We have heard a lot about the disruptive changes in business, for some it is a new wave to be ridden, otherwise the inevitable will happen... they will disappear from the market. But what is this about?
Luis Pinto*
The Systems Engineer Oscar A. Schmitz - CXO, (chief experience officer / director of experience) of the company Level(3), speaks of "Digital transformation, flexibility and speed", in parts of his publication indicates that: "The key in Digital Transformation is focused on people. People cling to knowledge and tools that have served them so far because they give them security. But when technological disruption presents itself, there are only two options left: lead the wheel of change by transforming or be left behind surviving in a lifeline that has only served so far."
Let's clarify some terms to enter into the matter, because as obvious as it may seem, it is better to use the same language. The so-called Disruptive Technologies are the set of technologies through which new conceptions of services are created that impact with the current strategies to do business, which are impacted by a technological and computer infrastructure applied to current conceptions of their management, which until that moment were taken as traditional.
Disruptive technologies seek to consolidate and spread in different industries, a clear example of this can be Cloud Computing, Big Data, Internet of Things, Software-Defined Network, Mobility and Social Business, among others.
This necessarily leads us to a Technological Innovation, which is nothing more than the set of actions effectively applied in society to transform the processes in a radical way, that is, without going back. If innovation is accepted by society, it is transformed by taking a leap from creative ideas to applied innovation, it is the difference in attitude and aptitude.
It was unimaginable to think 10 years ago that the Internet generated the change that it has achieved today, consequently a series of innovations have transformed today's communications. WhatsApp, Waze, Netflix and Uber are just concrete cases of technological innovators who impacted with a disruption in the way of doing business.
Now, the so-called Innovation occurs when it is possible to change the reality of business, this requires actions and commitment, it takes a long time to implement, it delivers something new to the system, transforming it, its effect on things can be measured and the function of the "innovation leader" is to persuade action. For the subject of technology, this leader is called CIO for its acronym in English Chief Information Officer, (in Spanish castizo; Officer in head of systems), has its reason for being in the need for change and adaptation in the computer area that has emerged in recent years in various companies and organizations.
The task for which he is in this new position is not easy, among the main qualities or skills that a CIO must present are: strong business orientation, directing the benefits of information technology towards business problems, identifying and evaluating new technologies that are beneficial to the business, training in cost and risk management, ease of communicating and understanding with internal non-technical customers and finally the ability to translate into simple language everything that involves technical terms.
The CIO must work closely with the CTO (Chief Technology Officer), who is technically responsible for the development and proper functioning of information systems from the point of view of execution. He is usually responsible for the engineering team and for implementing the technical strategy to improve the final product. Sometimes the positions of CTO and CIO can be confused, since in some companies they share tasks. The key difference is that a CIO focuses on information systems (communication workflow), with the aim of increasing efficiency, while a CTO is responsible for the technological strategy aimed at improving the final product.
What is digital transformation for?
Now if we enter into the matter, what is digital transformation for?: Digital transformation gives us the opportunity to remain in the face of the changes produced from the market and / or those generated by competition within the industry, its main business benefits can be stated as follows, flexibility, scalability, automation, costs adaptable to growth, speed, productivity, efficiency and reduction of market output.
The Digital Transformation process involves the management of changes in people and business models, benefiting certain groups of functions that make the differentiation of organizational value and, consequently, differentiation value in the market focuses on speed, flexibility and reliability in order to be a leader improving efficiency and operational productivity, enabling new sources of income, providing a rapid response to changes in the industry, generating new customer experiences and enabling collaborative contexts and innovation in the organization.
Latin America cannot be ignored by global trends, the rapid and frequent technological innovations together with the era of the interconnected consumer, means that information must be understandable and timely for the execution and strategic planning of companies to be successful. A successful Digital Transformation of companies helps organizations identify and direct efforts towards opportunities and formulate protection plans against the threats that are generated under this market premise. All the changes that take place within the organization in terms of Digital Transformation affect the organization in a transversal way.
