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Are there any succesful examples of digital transformation ? I know digital transformation is the thing to do if you're in strategy or management consulting, so

by ovi256 8y ago

Are there any succesful examples of digital transformation ? I know digital transformation is the thing to do if you're in strategy or management consulting, so I hope to get some input from practitioners, or anyone who witnessed one. Derisively, my impression is that an organisation like GE will have to go through garbage collection while one (or why not more) digital native organisations take its place, in order for the new organisation to be a digital native. But I have no idea if being a digital native is even necessary. Most GE business units seem to be doing just fine with their accumulated capital of all kinds and their economies of scale.

StreamBright 8y ago
Are you kidding? There are hundreds of successful digital transformation stories.
- drewhart75 8y ago
  Can you list a handful of the hundreds?
  - tootie 8y ago
    The entirety of Wall St has gone digital and some of those banks are 100 years old. Walmart is another good example.
  - StreamBright 8y ago
    10: https://www.cio.com/article/3149977/digital-transformation/digital-transformation-examples.html https://www.cio.com/article/3149977/digital-transformation/d... 12: https://www.brainbridge.be/news/top-12-real-world-digital-transformation-success-stories https://www.brainbridge.be/news/top-12-real-world-digital-tr... I am quite amazed the closed mindedness of some of the people commenting here
virusduck 8y ago
While not really the same, how about HBO? I think HBO is a stunning example, as they were an early leader in (invented?) a dedicated movie-delivery method. I'd argue that their original lifeblood (cable movie channel) is largely dead, but yet they flourish. A large part is because they embraced the digital world, knowing that they had to create something worth paying for. The take away I see is that "digital transformation" is more than going online or providing services, you still have to have something that people actually want to buy.
Xixi 8y ago
Isn't Netflix a prime example? Or am I misunderstanding the meaning of "digital transformation"? Netflix used to be a DVD rental service, and in fact that service still exists: https://dvd.netflix.com/ https://dvd.netflix.com/.
- michaelt 8y ago
  The problem with the phrase "digital transformation" is it's extremely vague, implying either that managers don't know precisely what they're attempting and how it will generate business value; or that there's a raft of separate efforts so loosely related that the only unifying theme is that computers will be involved. If your plan is "provide streaming video" you'd call it that instead, thereby showing you know what you're trying to do, what success means for the project, and how it will produce business value.
- scott_s 8y ago
  I believe the people who ran Netflix always understood what their business was. I don't think they ever saw themselves as a "DVD rental service." I think they - rightly - saw their business as serving entertainment on demand. To support this, recall that back in 2011, Netflix tried to make this clear by spinning off the DVD rental part into Qwikster, and people revolted. They backed off (https://media.netflix.com/en/company-blog/an-explanation-and-some-reflections https://media.netflix.com/en/company-blog/an-explanation-and...). But I believe they did this because they knew their business is delivering entertainment, and that streaming was going to become the easier way to do that versus DVDs. Their folly was enforcing this vision too aggressively on their customers. If they spun off the DVD rental service now, I don't think many people would care. I don't see this kind of clarity in some other companies that try to transform themselves. I think it's quite rare.
  - Xixi 8y ago
    Indeed Netflix was successful, while a lot of other companies are not/weren't (Blockbuster, etc.). But because a company doesn't quite understand how/if it is going to be impacted by a digital transformation doesn't mean it shouldn't try or care. Quite the opposite, if you ask me. Not long ago AI was such a taboo word that people were avoiding it at all cost, because pronouncing it was a sure way to drive any kind of funding away (funny how quickly these things change). So anything yielding tangible results (machine learning, natural language processing, image recognition, etc.) was "not AI". AI were those crazies trying to put the human brain on a chip. My point: because Netflix underwent a successful digital transformation doesn't mean it's not a digital transformation, it just means that it's possible to describe it in a much more specific way. Same in the heavy industry: Boeing/Airbus underwent crazy digital transformations, but they are not called that way because it's possible to be much more specific: simulations when it comes to design, 3D printing on the production side, etc.
haaen 8y ago
Domino's pizza. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kylewong/2018/01/26/how-dominos-transformed-into-an-ecommerce-powerhouse-whose-product-is-pizza/#1e1ddcfa7f76 https://www.forbes.com/sites/kylewong/2018/01/26/how-dominos...
- framebit 8y ago
  From an interview with Domino's CEO Patrick Doyle in 2015: "We believe by transaction counts we’re in the top five of e-commerce companies in the world. We know we’re behind Apple and Amazon, but we may be as high as third." Domino's has wildly invested in their tech: https://www.marketplace.org/2015/09/24/business/corner-office/dominos-ceo-patrick-doyle-tech-side-pizza https://www.marketplace.org/2015/09/24/business/corner-offic...
  - cosmie 8y ago
    I worked there when they went through all that around 2010. It was fascinating watching it play out. They put a hard deadline of when stores needed to upgrade from the decades-old DOS system, and in the case of my store at least, forcibly transferred ownership to a different franchisee when the original owner refused to make the investment. The new system was a completely bespoke store management system. POS, call routing, back office management, driver dispatch, scheduling, inventory management, commissary ordering, line management, and online ordering all integrated into a single system. It even had built in adaptive labor management, using historical volume data to estimate expected scheduling needs, as well as live trend data that told you when to cut drivers. Which was rarely accurate, because it used average delivery times as an input, but corporate used average delivery times as an audit metric, so most stores gamed the dispatch system to goose their corporate audit scores (with the side effect of breaking the accuracy of all the labor management functions of the new system). On the backend, it enabled a lot of neat data analysis that corporate could use to identify shady shit at franchises, like 2 minute long phone calls, an order that was punched in but never completed, yet inventory coming up short for that exact "canceled" order. Having worked at a store that actively resisted the changes, then moving to a store where the franchisee embraced the new capabilities and shifted incentives to increase adoption, gave me an incredibly vivid view of how change management impacts projects. One of the experiences I could have asked for that earlier in my career.
kinj28 8y ago
Digital transformation is a very vague term & means different things to different people. For the sake of clarity - I work with companies in Mobile enabling their business for cases below: a. enabling employee experiences on Mobile (typically intranet apps) b. enabling Customer experiences (apps that enable customers for customer experience - eg. Mobile banking, flight booking, etc) c. partner ecosystem apps one of my customer had 50+ employee apps & has over 160K employees. Apps were built on IBM's platform and were managed by airwatch agent. This strategy of the mobility program had multiple issues arising mostly from end user perspective. 1. App discovery was a challenge (high pain, low or unknown gain - for users to discover any app at all) 2. installation fatigue (imagine downloading multiple company apps) 3. erratic app lifecycle management led to higher upgrades 4. airwatch agent sucks battery 5. Intrusive nature of airwatch agent on personal devices Our approach to solve this challenge: 1. Provided a microapp architecture based one app container (a sandboxed cordova + enterprise plugins baked in the container for hosting multiple microapps. monolith was leading to development of multiple binaries otherwise). 2. added a universal inbox with actionable links (this created a way of soft discovery of new microapps) 3. SSO enabled all microapps 4. cloud based console for managing the micro app lifecycle was provisioned. This gave a mechanism to hot load web assets and retire them. 5. Enterprise grade security was added on the container & this led the customer make provisioning of app with airwatch optional. 6 making web apps of office productivity apps available to be in line with the info sec guidelines. Observation post roll out (we are now ~30 months into the program): Adoption - over 100K users enabled. Over 50k+ monthly active users a. making airwatch optional - led to reduced user resistance for adopting the app b. Simpler life cycle management of just the microapps - made it less cumbersome for the users c. cutting down of time to build & manage subsequent apps Full Disclosure: I am part of the founding team of DronaHQ - a containerised low code platform, which has been implemented at customer end.

