Architecting your Digital Innovation Strategy

Today, I decided to take some time reviewing the open discussion topics we had with the audience at our last IDC and Axway Executive Forum.

Groups were built and two topics were presented to them to get their personal thoughts. Each group had 20 minutes to think of every topic and write a summary on their paperboard. Then, each group presented their findings to the whole audience.

Topic #1: Delivering superior customer experience through system modernization

a/What does superior Customer Experience (CX) look like?
For most people, CX is about understanding “WHO” the customers are and what they “WANT.”
Following attributes were listed on the paper boards:

• convenient: in self-service, accessible, affordable
• timely: the right information at the right time
• relevant: with enough accuracy
• intuitive
• engaging
• quality: data needs to be good enough and the UI needs to be optimal
• consistent: both UI + Data, with identity management
• secured enough (not too much, not too less)
• empowered with powerful Analytics and predictive algorithms (machine learning)

Digital Innovation Strategy

b/List three systems of modernization:
Following concepts were mentioned with regards to system modernization:

• Cloud
• APIs
• Legacy interfaces
• Loose coupling of user interface
• High Availability
• Security (SSO + identity)

Those bring agility, allow to keep up with the pace of change and are affordable technologies.
A group even talked about extending A/B testing across all customer groups and banning the phrases “Pilot” + “POC” and concluded with “Don’t’ fail fast, learn fast!”

Topic #2: IT working with business to drive digital innovation

a/What is your primary focus/goal for digital innovation?
Once again, we got very interesting thoughts on this topic:

• Harness digital technology to drive cultural change and drive business value
• Drive tangible delivery rapidly
• The balance between customer needs, business offerings and innovation proposals
• Make the business “better”: efficient, customer experience, more revenue and profit

b/three ways you might work with the business to drive digital adoption
Groups were full of ideas and suggestions. They mentioned:

• Co-location
• Co-creation: innovation culture despite business as usual pressure
• Collaboration: alignment of business requests with IT execution
• Digitize and Consolidate to create a single version of the truth
• Monetization
• IT building platform for innovation
• Data-driven
• Become a trusted adviser and be part of the solution

Wrap-up

IDC concluded this very interesting brainstorming session with a summary.
Regarding the Customer Experience, this encompasses internal and external customers, partners and suppliers. The goal of a good CX is to meet higher expectations: personal, always-on, intelligent and able to understand individual customer needs.
For that, systems need to be modernized to gain in agility and affordability. IT departments need to rethink the innovation concept/approach and leverage the big data technology and the Cloud infrastructure. With agility in the technology and in the processes, no more need for complex POCs, users simply need to activate an account on a SaaS solution and test it.

Regarding the primary goal of digital innovation and the relationship between IT and business, IT is part of the business and the CIO (Chief Digital Officer) role helps improve the business. His role is not just operational but advisory. He helps build a culture of innovation and foster collaboration/co-creation within the organization.

An innovation lab is mandatory and helps test modern technology and foster new ideas that can then be shared with business colleagues to create business value out of them.