Data and Digital Platform approach maximises efficiency
For organisations that have attempted to transition away from core legacy systems or taken steps to simplify the conundrum of stacks built upon them, the time is now to evaluate what success looks like. Given the pandemic and post-pandemic landscapes’ competitive nature, critical questions relating to flexibility, digital governance, data integration, and technology architecture must be answered sooner rather than later. However, there are considerations to appreciate beforehand.
First and foremost, pursuing such a strategy involves high risk and expenses. Before completion, when any potential value is temporarily halted, the ability to foresee what eventual success looks like will likely be hindered. Furthermore, this period will entail a substantial degree of uncertainty, one where revenue flow and adaptability will be essential. As such, an offensive approach via a Data and Digital Platform, DDP, transformation model is a necessity.
Less complex than long-term traditional core transformation and far more beneficial than a legacy defensive approach involving core systems, a DDP model is data-centric and iterative, capable of generating value and reducing negative business implications simultaneously. DDP uses a data layer under a smart business layer, and this combination integrates the entire organisational ecosystem, including core systems and infrastructure. By bringing these layers together, insights and personalisation are created that can, in turn, be utilised to provide data-driven use cases. As a result, organisations can recover returns on investment, RoI, from a multi-phase journey without complete readiness, designating additional finances for transformation purposes in the process.
Adopting the DDP approach can provide more valuable and influential results than resource-intensive core system transformations, and there are proven, comprehensible reasons behind this. Firstly, core modernisation efforts focus on efficiencies by reducing expenditure associated with full-time equivalents, FTEs, maintenance, and technology. In most instances, the main benefit captured by companies implementing DDP is that they can reach a break-even point by liberating data, and subsequently begin to generate top-line and bottom-line benefits far earlier due to the sustained delivery and effectiveness of use cases.
Driven by the overarching goal of standardising and simplifying core systems, an organisation’s transformation is analysed through an application footprint and landscape assessment within their respective journeys. This involves revising operating and sourcing models, as well as team structures that need to evolve from a system-centric mentality to a product-centric approach. Fortunately, and unlike traditional IT systems, DDP does not solely revolve around technology and data. In truth, it completely reimagines organisational governance and operations, during the transformative journey and in every phase that follows, including practices and processes concerning technology and human resource talent resourcing. Therefore, organisations have a window of opportunity to decouple digital transformation from traditional IT transformation to maximise value and efficiency and position themselves to achieve sustained success in the new normal.
Key takeaways
- DDP model is capable of generating value and reducing negative business implications simultaneously.
- DDP uses a data layer under a smart business layer and integrates the entire organisational ecosystem.
- DDP completely reimagines organisational governance and operations.
