Over the 3 decades that I have been involved in the technology industry, there have been many buzz phrases for business transformation. In the 1980’s it was ‘Reengineering the Corporation’. In the 1990’s, it was ‘Client-Server’ and ‘Distributed Computing’. In the 2000’s we’ve seen the emergence of ‘The Cloud’ from the ashes of the Dot.com experiment. Those companies that emerged as leaders in The Cloud - Google, Amazon, Ebay, Salesforce and, more recently Microsoft - ultimately developed a new computing platform to deliver the scale and availability required to host millions and even billions of users. The prior era’s did not demand that kind of robust scale. Remember the famous ‘back up window’?
Which brings us to the phrase of this decade - Digital Transformation. If we look at the 3 phases of Digital, the first is Digitization - the migration of data from the physical world of print, filing cabinets and the heavy machinery to produce and retain it - to the digital world of bits, stored in software databases and content management systems. The second is Digitalization which is reflected in new applications that emerge from the new digital infrastructure. Google Maps is a great example of this phase. Digital Maps, combined with databases containing address, points of interest, traffic and other information, enabled by inexpensive GPS chips in mobile devices to create a rich, integrated navigation experience.
The third phase is Digital Transformation. Many confuse this phase with the previous, but the transformation is the result of the digitalization of business processes, applications and data. When we add machine learning and artificial intelligence to the mix, the transformation can seem to take on an exponential nature that has broad implications for our society as a whole, rather than just on business. But that is for other, more qualified folks to discuss.
What all 3 decades have in common is that all of the technologies and methodologies that produce these transformations, have a surprisingly high failure rate. In most IT transformation projects, the failure rate is 70% or more! Given the incredible energy, expense and potential opportunity cost of these transformations, and the decades we’ve had to learn, a recent Oxford University study estimates that only 16% of companies are ready to take on significant transformations. McKinsey estimates that only 7% of companies have the measures and accountabilities in place to understand the impact of these transformations. And a recent study by Pulse Point Group estimates that over 80% of digital transformation projects fail, which is about the same rate of failure as traditional large scale IT projects.
Bringing all of that together, over the past 30 years the buzz phrases have changed, the failure rate is about the same and most companies aren’t ready to undertake the kind of transformation that will ensure continued success and growth of every business in every market on the planet. Plus et change…
A common thread throughout this 30 year narrative is communication. Most IT projects fail because of poor and/or fragmented communication. Communication lives at the core of any change management process, which is essential to any kind of business transformation. Employees, Customers and Partners may be trained on new technologies but the transformation will only succeed if communication is clear, targeted and delivered to the right person our group at the right place, at the right time, on the right device. Buy-in is critical, and buying into a consistent vision is key. OrchestraCMS has revolutionized content management by building our content management platform 100% natively on Salesforce.
In doing so, we have redefined the meaning of content to include the applications, data, processes and analytics that are core to any digital transformation, and seamlessly combine them with our industry leading content management personalization engine to deliver a single source of truth in communication, in a single digital experience that literally puts your entire organization on ‘the same page’. Combining highly targeted and personalized communication, with business applications, process and analytics in a single, seamless user experience, driven by business users with strong governance, compliance and auditability, gives organizations greater agility to navigate the challenges of a true transformation.
We’ve done this for some of the world’s largest as well as most progressive organizations. Today, millions of Customers, Employees and Partners of our Customers are seeing exceptional levels of engagement every day as they transform their businesses with OrchestraCMS and Salesforce.
Download our Whitepaper: The Digital Experience Platform and Its Role in Digital Transformation to learn about the essence of digital transformation, primacy of the customer, and the evolution of content management systems (CMS)