Digital Transformation opportunities and themes 2019/03 - maximizing return on digital

Digital Transformation opportunities and themes from the DTI (2019/03) - Maximizing return on Digital

Feb 2022 - this post is permanently moved to https://architectfwd.com, my new site, and can be found here  - https://architectfwd.com/architecture/enterprise-architecture/digital-transformation/dti2019review/2022/02/01/digital-transformation-opportunities-and-themes-maximizing-return-on-digital/ please go and bookmark that site for all of my future content.

Update 06 April 2019, my post on the theme digital enterprise from the DTI report is available.

This post follows on from my previous post on Digital Transformation opportunities and themes. The DTI assessment[1] from May 2018 noted a number of advanced technologies which would impact businesses, through enabling new capabilities and ultimately driving new value to customers and other stakeholders. This post touches lightly on one of the themes from the DTI assessment, and how it may further impact business and society.

Themes

The DTI notes that the following are key themes that have emerged from the analysis of digital transformation across 13 industries (health, retail, professional services amongst others):

• Maximizing return on digital - the topic of this post.
• Digital Consumption
• Digital Enterprise
• Platform Economy
• Societal Implications
• Unlocking Digital Value to Society

I will post on each of these themes aspects I find particularly insightful over a number of posts.

Maximizing return on digital

Investing in new technologies..

• ..creates new efficiencies, through modernising, improving or streamlining business processes and optimizing use and cost of assets and resources.
  
  Here I see value as follows. Technology such as cloud and AI can be used to improve value stream stages, and other efficiencies in business process redesign to make optimal use of technology in streamlined operations and reduction of costs.
• ..enhances customer experiences,
  
  Here I see the value delivered through omnichannel, new channels, enhanced process, product and solution value propositions which focus on delighting the customer and meeting high expectations of tailored service offerings. Think of cloud and how netflix delivers TV and film to any device, form factor and with video quality and an experience to suit the form factor.
• ..builds new business models.
  
  Investing in new business models is difficult and where faster moving startups excel, but finding new technologies to improve the channel, value proposition or delivery through technology providing, for example a platform as a key asset helps to drive revenue and open or expand customer segments. I plan on writing something up regarding the Business Model Canvas as another blog entry. The book "Business Model Generation" was so useful to me in understanding this area, and I hope to continue learning more.

DTI notes that Compound Annual Growth Rate for business spend on new technologies could rise 13% to $2.4 trillion through to 2020! Growth areas include 3D printing, robotics and IoT, and decreases likely in the mobile / social space.

DTI notes that some key enablers are required, such as building ecosystems of partners and suppliers, technology infrastructure build-out, agile and digital leadership, strong data access and management and forward thinking.

It is incredible to think how Digital Transformation can benefit customers and business, and how technology can assist in realizing these outcomes! In my next post I'll discuss one the other themes listed in the Digital Transformation Initiation report - Digital Consumption.

Cheers

Quintes

Quintes van Aswegen Togaf 9 Certified Architect, Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) Certified

Connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter

[1] http://reports.weforum.org/digital-transformation/

Digital Transformation opportunities and themes 2019-03 - DTI review

Digital Transformation opportunities and themes - DTI review (2019/03)

Feb 2022 - this post is permanently moved to https://architectfwd.com, my new site, and can be found here  - https://architectfwd.com/architecture/enterprise-architecture/digital-transformation/dti2019review/2022/02/01/digital-transformation-opportunities-and-themes-2019-03-DTI-review/ please go and bookmark that site for all of my future content.

Update 06 April 2019, my posts on the themes maximizing return on digital, digital enterprise around the DTI report are available.

Since gaining my Togaf 9 certification (Togaf is a framework for enterprise architecture that provides an approach for designing, planning, implementing, and governing an enterprise information technology architecture) I have been consuming a large number of Open Group white papers and that led to a renewed interest in what themes are surrounding Digital Transformation in the current environment. I am particularly interested in how new and advanced technologies intersect with innovation and new business models to deliver outstanding experiences to customers.

I have experience in Digital Transformation, particularly in relation to services and solutions which have modernised and / or transformed services and impacted stakeholders in valuable and meaningful ways, in industries such as Systems Integration / Plant automation, Bottling, ISV in mobile solutions and audit, tax and corporate secretarial, and in Government. I was therefore pleased to find the Digital Transformation Initiative by the World Economic Forum detailing some innovations and themes to which I could relate, and which I could further add to my tool kit.

The Digital Transformation Initiative

The World Economic Forum launched the Digital Transformation Initiative (DTI) in 2015 focusing on themes and opportunities relating to digitalization of business.

The falling costs of advanced technologies is a key driver for business to leverage these technologies to deliver new capabilities which can enhance value propositions, improve value stream stages and deliver new experiences to customers or stakeholders.

Technologies

The DTI paper notes that the following are key technologies impacting business:

• AI
• Autonomous Vehicles
• Big data analytics and cloud
• custom manufacturing and 3D printing
• IoT
• Robots and drones
• Social Media and platforms

The value which can be created for customers and businesses though the use of these technologies needs to be viewed in conjunction with impact to both business models and operating models. 

Themes

I'm keen to explore the technologies, themes and impact to business and operating models over a few posts. Stay tuned.

Cheers

Quintes

Quintes van Aswegen Togaf 9 Certified Architect, Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) Certified

Connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter

[1] http://reports.weforum.org/digital-transformation/

Azure billing, cosmosdb, a tale on monitoring costs

Azure billing, cosmosdb and a tale on monitoring costs

I found an extra MSFT line item on my credit card, for a few dollars, not too much but enough for a nice lunch out. Not sure how I missed it. I did have cosmosdb from the free trial running at 100 RU/s and I think the trial ended. So looking at my invoice I could momentarily see nothing as at one point it was saying resource not available, but since corrected itself.

Account Subscription billing data

On the summary page, a link to the Version 1 downloadable data throws me an error "https://account.azure.com/Error/404" 

Clicking on "Download invoice" confirms "Azure Cosmos DB 100 RU/s AU East"

By the way, clicking the downloadable CSV option Version 2- Preview results in a file with plenty of info and I could tell which resources at a high level and over the period.

Subscription cost analysis

The cost analysis chart shows me how cosmos was chewing through dollars since 01 Feb. Useful but tells me I've now paid way more than a nice lunch.

Uh, Deleted

Easy, I've deleted the cosmosdb instance. I've also opted in to my emails to other email accounts because this one slipped through and the billing invoice was missed.

Cost optimisation - you must monitor all costs in your cloud consumption and determine if the service you are consuming is at the right tier or can be downscaled, or in this instance uh, deleted.

Cheers

Quintes
Togaf 9 Certified Architect
Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) Certified

Connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter