After the last year and a half, the potential of the digital transformation is evident. Organisations across all sectors and around the world have shown that they can rollout digitisation initiatives at scale and at pace. In many cases, these plans were accelerated from months or years to days and weeks.

With the fourth industrial revolution well underway, Digital Transformation Summit 2021 focused on how that potential can be fulfilled – how to start digitisation right, and what the future holds.

In the starting talk of the event, Principal Solutions Architect from TORCH @ The Data Lab Rhona MacLennan discussed how organisations can get the foundations of data-driven projects right.

Despite the immense value that data can deliver, making the best use of it can be challenging, especially for smaller organisations. Putting in the groundwork is essential to ensure the project is a success.

With so many options available, navigating an initial data-project can be challenging. McLennan emphasised that asking questions, and working alongside others, is a key method to ensuring a successful data project.

For many, the digital transformation sounds like an engineering proposition – deploying new technology, making sure you’re using the newest and best toys in the smart way. But fundamentally, it’s a human question.

As is often said, culture eats strategy for breakfast. The digital transformation has both a profound effect on culture, but also needs radical cultural changes to get the full potential from it. Inez Hogarth, Managing Director, Data Understood, covered the importance of maintaining a good data culture.

With not all data is created equal, companies need to perform regular audits to ensure what they have is properly sourced, verified, and stored.

But it is important not to become overly focused on data quality, MacLennan emphasised. The temptation can be to become too data-driven, trying to get the highest quality data and expecting it to tell you what to do.

As such, Hogarth said that it is important to become comfortable using data that is “good enough”. While this doesn’t excuse organisations from using data that isn’t relevant, accurate, representative, unbiased and legal, it means that the data needs to be fit for purpose.

Form a strategy and use the data to inform it, not the other way round.

Most importantly, keep your eye on the value – data is only valuable if it delivers value.

The Human Element

The digital transformation needs to keep people at its core – whether this is using digital technology to reach people, create better products for them, or ensuring that their needs are met.

Derek Smith, Head of Digital Engineering at Virgin Money, noted that digital transformation is not about engineering, it’s about creating products and experiences for customers.

Digital technology was a lifesaver for many businesses during the pandemic. It allowed firms, big and small, to keep operating during a time of unprecedented challenges.

In his talk, Asda Senior Director of Omnichannel & Transformation Graham Johnston developed this further as he explored how retailers need to build their digital strategies around their customers.

With the ubiquity of mobile devices come changing expectations. As more people were driven online by the pandemic, people now expect to be able to interact digitally with organisations. The temptation can be to build digital channels and attempt to force customers into those.

Instead, Johnston emphasised that an omnichannel approach is needed, where the customer is put at the centre and can choose how to interact with a brand. Personalisation, ease of use, predictive shopping and the rise of a cashless society are all trends we are likely to see.

As such, convergence is a key theme for the digital transformation. We’ve seen many devices – TV, remote control, radio – all combined in our phones. This trend will likely continue as digital channels become embedded in businesses and services – for example, use an app on your phone to order groceries and track it thanks to GPS system in the van.

The Future

As we look to recover from the past two years, the future of the digital transformation was in the spotlight at DT 2021.

Gigged.AI CEO Rich Wilson examined the future of work, to better understand how digitisation and data are changing how we work.

The pandemic has had a massive effect, the shift to remote and hybrid working being perhaps the single most evident, fastest, and massive digital transformation we have seen in years.

He claimed that the future of work will be affected by AI and new ways of working and hiring. With freelance and gig working becoming more common, there are many different ways to build teams and workforces.

The demands of workers are changing, and companies will need to leverage these to access the best talent. Digitisation has shown that more flexible and remote working are possible, and now workers are increasingly demanding these.

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With COP26 imminent, the role of digital transformation to promote a more sustainable future was in the spotlight. Chief Sustainability Officer at arbnco Alan Somerville looked at some of the ways that digital technology can make buildings more efficient.

This was especially pertinent at a time when soaring energy prices make heating buildings a major financial burden. With sensors and smart analytics, an office can only use energy when it is needed and based on the needs of the people using it.

Finally, we heard from Craft Prospect’s Space Applications Lead Dr Sonali Mohapatra. She told us that the rise of quantum computers will be a major game changer, enabling faster, more powerful data processing.

However, this could easily enable threat actors to brute force existing cybersecurity systems – the release of a commercial quantum computer would render many traditional encryption practices obsolete.

This shows the importance of putting in the groundwork before the next big shift. Work to develop new infrastructure, such as using a network of satellites to send quantum encrypted keys around the world, will need to be started now.

While digitisation has already had a profound effect on the world economy and our lives over the past decade – especially the last few years – many of the effects are still to be felt. With data-driven projects accelerating the creation of new technology, the digital transformation is just beginning.