Embrace innovation to transform your business

Take the modern data centre as an example.

Warren Olivier

It provides the building blocks needed to exploit much of the technology guiding the connected future. These data centres give decision-makers access to components such as virtualisation, flexible storage, and cloud offerings. In turn, this enables them to innovate and iterate by focusing on their business operations and be less concerned about the nuts and bolts of the hardware used. And for businesses striving to be always-on catering for the information needs of stakeholders anywhere and at any time using any device, this is mission-critical.

However, a company cannot just put such building blocks in place and expect change to occur. In South Africa, traditional mindsets around technology adoption remain, that sees many organisations resistant to adopting new, more innovative practices. The truth is that if you do not embrace technology, then you will cease to exist as a business.

Embracing change

In certain respects, meeting regulatory and compliance requirements are guiding organisations to make the shift. By forcing companies to comply with aspects revolving around the protection of information and good corporate governance, the decision-makers are closely examining existing internal processes and structures.

This does not mean that simply retrofitting new solutions over legacy systems will provide a silver bullet. Ideally, you want something designed and built from the ground up. Such an approach results in a much needed cleaning of house around older, more archaic technology systems. The best way to illustrate the potential benefits created by this would be to identify the lost revenue and missed opportunities if it does not happen.

Changing systems can be a costly exercise giving credence to some of the reasons for not wanting to do the shift to begin with. But if a company works with a vendor or service provider who has been born out of the need to be innovative and utilise transformational technology to develop solutions meeting unique business challenge, then change is a much easier process to embark on. This is especially relevant with the shift towards the always-on business. Companies cannot risk not bridging the gap between the availability of their solutions and the requirements of customers and employees to have access to it.

Trusted partners needed

Increasingly, companies will work with service providers who will become trusted advisers thanks to their technical skills and understanding of how the solutions need to integrate into existing business practices. And when a company decides on using a vendor who has an extensive partner ecosystem that has experience across a range of sectors and overcoming any number of unique local challenges, more the better.

From a cost perspective, companies also need to realise the benefits of a la carte outsourcing where they use only the services they require. This gradual shift towards more modern systems means much of the costs are spread out over time.

Remaining flexible

The fluidity of the technology environment means companies should also avoid being locked into a specific vendor solution. Transformational innovation crosses traditional parameters of what one solution can offer over another. Instead, it is about how to link the strengths of all the respective solutions and draw business benefit from them.

Companies need to understand that in addition to different systems and processes, they can leverage the existing data they have in new ways. Much has been written about the explosion of data in the corporate environment but the awareness is still not there in terms of how to extract meaningful intelligence from it. This is essential to attaching business meaning to data. Using a trusted service provider offering the means to structuring this data makes the process that much easier.

All told, decision-makers need to scrutinise the technology and systems they have in place and determine where change needs to happen. It might entail a bespoke approach or a complete overhaul. But change needs to happen and the technology capable of enabling that change exists.