Dialing In Digital Technologies

It's fair to say that organizations struggle to match business outcomes to the myriad of digital technology categories, much less sort out the technology-specific vendors who can deliver the desired outcomes. This blog will attempt to identify what technology categories contribute to business results. To review the desired business outcomes for 2022, please click here. The typical desired outcomes will be listed below at the top of Figure 1. Listed on the side of that same figure will be the familiar digital technologies delivering successful results these days. Each technology is listed as either a primary or secondary contributor to each desired business result. It does not mean that a specific technology can't contribute or assist in gleaning desired benefits, but primary contributors are more likely to deliver benefits. Therefore, I would recommend that organizations have at least one primary technology as a base when pursuing business results. Often technology can be bought in bundles called digital business platforms (DBP), and a guide to them can be viewed by clicking here. These bundles often package several primary or secondary technologies together in a usable proven package.

    Figure 1: Digital Technology by Contribution to Business Results

Ten Proven Digital Technology Categories

Listed below are the typical technology categories that are active in delivering results today. In addition, there are case studies available for each of these categories across many industry categories.

AI Learning

AI is used to quickly learn from data categories and instances to find important signals, events, and patterns that may require decisions or appropriate actions.

AI Advice

It is where AI interacts with humans to give advice in context to augment humans in particular situations. AI Advice makes for a more pleasant interaction with both customers and employees.

Business Processes Management

A process is where the steps/tasks are ordered in the best way to achieve a set of desirable outcomes. It could range from simple workflows to emergent processes, often called cases, with standard complex processes in the middle.

Customer / Employee Journeys

Journeys are the optimal and pleasant experience for the customer aimed at the customer's complete experience, including events and interactions that go beyond your organization. It usually involves both modeling and measurement. With the advent of remote work, the employee journey rises in priority.

Decision Management

It is a range of intelligent assists for decision-makers, including decision modeling, decision enablers embedded in operations, and business intelligence algorithms.

Low Code Development

It is a set of methods, techniques, and tools that simplify computer programming ranging from visual approaches to reusable code chunks. Often Low Code is aimed at business professionals to interact with technology professionals.

Management Cockpit

It is a set of integrated visualizations for transparency, a collection of integrated decision assists and levers for action working together for operational, tactical, or strategic outcomes.

Process / Data Mining

Mining is the ability to scan and identify patterns to respond to from past signals, events, and actions. Often the data sources are logs of past activity in context.

Robotic Process Automation

It is the automation of tasks or processes to remove tedious or unnecessary tasks from humans or systems that need integration. More competent bots/agents are now emerging to make decisions or take action.

Results-Oriented Communications

It is the linkage of detailed communications to desired results for key stakeholders. It organizes collaborations, contents, messages, and various communications around actual results reducing confusion prioritizing tasks and actions for improvement.

Net; Net:

While Figure 1 above focuses on results and declares contributing digital technologies, there are many infrastructural technologies that are a must for digital progress. They would include data mesh/fabric technologies and cyber security infrastructures that enable safe and accurate operations of the above technology classes. When looking down the columns of desired business results, it is essential to pick a core technology to build around. Often these technologies are gathered together to build platforms like digital business platforms. Organizations will have to bring together contributing technologies themselves or buy a platform that brings together most of the needed primary and secondary technologies. Remember that technologies can always assist efforts, but prioritizing on primary impact makes the most sense.