Companies failing to accommodate the rapid changes being driven by digital technologies may find themselves going out of business.
This is exactly what happened when Netflix put Blockbusters out of business - in just four short years. And this is just one of the many examples which highlight the fact that businesses that don't gear up will be bought out by other, more aggressive, companies. "Times are changing, and astute enterprises are looking to the future, thinking outside of their current core business. For this reason, we should expect to see some unusual corporate mergers in the next decade," says Lenore Kerrigan, country sales director for Africa at OpenText.
Kerrigan says by 2020, all the major operating functions within companies will be digital. The drivers here include a new breed of customer, supplier and employee who expect instantaneous responses to multi-channel interactions, coupled with a seamless positive experience.
"Digital business involves a complete transformation, and companies will need to digitise their processes and reconfigure their businesses to remain competitive. A key success factor will be the development of a 2020 agenda, to ensure all areas of the business are covered. Information will lie at the heart of this digital transformation, and enterprise information management will be the key transformative technology."
"These 2020 agendas need to be driven by top-level executives within companies," says Kerrigan. "Provision needs to be made to innovate, create, deliver and measure at speed. The days of projects being rolled out over several years are behind us, as this is simply too slow. This is why many companies are appointing a chief digital officer to help drive this rapid innovation and experimentation with smaller projects. Once success is established, these get moved into mainstream projects where the finer detail is added later.
"The uptake here is being driven by smaller, innovative companies," adds Kerrigan. "Large African businesses need to ask themselves: are they innovating and evolving fast enough?"
OpenText will host The Digital Enterprise Executive Forum, in partnership with ITWeb, in Johannesburg on 16 October.
At this morning event, Kerrigan will share ways in which delegates can build 2020 agendas for their own businesses. Also on the programme is futurist Neil Jacobsohn, whose presentation, "Thriving inside the perfect storm", will speak to current and future disruptive forces and how companies can prepare for these. Hendrik Kotze, group CIO of Capricorn Investment Holdings, will speak about the digital banking world in 2025 and what this means for emerging markets. Attendance is free but seats are limited. Click here to register.
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