Maurizio Canton, the chief technology officer EMEA at TIBCO, has more than 25 years' experience in IT. ITWeb caught up with him to discuss the fourth industrial revolution.
ITWeb: What is the fourth industrial revolution and what is driving the force behind it?
Canton: If we look over the last few years, we have seen the world changing. Technology has continued to evolve, putting more information and expectation in to the hands of customers, which in turn requires a shift in how business is done.
This shift in technology has been referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, part of the evolutions over the last 200 years which have seen the world transition through several industrial revolutions. These range from water and steam-powered mechanical manufacturing facilities, to manufacturing assembly lines and the development of infrastructure to support electricity, gas, water and roads. The Third Industrial Revolution saw the rise of electronics, telephones, PLCs, PCs and lean manufacturing.
What is different today is that while the other industrial revolutions were mainly driven by one main technology advancement, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is not about one single breakthrough in technology that changes society, but is a confluence of new technologies all happening together. Therefore, you have an unprecedented number of things happening simultaneously that together change the way the world works, how society works and how businesses operate.
ITWeb: Are companies adapting to this fourth industrial revolution?
Canton: What this means for many companies today is how they will become fully digitalised, and how they become a digital business. This is what we mean when we talk about digital business, the notion of blurring or merging the distinction between physical and digital commerce. It applies to our personal lives as well as to our social interaction and we have seen these trends building for some time now.
Today, digital business is really at the forefront of every company's strategy; look at how the airline industry has changed in the last ten years for example. If you think about what it was like flying ten years ago, the level of human interaction has changed immensely. Nowadays, we may not engage with a person until we get to the airport but, by this time, we have already booked our flight, printed our boarding pass, selected our seats and ordered our special meal. The boarding gate could be the first time we talk with someone from the airline and have human-to-human interaction with that brand. This defines the digital experience.
ITWeb: What other changes can we expect from organisations?
Canton: The process of digitising or enabling the digitalisation of the interaction between the enterprise and its customers and partners involves integrating and tying together many different systems and data sources and even channel interactions within the enterprise. Connecting to their environment in real time and having all the data available should be the top priority for each organisation if they are to seize their digital opportunities.
Organisations need to put the customer, customer experience and expectation at the centre of their digital strategy and carry the context of their interaction with the customer across the different channels available. This is true right from the customer and booking reservation systems that underpin the airline, to the various scheduling systems that the airline uses that need to be tied together, alongside the mobile and online applications available through the different channels. And we have seen the same sort of scenario played out across many businesses whether they are in retail, financial services, telco or other industries.
ITWeb: What is the biggest inhibiter for organisations to going digital?
Canton: There are three things that enterprises need to implement in order to join the fast lane in their digital journey and to succeed. The first is the creation of a digital operational hub, which connects all the enterprise ecosystems from systems, data, channel, customers and partners.
Second, they need to use analytics to understand the context, make decisions and define the right course of action. Last, but not least, they need to respond and influence business moments to optimise processes and innovation. This is what we do and have done at TIBCO for many years with all the different customers we have worked and partnered with.
First, we 'interconnect everything' to transform a company into a digital business, building a real-time digital business foundation, and opening up a business with APIs, enabling innovation across an entire ecosystem. Finally, we help companies augment intelligence to optimise their business performance (by leveraging all this real-time information to optimise their business outcomes and help them take advantage of each business moment.)
Join Maurizio Canton at the ITWeb Digital Economy Summit 2017 in a few weeks' time as he takes the podium with other experts to simplify and demystify the digital economy.
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