It has been evolving for a while and now there’s no escaping it. For a business to compete successfully with its rivals, it must embrace digital and analytical technology.
“To be successful you need to be rigid on your goals but flexible on your methods,” says Chandan Ohri, CTO, KPMG New Zealand.
Advanced digital technology, Data analytics, BI, these are the new tools for businesses, and employed in conjunction with the right processes and people, greatly improve a business’s chances of success.
The burgeoning demand for data analysis skills is reflective of the shift in how technology is being used to achieve business results.Data security is another essential component for building and maintaining market confidence.
“Success in this rapidly changing environment is about speed and efficiency rather than cost cutting,” Ohri adds.
“Pragmatic companies realise that change is happening at a dizzying speed and they are trying hard to keep pace.
“The IT function needs to be more pervasive and agile than ever before and business needs to adopt cloud computing and the virtual environment.”
According to Ohri, the C suite is recognising the new normal and evolving to adapt.
“It falls under the collaborative purview of the executive team to ensure that the organisation adopt current technology and gain the advantage that arises from such adoption,” he explains.
Ohri believes that the CTO must have the ability to recognise the next BIG thing and encourage its permeation through the organisation to gain the early bird advantage, adding that “one person’s noise is another person’s data.”
Role of the CDO?
Ohri says that changes in the ways of collating and analysing information and in the digital space at large, have led to greater focus and prominence of the CIO and relatively new CDO roles.
Among the CTO’s current top priorities are, improving business processes and operational efficiencies, delivering consistent and stable IT, delivering business intelligence / analytics, better engagement with customers/prospects and reputation management via social media, while the CDO shoulders the responsibility of information management, delivering quality data and helps minimise digital disruption.
A relatively new phenomena with no established best practice, digital disruption is being faced by an increasing number of companies and each one is trying to combat it in its own way.