The future happens all the time

For every $1bn invested in new technology, $112m is lost to projects that fail, according to a 2018 study by the Project Management Institute.

This means that by 2020, companies across the globe had wasted a collective $224bn on failed technology transformations. 

Technology is fuelling a fourth industrial revolution that is exponentially increasing the rate of change and threatening the relevance of all businesses, regardless of size and complexity. This is placing digital transformation – a term which is often misused – on the strategic agenda of every business. Digital transformation helps CEOs diversify revenue streams, sustain profitability and increase agility. Most importantly, it is a crucial requirement for companies wishing to remain competitive in the face of accelerating change and disruption.

Digital transformation can be complicated. And getting it wrong can be have serious consequences.  

Yet to remain relevant and competitive in the digital era, all competitive modern organisations need to place far more strategic emphasis on software development, which sits at the heart of digital transformation and competitive advantage. 

As globalisation takes hold and digitisation of industries and ecommerce expands, the world’s biggest software developers, such as Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon, have affected the business models of companies of all scales across the globe. We need to be able interact with them, leverage their capabilities, and also compete with them. As a result, every company needs to become a software company. For us to compete globally in a digital era, we need to be able to build software as well as they do, while ensuring that ethical design and development considerations are top of mind.

At iOCO, we speak of DevAnything, because literally anything is possible with modern technology, software, data, analytics, and integration. Software is no longer about a business requirement spec that gets handed to an IT team. It has become an integrated, continuous process that enables business to develop creative and innovative solutions.

At a high level, forward-thinking CEO need assurance that their organisation is able to deliver on three crucial components: design, agility, and interconnection.

Design

Technology offers a huge opportunity to differentiate customer experiences. To get this right, companies need to gain insight into customer needs and problems and then deploy human-centred problem-solving and design techniques to solve their biggest business opportunities and challenges. This design-thinking approach redefines how we build products and customer experiences. Software designed to solve real problems, and for the customer, is a critical success factor. 

Agility

Agility is, increasingly, the only meaningful currency when building resilient, anti-fragile organisations that can adapt to rapid, exponential, change. To compete in a digital age, businesses need to be able to deliver products, features and processes, from design through to development and testing, at a predictable cost and at the scale and pace expected in the digital era. 

Interconnection

Adopting an API-first philosophy and having the platforms to facilitate smooth exchange of APIs with other businesses, can revolutionise the quality of products and innovation, and rapidly accelerate your time to market. 

Forming strategic partnerships with software development companies that can understand and translate end-user requirements and scale up or down in response to immediate needs while delivering exceptional software, allows companies to quickly pivot and respond to strategic digital opportunities.

At iOCO, we believe anything is possible with modern technology, software, and development expertise. Literally, anything.

And our global team of software developers can help you make anything happen. We support your digital transformation by rapidly building bespoke applications and automation into your organisational architecture. The result? Software that enables your business, delivers outstanding digital customer experiences, and enhances your operational efficiency.

So, what would you build, if you could DevAnything? 

For more information visit the iOCO website.

About the author: Brian Harding is managing executive – iOCO digital, international and regions.

This article was paid for by iOCO.