation mobilizes your entire organization and digitizes as many processes as possible. For example, cloud applications are used by every department in a typical company, with enterprises having a thousand or more cloud apps in use at any given time. To ensure cybersecurity is a priority and that isn't bloat or wasted spend, you need to get your marketing team, IT professionals, business management professionals, HR, and data analysts all on board with streamlining your system and reducing vulnerabilities.

Continue education for your employees as you digitize.

Upskill everyone in your organization
Even the most highly trained IT team must be constantly updating their knowledge. Expect and provide for regular training and upskilling to keep your in-house IT unit abreast of the latest in operations and security. Also invest in the rest of your employees, upskilling them and giving them new ownership of their role and responsibilities to increase digital adoption and usage, according to McKinsey. Ensure everyone in the company goes through initial and annual cyberthreat review, to reduce the risks of a breach. Most breaches occur because of human error, and another reason digitization initiatives fail is because of fears surrounding security. Knowledge is power. Finally, touch base with your technology vendors to ensure they have the same high standards as your in-house team does.

Invest in IT infrastructure 
A reliable network infrastructure is a must-have. You can't integrate new technologies like IoT, robotic process automation, or data analytics without it. Is it to cost-prohibitive to update or replace legacy on-premise systems? Consider Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to help you run operations and store your data. Microsoft and Amazon both have multiple data centers across the country that can be leveraged to improve and strengthen your capabilities as a digitized business. 

Perle offers industrial-grade connectivity equipment designed to enable companies like yours as you work towards digital transformation and future proofing of your workforce and infrastructure. Powerful console servers and configurable Ethernet switches keep your SMB or enterprise secure and functional, and give you the ability to remotely reconfigure, reboot, and support your tech across the internet or WANs. You can achieve end-to-end visibility of and control over your environments. Read some of our customer stories to find out how we've helped other companies improve their infrastructure and stay connected when it mattered most.