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New digital divide emerges

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Dubai, 07 Dec 2016
CEOs are increasingly putting digital transformation at the top of their corporate agendas.
CEOs are increasingly putting digital transformation at the top of their corporate agendas.

Digital transformation has ushered in a new kind of digital divide among organisations.

That was the word from Nidal Abou-Ltaif, Avaya's president for EMEA and Asia-Pacific, in a keynote address yesterday at the Avaya Engage event. The business communications software vendor is hosting the event at Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai.

The event brought together more than 1 300 Avaya customers and partners from over 70 countries.

He noted the gap is widening between organisations that have simply embraced digitisation and sat back, and those that have gone further, embracing and continuing with their digital journey.

According to Abou-Ltaif, digitisation has created the "haves" and "have mores" in the enterprise space. The "haves" are those companies that are sitting back, while the "have mores" are doing more, he explained.

"Digital transformation projects need to engage the workforce, customers and partners to succeed," Abou-Ltaif said. "Digital transformation projects will fail if they aren't embraced at all levels of the organisation."

Digital transformation projects should be user-defined, says Nidal Abou-Ltaif, Avaya's president for EMEA and Asia-Pacific.
Digital transformation projects should be user-defined, says Nidal Abou-Ltaif, Avaya's president for EMEA and Asia-Pacific.

He also pointed out that with organisations globally facing challenges to evolve digitally and move agilely in today's competitive markets, CEOs are increasingly putting digital transformation and customer engagement at the top of their corporate agendas.

However, he noted, as many as 84% of digital transformation projects fail to achieve their objectives, according to research, with many organisations failing to secure the required levels of "buy-in" from their workforce, partners and customers.

"In today's digital business world, just about every organisation, company and industry sector has access to digital technologies - the gap now is between the "haves" and the "have mores" - those organisations that are using their digital capabilities more effectively to innovate and transform their operations. We are seeing a new digital divide - the digital transformation divide," Abou-Ltaif said.

Organisations need to ensure digital transformation projects are supported by the workforce, and workers have the right training, tools and technologies to properly implement them, he added.

"Digital transformation projects also need to deliver the differentiated experiences that customers are looking for, and that will encourage them to do more business with an organisation. Companies also need to understand that digital transformation projects are extremely complex, involving change at all levels of the organisation. Accordingly, organisations need to be aware that these can't be delivered alone, or by a single vendor, requiring them to create an open environment to drive innovation."

He also said organisations need to democratise digital transformation. "A top-down from the boardroom approach won't work if it doesn't engage the people it is supposed to help. Digital transformation projects should be user-defined, bringing together customers, employees and partners; and platform-driven, with organisations creating an ecosystem for innovation."

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