In a report by the IDC Latin America, (International Data Corporation) for the course of 2017, a turning point is foreseen with scope until 2020, where projects will not be scattered islands from the business or technology areas and we will see that more and more organizations, regardless of their size and age, they will become "digital natives", this to the extent that their executives and employees think and carry out their activities integrating the digital transformation process at all levels and organizational processes.
It is estimated that the areas will be integrated with the digital transformation itself as a trigger and by 2019, according to IDC Latin America, more than 60% of the Top 3000 in Latin America will assign work teams entirely dedicated to digital transformation and innovation. This implies that companies that are not part of this transformation will see their participation in the markets move away in a substantive way.
Business leaders must not only think of digital transformation as the future of the company, this is something that is already happening today and but reinvents their vision of the future with what is already happening today with technological disruptions, their presence in the business will inevitably fade.
On the subject Daniel Quintero, Vice Minister of ICT of Colombia, expert software developer talks about Digital Transformation: "It is a great challenge to apply technology to productivity, how do I get technology to the industry?, there is an opportunity of 3.7 trillion dollars on the world economy, this figure was invested in the last 5 years, resources destined to look for how technology is landed in the industry and how it adds value, in this we have a very big challenge. If our labor productivity in Colombia is compared to that of the United States, it is only 22 points something percent, this is why we put an effort and it is in the Digital Transformation.
But there is a greater challenge to all, which is going to be that great challenge of the coming years and that is the Transformation of Democracy and Government in general, people no longer even want to be heard, people already want to govern through technology, but at the same time there are factors of social dissatisfaction after the loss of employment due to Digital Transformation, which is going to become a threat to democracy itself.
Specific digital marketing, which directly understands what each citizen wants and seeks, can allow to control with false news, the opinion of these citizens, so the issues of Government in the world of Digital Transformation are going to be a very particular case, we as a Government in open data in Colombia, we are number one in Latin America and the fourth in the world. "
The company Level(3), leader in telecommunications solutions within Latin American ISPs, presents a hybrid WAN architecture that offers organizations a versatile way to adapt to the explained needs of Digital Transformations in relation to the speed, flexibility and security of telecommunications networks. Rapid configuration, flexible switching, and reduced total infrastructure cost enable the CIO and CTO to deliver added value to competitive needs in these disruptive and changing contexts. A hybrid WAN is aligned with the current times of digital transformation in which a rapid response to the needs of customers and the market is required.
Hybrid WAN uses a combination of private WAN links (pe. MPLS) and Internet access technologies provided by third parties (pe. Internet, 4G, LTE), or own (DIA/IPT) in order to connect geographically distributed locations.
Hybrid WAN includes the benefits of private links: reliability, predictability and security and the benefits of third-party public links, lower cost and greater versatility.
In this way, a more flexible, fast and reliable solution is achieved to interconnect your offices and branches, while still using private links for sending and receiving data that correspond to critical applications. The main idea behind Hybrid WAN is to offer a single network solution that reaches a variety of connectivity options, security improvements and performance adapted to each need, considering that Corporate WAN Bandwidth doubles approximately every 3 years, according to IDC studies.
A hybrid WAN is aligned with the current times of Digital Transformation in which a rapid response to the needs of customers and the market is required. The changes must be made in fast and flexible times according to our time, let's not stop riding this new technological wave, many of us are already with enough information on countless things related to our businesses, the valuable thing is what we can do with this information and that this represents a favorable cash flow for our professional work.
My recommendation is that you manage the growth of your WAN network projected for the cloud, count as much as possible with a dedicated Internet, innovative technologies such as Hybrid WAN, Cloud Computing, Big Data, Mobility and Social Networks, bring hyperconnected customers closer to more accessible services.
*Luis Pinto is an advisor to TVyVideo+Radio. You can contact him through [email protected]
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