The rapid proliferation of technology has resulted in a fundamental disruption in how businesses, the economy and society function. Digitalisation is a necessity and it must happen now not later for the organisation to survive and thrive amidst changes.
Credit: Glenn Carstens-Peters, Unsplash
Twenty participants picked up this salient point during the course on Introduction to Digital Transformation conducted by Mr Greg W Chew, Deputy Director, Info-Comm Technology, ITE Central, and Mr Peter Leow, Lecturer, early this year at Maritime Hall.
Seacare Co-operative representative Ong Zhi Wei shares more.
Samudra: What is this course all about?
Zhi Wei: It is a simple introductory session to digital transformation, covering both the theory and application aspect of digitalisation by touching on basic terminology and concepts, general approaches to digitalisation and relevant case studies.
The objective was to create a common base understanding of digitalisation; and with the said understanding, to kickstart further conversation within and across different entities on the digitalisation journey.
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What are some of the lessons learned?
We learnt that digitisation is the foundation for digitalisation which is the enabling or adding of digital capabilities to help streamline business. We also learned that digitisation and digitalisation are equally important. Data is the building block.
What are some of the digital trends?
Greg went through the 5 digital trends: Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Big Data & Analytics, Cloud Computing and Cyber Security. He showed how some of these trends are relevant to the various entities.
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Is digitalisation solution-based?
Digitalisation must be process-driven and not solution-based. Solutions should be tailored to the process, not vice versa. Which solution to adopt will depend on the cost-benefit analysis to be adopted by the entity and every entity would have different inputs for consideration.
What is a good starting point for digitalisation?
It is identifying and addressing pain points which include and not limited to the following:
i. removing duplication of work/bottleneck
ii. bringing offline / manual function to online / (semi or ) fully automatic) function
iii. Integration of data or function silos into a singular system
Also, aspiration points could be considered. Entities may want to consider looking into their end-to-end process in order to craft a digitalisation roadmap to match their aspiration.
Must we go big with digitalisation?
Digitalisation does not need to start big. It can start with the existing tools that we possessed within our organisation. Peter Leow demonstrated to the class how to better utilise Microsoft teams through apps such as Power Automate (a no-code to low-code platform to automate repetitive business process); Power Apps (a no-code to low-code platform for building apps) and Power BI (interactive data visualisation and analytics tool for business intelligence).
Visit e-Samudra or Issue 5 (20/21) for more stories.
