On the Job by Anita Bruzzese How to Lead Digital Transformation Successfully

On the Job by Anita Bruzzese How to Lead Digital Transformation Successfully These days, its not a question of if but when your organization will digitally transform itself. Therealunknown may be how it will take place. If the transformation is done poorly, then a companys very survival might be at risk. But if its done right, then the organization may evolve into an enterprise that is more agile, more competitive and more innovative. Much of this, of course, depends on senior leadership. Those in the C-suite will be tasked with ensuring an organization is digitally on the right track and doesnt squander the efforts or dollars put into its transformation. One of the best ways for senior leaders to understand how to determine the organizations needs, create the right culture and use its resources wisely can be found in anew white paperfrom Knowledge@Wharton and sponsored by HCL Technologies. In the paper, experts look at the best practices of several organizations that have made successful digital transformations andlessons learnedby leaders. Minimal disruption The digital transformation goals for Novelis, a major U.S. industrial aluminum processor, were: virtualization, elimination of data center duplication; process improvements; and aroll up of business operations. Kenneth Benson, global IT hosting director, says the company made significant investments in the effort, such as buying new hardware and third-party service provider contracts. It also made cuts, such as closing more than 20 data centers and moving to private cloud services. This not only allowed Novelis to switch operations among data centers in an emergency, but saved $14 million in data center closings and fewer employees. The change also has given business units greater transparency of the fees they pay for services and greater predictability in service availability. They can see more clearly where they can cut costs or be more efficient, and can predict problems with storage, servers and networking before they happen since they havereal-time monitoring and performance dataaccess. Before the transformation, about half of the efforts by Bensons team were focused on building the infrastructure necessary for the organizations 40 to 50 projects a year. After the transformation, only about(read more here)