Would you build a house withoutusing an architect Installingsolidfoundations and supporting load-bearinginfrastructure? No, of course not! So why would we not apply the same principles to digital transformation? According to McKinsey“Research shows that 70 percent of complex, large-scale change programs don’t reach their stated goals.”There are a variety of reasons why failure rates are so high, from a lack of clarity on the goals to be achieved,implementing ICT solutions that do not match businessobjectivesto underestimating the sustainability costs of complex projects.
“Digital Transformation” is the buzz phrase of the moment.Across the Caribbean, we read and hear governments speaking of implementing a“digital transformation” program,for example, the Caribbean Digital Transformation Project (CARDTP), thedigitaltransformation ofBarbados Public Sector,Jamaica's drive for digital society
Therearea wide variety ofviews of what “digital transformation” entailsas expressed by theGartner Group,“digital transformationcan refer to anything from IT modernization (for example, cloud computing), to digital optimization, to the invention of new digital business models. The term is widely used in public-sector organizations to refer to modest initiatives such as putting services online or legacy modernization. Thus, the term is more like “digitization” than “digital business transformation.”
While a discussion on the meaning and consequences of choosing a particular view and approach to “digital transformation” is beyond the scope of this article, the common element surely must be to ensure the sustainability of any digital transformation program. After all, there islittleuse inspending millions of dollars or Euros on complex ICT projects if a plan for ongoing sustainability is not included from the outset.While there is little empirical evidence, anecdotally intheCaribbeanthere areexampleswheregovernmentsinvested significant capital expenditure inICT projects,but ongoing costs formaintaining,upgradingor replacing components over time had not been factored into theproject andconsequentlynot budgeted. This hasledto periodic unforeseencapital cost spikes.Where budgets were not available,the sustainability of the project suffered.
Just as in building a house, sustainability and successful digital transformation is based on three fundamental elements, good architecture, solidfoundation,and a consistentfit-for-purposesupportinginfrastructure.
Ahouse not builtto a correct architectural design, without asolid foundationandwithoutthe correct load bearingsupportcolumnsin place is certaintocollapse.
Just as one should use qualifiedarchitects when designing and building a house, this should also be the case when implementing organizational or national digital transformationprograms.According to the International Telecommunications Union(ITU)for successful implementation of a digital transformation program:
“acentral building block is the digital enterprise architecture, which is the whole-of-government approach to support government ecosystems by transcending boundaries to deliver services in a coordinated, efficient andequitablemanner. It is the critical component that translates transformation needs into specific functional and technical requirements that can lead to the deployment of transformation digital services.”
Having the correct flexible and adaptivearchitecture,based on international standards, is critical to the sustainable and successful implementation of a digital transformation program. If the effort is not put into the design phase (not just technical but also business function adaptation) of the transformation program the outcome will not providethe expected efficiencies or return-on-investment(ROI).
TheInternational Standards Organization defines“Architecture”as follows“architecture:conceptualization of the form, function, and fitness-for-purpose of an enterprise (3.4) in its environment (3.9), as embodied in the elements of the enterprise, the relationships between those elements, the relationship of the enterprise to its environment and the principles guiding the design and evolution of the enterprise”
The key phrase here in this definition is “fitness-for-purpose”.Without undertaking a detailed enterprise architectural design program there isa very high probability that the outcome of the digital transformation program will not meet the expected results and the implemented environment may end up not being “fit for purpose”
Foundation
Drawing on theanalogyof building a house,we canlikenICT infrastructure to the foundation of a house. The core infrastructure, which includes networks, data centres,hardwareand security systems,etc.,isfundamental tosuccessfuldigital transformation.Thisis recognized in areport published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) which states:
“Itis essential that G20 economies continually invest in the development of digital infrastructures to meet existing and future demand. Theyprovidethe foundation for many new services,applications,and business models. They are also crucial in underpinning and enabling the digital innovations that are transforming production, including in the context ofIndustrie4.0.”
If there is a crack in this foundation the whole digital transformation structureis at risk ofcollapse.It is critical that the correct infrastructure is in place to support the goals ofadigital transformationprogram. It is also critical that international standardssuch as ITIL and ISOare implemented in constructing the foundation. Without rigorous attention to standards, the possibility of cracks appearing in thedigital transformation foundationwillincrease significantly leading to service outages and service disruption, andultimately failure.
Supporting infrastructure
These are the critical support services such as cloud infrastructure management,cybersecurity, activity monitoring, and interventions,backup management, disaster recovery,etc. Theyaretheback-officeservices that do the heavy lifting to support the innovativefront-of-houseapplications.As digital transformation programs are increasingly complex and depend on high-availabilityenvironments,ensuring that the supporting environment is operational to at least a three 9s level (99.9% uptime) is critical. If digital transformation is successful the operational environment will be 24/7 365 days. It will not be possible to providea supportive environment that is less than a 24/7 service.Typicallymany public sector ICT departments in the Caribbeando notprovidesuch support. Equally having allexpertisein-house will not be practicableboth in terms of cost and availability ofexpertise.This is particularly so in small countries where there may be challenges with government budgets and skillset availability.
In such situationsmanages service providers (MSPs) can playan important roletoassist governments to ensure that the critical back-office services are managed tovery highinternationalstandardsvia service level agreements (SLAs).The core function of MSPs is toprovidesupporting infrastructure services.An MSP will typically have all the relevantexpertiseavailable.
To see how Cloud Caribcanassist governments to achieve digital transformation success visit ourwebsiteto see the range ofservicesweprovideand our experienceddeliveryteam.
