It's a Journey: The State of IT Transformation in APJ

APJ organisations are outstripping their global counterparts in terms of the adoption of modern technology: companies are investing in and adopting key technologies such as flash, scale-out storage, and software-defined networking and storage at a faster rate than elsewhere. And, overall, the region boasts a higher percentage of ‘transformed’ organisations compared to the rest of the world (8 percent versus 5 percent).

However, such promising statistics do not tell the full story of the region’s overall progress. IT departments in APJ are yet to firmly establish a recognised role in driving business strategy—nor have they yet fully capitalised on emerging technologies to proactively spot opportunities for growth, efficiency, and differentiation. At the moment, nine out of 10 organisations still face challenges in transforming and harnessing the full business value of their IT resources. There are more organisations categorized as ‘legacy’ (i.e. those who scored the lowest in the IT transformation maturity test) in APJ than elsewhere in the world (10 percent in this region versus 4 percent globally), and these business are now faced with having to urgently play catch-up by setting the stage for transformation, promoting innovation and driving real change.

Unlocking business value and getting ready for the digital era

There is one overarching urgency for APJ organisations, however: the need to zero-in on those areas in their business in which intelligent automation and process improvements can eliminate complexity, unlock new operational efficiencies and create genuine competitive differentiation. Regardless of their unique business needs, all companies can reap the benefits of transformation by focusing on three areas:

Firstly, APJ organisations need to invest in technologies that power agility. As companies look to expand their operations, the potential complexity in technology deployments increases exponentially. A rule of thumb is to prioritise solutions that support future business needs and allow the organisation to be nimble at the same time. To successfully leverage technologies like multi-cloud, artificial intelligence, and data analytics, IT leaders must first ensure that their data centre can process large amounts of data; that their servers can handle all critical workloads; and that applications can run on multiple clouds. Agility is key to the transformational journey.

Secondly, companies have to ensure that their business procedures and workflows reflect and facilitate the technological upgrades mentioned above. Transformation projects are sophisticated—their success not only hinges on swapping old technologies with new ones but also on how services are delivered, how infrastructure is deployed and managed, and how the IT organisation is structured to unlock maximum value. This means creating service-focused IT processes that are aligned with business goals and easy to implement, whilst having clear policies and metrics in place to ensure full compliance and optimal performance.

And finally, it is crucial to prepare one’s employees for new ways of working. Any IT transformation project, no matter how advanced and heavily funded, can be handicapped if the right people, the right skills and the right mind-sets are not in place. Management has a critical role to play in setting out the future direction to all team members, communicating clearly and early a complete vision of the end-goal and future state, so that all lines of business get behind the coming changes and are motivated to see them succeed. And, those in charge of skills-development should be proactive in deploying a comprehensive training program that will prepare employees to navigate and maximise a transformed workplace environment.

APJ organisations have work to do, but truly hold the keys to unlocking their full business potential and securing their future growth. With unwavering commitment to reaping the significant benefits of IT transformation, companies in this region can position themselves ahead of the curve and thrive in the digital economy.