by ovi256 8y ago

StreamBright 8y ago

Are you kidding? There are hundreds of successful digital transformation stories.

drewhart75 8y ago
Can you list a handful of the hundreds?
- tootie 8y ago
  The entirety of Wall St has gone digital and some of those banks are 100 years old. Walmart is another good example.
- StreamBright 8y ago
  10: https://www.cio.com/article/3149977/digital-transformation/digital-transformation-examples.html https://www.cio.com/article/3149977/digital-transformation/d... 12: https://www.brainbridge.be/news/top-12-real-world-digital-transformation-success-stories https://www.brainbridge.be/news/top-12-real-world-digital-tr... I am quite amazed the closed mindedness of some of the people commenting here

virusduck 8y ago

While not really the same, how about HBO? I think HBO is a stunning example, as they were an early leader in (invented?) a dedicated movie-delivery method. I'd argue that their original lifeblood (cable movie channel) is largely dead, but yet they flourish. A large part is because they embraced the digital world, knowing that they had to create something worth paying for. The take away I see is that "digital transformation" is more than going online or providing services, you still have to have something that people actually want to buy.

Xixi 8y ago

Isn't Netflix a prime example? Or am I misunderstanding the meaning of "digital transformation"? Netflix used to be a DVD rental service, and in fact that service still exists: https://dvd.netflix.com/ https://dvd.netflix.com/.

