In this week's news roundup for IT pros, we break down the CIO takeaways from the Delta power outage, and the critical components of digital transformation that CIOs shouldn't ignore.
What CIOs are taking away from the Delta outage
Delta's computer outage early this week was big news, but for CIOs, it hit close to home in a couple key ways. Kim Nash, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, writes, “The day’s events underscore the continuing relevance of another IT artifact: The CIO’s role in keeping the lights on.” In TechRepublic, Patrick Gray cites increasing IT complexity as a problem, and the Delta outage as an example of the cost of complexity in lost revenue. Gray argues, “For too long, we've tolerated increasing complexity in IT. Entire sectors of the industry exist to integrate systems that should have been disposed of, and we celebrate the technician who can 'make it happen' rather than considering whether 'it' has become so complex that it represents a critical point of failure down the road.”
Essential elements of digital transformation
Digital transformation continues to be an imperative for IT leaders, but as CIO contributor Peter Bendor-Samuel points out, “many businesses don’t reap the anticipated ROI of their digital investments.” Why? Because, he argues, they don't keep in mind the two characteristics of valuable digital experiences for customers: that they are both simple and complete. He says these are the hard parts of digital transformation, and urges CIOs to “make sure a digital initiative creates changes to a company’s competitive situation, customer experience or employee experience.”
Another difficult component to get right is culture, but it's just as important to digital transformation efforts. Daniel Newman stresses this in an article for Forbes, writing, “We’re no longer at the point where top-down processes mean efficiency. The companies embracing digital transformation and eschewing traditional company roles are best poised to adapt.” He provides the four characteristics of companies with cultures incompatible with digital transformations as well as four solutions for organizations to repair their weaknesses.
In case you missed it, this week The Enterprisers Project added a resource to our business library for CIOs that provides answers to some of the common questions around digital transformation. Take a look, and share with a colleague who needs clear, compelling guidance on what digital transformation means, and why it matters for all businesses.
More news for CIOs
Should CIOs still care about business strategy? [CIO]
The Internet of Things: Take Your Time [Virtualization Review]
Walmart is getting a huge perk from Jet.com that no one's talking about [Business Insider]
