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Digital Transformation All About Speed

Ask Zeus Kerravala, UC analyst and regular No Jitter contributor, for his definition of "digital transformation," and what he'll tell you formally is this:

    The application of technology to build new operating models, processes, software, and systems by leveraging the convergence of people, business, and things.

That's the definition he laid out in the recently published "Digital Transformation for Dummies" special edition he co-authored. In the book, he went on to say that these advances are leading to new product and service opportunities and transformation of business operations, as well as enabling greater revenue generation, competitive advantage, and efficiency.

If you think that's a mouthful, you won't get an argument from Kerravala. He said so himself during this this week's No Jitter On Air episode, "Get Up to Speed on the Digital Imperative." But if you boil digital transformation down to its essence, he said, then one simple word -- "speed" -- serves as a definition.

"In this digital era, companies are moving faster than ever before. Business disruption is happening faster than ever before, and companies need to move with speed," Kerravala said.

In work done at his firm, ZK Research, Kerravala found the general belief that 37% of the top 10 companies in every vertical market will churn in the next 10 years. "That shows how fast disruption is happening," he said.

And that means two important things for companies: They must find new ways of working, and they must be willing to change the status quo, Kerravala said. "And this is hard for some companies," he added. "It was Dan Shulman, the CEO of PayPal, who said at the World Economic Forum earlier this year that the biggest impediment to a company's future success is its past success. That means you may be very successful at doing things a certain way, but that doesn't mean there isn't a better way to do it. And those better ways are going to come around much faster than ever before."

Click on the player below to hear more about what Kerravala has to say about digital transformation. You'll get a variety of great examples of digital organizations in action, plus his take on topics such as:

  • Improving the customer experience
  • Creating a digital workplace environment
  • Five things every company must do to become a digital organization
  • Where traditional UC&C falls short in meeting the needs of a modern digital organization, and what's needed for the future
  • The interplay between UC&C, the Internet of Things, and digital transformation
  • 10 capabilities to look for in a digital transformation partner

Catch up on all No Jitter On Air episodes here, and stay tuned for next week's edition!

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