michaelt 8y ago
The problem with the phrase "digital transformation" is it's extremely vague, implying either that managers don't know precisely what they're attempting and how it will generate business value; or that there's a raft of separate efforts so loosely related that the only unifying theme is that computers will be involved. If your plan is "provide streaming video" you'd call it that instead, thereby showing you know what you're trying to do, what success means for the project, and how it will produce business value.
scott_s 8y ago
I believe the people who ran Netflix always understood what their business was. I don't think they ever saw themselves as a "DVD rental service." I think they - rightly - saw their business as serving entertainment on demand. To support this, recall that back in 2011, Netflix tried to make this clear by spinning off the DVD rental part into Qwikster, and people revolted. They backed off (https://media.netflix.com/en/company-blog/an-explanation-and-some-reflections https://media.netflix.com/en/company-blog/an-explanation-and...). But I believe they did this because they knew their business is delivering entertainment, and that streaming was going to become the easier way to do that versus DVDs. Their folly was enforcing this vision too aggressively on their customers. If they spun off the DVD rental service now, I don't think many people would care. I don't see this kind of clarity in some other companies that try to transform themselves. I think it's quite rare.
- Xixi 8y ago
  Indeed Netflix was successful, while a lot of other companies are not/weren't (Blockbuster, etc.). But because a company doesn't quite understand how/if it is going to be impacted by a digital transformation doesn't mean it shouldn't try or care. Quite the opposite, if you ask me. Not long ago AI was such a taboo word that people were avoiding it at all cost, because pronouncing it was a sure way to drive any kind of funding away (funny how quickly these things change). So anything yielding tangible results (machine learning, natural language processing, image recognition, etc.) was "not AI". AI were those crazies trying to put the human brain on a chip. My point: because Netflix underwent a successful digital transformation doesn't mean it's not a digital transformation, it just means that it's possible to describe it in a much more specific way. Same in the heavy industry: Boeing/Airbus underwent crazy digital transformations, but they are not called that way because it's possible to be much more specific: simulations when it comes to design, 3D printing on the production side, etc.

haaen 8y ago

Domino's pizza. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kylewong/2018/01/26/how-dominos-transformed-into-an-ecommerce-powerhouse-whose-product-is-pizza/#1e1ddcfa7f76 https://www.forbes.com/sites/kylewong/2018/01/26/how-dominos...

framebit 8y ago
From an interview with Domino's CEO Patrick Doyle in 2015: "We believe by transaction counts we’re in the top five of e-commerce companies in the world. We know we’re behind Apple and Amazon, but we may be as high as third." Domino's has wildly invested in their tech: https://www.marketplace.org/2015/09/24/business/corner-office/dominos-ceo-patrick-doyle-tech-side-pizza https://www.marketplace.org/2015/09/24/business/corner-offic...
- cosmie 8y ago
  I worked there when they went through all that around 2010. It was fascinating watching it play out. They put a hard deadline of when stores needed to upgrade from the decades-old DOS system, and in the case of my store at least, forcibly transferred ownership to a different franchisee when the original owner refused to make the investment. The new system was a completely bespoke store management system. POS, call routing, back office management, driver dispatch, scheduling, inventory management, commissary ordering, line management, and online ordering all integrated into a single system. It even had built in adaptive labor management, using historical volume data to estimate expected scheduling needs, as well as live trend data that told you when to cut drivers. Which was rarely accurate, because it used average delivery times as an input, but corporate used average delivery times as an audit metric, so most stores gamed the dispatch system to goose their corporate audit scores (with the side effect of breaking the accuracy of all the labor management functions of the new system). On the backend, it enabled a lot of neat data analysis that corporate could use to identify shady shit at franchises, like 2 minute long phone calls, an order that was punched in but never completed, yet inventory coming up short for that exact "canceled" order. Having worked at a store that actively resisted the changes, then moving to a store where the franchisee embraced the new capabilities and shifted incentives to increase adoption, gave me an incredibly vivid view of how change management impacts projects. One of the experiences I could have asked for that earlier in my career.

kinj28 8y ago

Digital transformation is a very vague term & means different things to different people. For the sake of clarity - I work with companies in Mobile enabling their business for cases below: a. enabling employee experiences on Mobile (typically intranet apps) b. enabling Customer experiences (apps that enable customers for customer experience - eg. Mobile banking, flight booking, etc) c. partner ecosystem apps one of my customer had 50+ employee apps & has over 160K employees. Apps were built on IBM's platform and were managed by airwatch agent. This strategy of the mobility program had multiple issues arising mostly from end user perspective. 1. App discovery was a challenge (high pain, low or unknown gain - for users to discover any app at all) 2. installation fatigue (imagine downloading multiple company apps) 3. erratic app lifecycle management led to higher upgrades 4. airwatch agent sucks battery 5. Intrusive nature of airwatch agent on personal devices Our approach to solve this challenge: 1. Provided a microapp architecture based one app container (a sandboxed cordova + enterprise plugins baked in the container for hosting multiple microapps. monolith was leading to development of multiple binaries otherwise). 2. added a universal inbox with actionable links (this created a way of soft discovery of new microapps) 3. SSO enabled all microapps 4. cloud based console for managing the micro app lifecycle was provisioned. This gave a mechanism to hot load web assets and retire them. 5. Enterprise grade security was added on the container & this led the customer make provisioning of app with airwatch optional. 6 making web apps of office productivity apps available to be in line with the info sec guidelines. Observation post roll out (we are now ~30 months into the program): Adoption - over 100K users enabled. Over 50k+ monthly active users a. making airwatch optional - led to reduced user resistance for adopting the app b. Simpler life cycle management of just the microapps - made it less cumbersome for the users c. cutting down of time to build & manage subsequent apps Full Disclosure: I am part of the founding team of DronaHQ - a containerised low code platform, which has been implemented at customer end.