We’ve all heard about and embraced the concept of digital transformation, with most of our organisations somewhere on that journey. Now, the digital imperative has begun to creep into conversations. But what is the digital imperative’s meaning for you and your organisation?
At its heart, the digital imperative is about harnessing technology and infusing it into every stage of our business processes, to empower every organisation, business unit and individual to do more with less.
The organisations that will thrive in this new world of work are those who have embraced and understood their digital imperative, applying appropriate cloud technologies to their specific business challenges and goals.
The digital imperative centres around five key pillars:
Migrate to the cloud
Cloud migration is something that most organisations have embraced to one extent or another.
True cloud migration starts with infrastructure. Taking a hard look at your on-premise environment and rationalising and modernising your approach is the cornerstone of any successful cloud migration.
Microsoft Azure provides a comprehensive set of cloud services that allow you to reduce costs, drive operational efficiencies and deliver a faster return on your investment. Azure Arc extends the power of Azure anywhere, allowing you to build and deploy apps and Azure services across your on-premise environment, to the edge, or even across multi-cloud environments.
Those organisations that take full advantage of these capabilities and services, avoiding the temptation to just lift and shift current environments wholesale to the cloud, are those that will be truly competitive in this new world of work.
Empower everyone to do their best work
Everyone in your organisation can work together to develop systems, tools and processes that provide a competitive edge and make your organisation successful.
By taking a tailored approach to application and service creation and development, layering and adopting DevOps practices to quickly develop and deploy code, you can move from idea, to code, to cloud quickly and easily, and empower every employee to contribute to your success.
Building environments, tools and process that bring together your dedicated developers with enthusiastic, amateur citizen developers across your organisation will allow the best ideas to bubble to surface and for every person to contribute to your organisation’s success.
Make your data work for you
We all have vast quantities of data, but what we need is information at our fingertips that allow us to make better decisions.
It starts with building a consistent and intelligent data fabric across your data estate, and then applying Intelligent automation, AI and analytics to create value and to streamline data governance.
Azure data and analytics can help you unlock the power of your data estate, helping you move into cost-effective cloud infrastructure, modernise your platform and ultimately develop cloud-based apps that delight your users.
Collaboration, everywhere
Recent global events have necessitated a rapid move to hybrid working, with more of our workforces performing differently than they once did; the days of going to a single place of work for five days a week are gone for most of us.
Microsoft 365 brings together best in class services to create a digital fabric that underpins this need for hybrid work and constant collaboration. Microsoft Viva connects your employees in a way that didn’t exist before, empowering your employees and driving attainment of your digital imperative.
Whether you are responding to the seismic change to working practices and the rapid adoption of hybrid working technologies brought about by the global pandemic, or the economic challenges closer to home which are driving an ever increasing need for financial and budgetary savings, doing more with less has never been more important or more critical to success of every organisation.
Secure your business
Organisations of all sizes are experiencing an ever-increasing number of cyber attacks, with the sophistication of each attack growing day by day.
By assessing your current threat landscape, ensuring your IT operations are protected through detecting and responding in real-time to mitigate your risk, and preventing data loss with fully managed security services through a dedicated SOC and NOC, we can help keep your organisation safe from threats.
By prioritising security across every system and business process, organisations that can marry together their technology, human expertise and coordinated threat intelligence will be best placed to thrive in this rapidly evolving landscape.
What the digital imperative means for you
This may all sound a little daunting, but embracing your digital imperative doesn’t mean having to work longer or harder. It requires an honest assessment of your current capabilities and approaches, a willingness to address and enact change, and a desire to apply technology appropriately and sensitively to deliver real change.
We have seen potentially decades of business and process change land on our doorsteps in only the last few years. This pace is unlikely to slow down. If anything, the rate of change and challenge is likely to increase.
Finding, understanding, and delivering on your digital imperative will be essential to thrive and succeed in this ever-evolving world.
By embracing these approaches, you can deliver real value for your organisation, differentiate from your competitors and build resilience across technology and processes that set you up for your future success.
