How CIOs Can Tackle Digital Transformation & Future-Proof Their Enterprise

As the Covid-19 Pandemic unfolded, digital transformation across businesses became the buzzword. In general terms, digital transformation is defined as the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business resulting in fundamental changes to how businesses operate and how they deliver value to customers.  In the wake of the pandemic, an organization's ability to adapt quickly to supply chain disruptions, time to market pressures, and rapidly changing customer expectations has become critical.

The Role of CIOs

But digital transformation is not just a technology or a trend, which anyone can learn & implement quickly. It requires leadership, proper strategy & clear implementation. Overnight the role of CIOs became really important and they became responsible for their organization’s direction towards digital transformation. One research shows 40% of the CIOs are responsible for digital transformation, while only 27% of the CEOs are there in the list.

“CIOs had the onus of ensuring that while employees and business partners worked off-site, they were equipped with the right tools and training to work uninterrupted to keep the lights on.  Enterprises already on the path of digital transformation were well prepared for the volatile situations, while others scrambled to cope with the sudden demand for technology assets,” said Shibu Paul, Vice President, International Sales at Array Networks

"COVID-19 pandemic forced us to rethink the way our entire organization functions and also taught us to shift from traditional working to digital transformation. As most of our employees were working from home, we knew investing in a digital workplace model was critical to continue providing the service we are known for," says Kapil Bardeja, CEO & Co Founder- Vehant Technologies.

CIOs face a continuous challenge to use the latest technologies and keep on inventing new IT innovations to make the entire business process agile. CIOs are carrying the major responsibility of driving technological change. Those who are not willing to take the challenge to transform their business processes, always carries a risk of becoming an ordinary player in their industry.

Making Enterprises Future Proof

Bardeja further elaborated on the initiatives that Vehant took towards digital transformation. "We invested in digitizing the HR ERP system so both work from home and office working can be captured and compiled. Most HR events and training shifted on digital platforms. Attendance was shifted to non touch mediums. On the customer side visiting them was a challenge so team had to innovate digital strategies for reaching out for our new offerings including massive shift to online demos instead of physical ones as in pre- Covid era. We had a live, 24x7 working set up in office for digital demos.  While CEOs & CIOs have worked hard to help their business adopt an entirely new approach, it’s now time to learn from the pandemic and brace your organization for the future," he said.

While the pandemic necessitated delivering services with speed and security, CIOs now need to drive a digital-first approach in the organization to maintain standards. "It’s time for CIOs to emerge as leaders on the road towards successful digital transformation where enterprises have a suitable business model fueled by the latest technology. The right technology mix should fuel scalability, innovation, and rapid service delivery while keeping cost and complexity low,” said Paul.

At the same time CIOs must also adopt a cautious approach while bringing about a digital transformation. By 2022, 65% of CIOs will digitally empower and enable frontline workers with data, AI, and security to extend their productivity, adaptability, and decision-making in the face of rapid changes. A recent report by Tenable, a cyber exposure company, revealed that 71% of organizations in India attribute recent business-impacting cyberattacks to vulnerabilities in technology put in place in response to the pandemic. The study founded that fast deployment of new technologies to facilitate remote work heightened the level of risk for Indian businesses. In the past year, a staggering 88% of Indian organizations experienced a business-impacting cyberattack, with 56% of respondents indicating that the attacks targeted remote workers.