A HIP cure for the Digital Transformation blues

Digital Transformation is no longer a side project or something for a small swat team. It is time–it is even past the time–to “burn the boats.” There is no going back. Digital or bust.

I must admit, I was getting burned out using the words “Digital Business” and “Digital Transformation.” I wanted a new term, a new way to capture the hype, something new to use to describe what is happening to all the businesses we encounter. Possibly my issue was that the terms are so overused and so abused by marketers that I sense burnout in others. However, the reality is these are the words to describe this very tangible change in the business landscape. Companies compete not on product and price but on experience and I am refreshed as we tackle 2019 in the hybrid integration platform market–I’ll settle with the terms we have! Digital Business is a real thing, Digital Transformation a real need and we all must embrace it with vigor. Companies need a HIP cure for the digital transformation blues.

The New York Times states it this way: “While the past two years have been a time of significant innovation, the pace must accelerate. Too often, digital progress has been accomplished through workarounds; now we must tear apart the barriers.”¹ Forrester builds on this “To thrive, even to survive, you must use digital technology to transform the very core and model of your business. You must become a digital innovator and: Harness digital assets and ecosystems to improve continually customer outcomes and, simultaneously, increase operational agility.”² (Emphasis added)

At Axway, we are gearing up towards a big launch and, after a year of customer visits, a very energized product team putting some final touches on a great new technology. And now after our sales kick-off, we have a very jazzed sales and sales support team and we are more aligned than ever to serve those embracing this ever so essential transformation.

HIP cure?

So, what is our cure? Well, there is no one cure! No organization could be so arrogant to make that big of a claim. Digital Transformation demands culture change (and this is hard). It also demands innovative use of technology (this may be easier) and with all this a transformation to the very core and model of your business as Forrester notes. This transformation in the core and model of your business will weave together technology, data and ecosystems to deliver customers value in new and innovative ways.

A part of this journey is a transformation in how IT serves to support innovation. Data must be open to developers. Integration must happen at the pace of digital to support technologies being woven into an organization’s fabric. The culture change is already partly here–but IT must evolve from a ticket taker to a service provider and an enabler of integration by others. On the technology side, a hybrid integration platform (HIP) strategy must be embraced with this culture change. This is the technology IT can use to extend integration to others, to citizen integrators, to LOB ad-hoc integrators and to digital integrators–this is the technology that allows IT to scale to support the pace required.

Keep watching Axway for our exciting news in 2019!

1. NY Times – https://www.nytimes.com/projects/2020-report/index.html
2. Forrester – Digital Rewrites The Rules Of Business, Forrester Research, Inc., February 26, 2018