Digital transformation is a process of organisational change to seize the opportunities and meet the challenges of new digital technologies

Just 20 years ago, the third industrial revolution led to the consolidation of a new global digital culture characterised by different factors than those previously known. These include the presence of constant change in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment; global social behaviour with massive, real-time interactions; the promotion of collaboration and collective intelligence in open innovation environments, but also the reaffirmation of the individual with the establishment of a personal brand. And, above all, expectations of free services and the end of customer loyalty.

The digitalisation of society today is unstoppable: economic transactions, social relations, digital twins, etc. This represents a real industrial revolution that is known by different names depending on the sector of activity: Industry 4.0, Smart Cities, e-Government and Digital Transformation.

This digital culture is leading to a transformation of organisations, whose business architecture is evolving, both from the demand for digital reinvention resulting from changing customer expectations and the availability of pervasive interconnectivity, and from the new outcomes made possible by digital technologies.

Digital transformation is a process of organisational change to seize the opportunities and meet the challenges of new digital technologies.

What are the main challenges posed by new digital technologies? I would mainly highlight the following.

Firstly, the management of scale and hyperconnectivity, i.e. the volume of data, known as Big Data.

Secondly, information security and data quality management. Security is what creates the necessary confidence in the use of information systems.

The third challenge I would highlight is managing the empowerment of users, who continuously improve our skills and abilities in the use of new technologies, and finally, but from my point of view the most important, the ability to achieve the agility demanded by our organisations.

But in addition to these challenges, there are several major dangers in this journey: on the one hand, the generation of expectations regarding the applicability of technology and, therefore, the misalignment of the digital transformation plan with the organisation’s objectives, and, on the other hand, the absence of a cultural component within the transformation process.

The researcher, scientist and president of the Institute for the Future, Roy Amara, states, in my opinion quite rightly, that “we overestimate what technology will do in the short term, and underestimate what it will do in the long term”.

Digital transformation is fundamentally about technology, but it is also about people.

The engine of change of any kind in organisations is people. Therefore, at Magtel we accompany entities and companies in their digital transformation processes, because it is a strategic journey focused on people to incorporate efficient processes and technologies that improve organisational capabilities and face their business operations with guarantees.

To conclude, I have good news and bad news: the good news is that digital transformation is here to stay and will generate significant benefits for companies. The bad news, however, is that this is a process of permanent evolution and continuous improvement, in which complacency and inaction are out of the question, as the damage can be irreversible.