EDITOR’S LETTER
I hope you are doing well and best wishes for a great 2016.
Welcome to the first Anniversary Edition of Illuminar! As we cross the first major milestone in the history of Illuminar, the entire team is filled with an immense sense of gratitude – especially to our readers and subject matter experts, for your time, continuous encouragement and support.
We also realize how much has happened since we raised our glasses to toast the launch of Illuminar. Our editions covered news, trends and opinions around several leading topics including finance transformation, customer experience, digital risks, shared services and the role of the chief digital officer.
Our most recent edition featured a survey that met with a lot of encouraging responses. As promised, we’ve featured an infographic in this edition that summarizes how and to what extent did digital transformation have an impact on businesses. The results are indeed quite interesting. Of the 498 respondents who participated in the survey, only less than about 10% felt that digital transformation was not high ranking on their agenda. Top Digital transformation initiatives were focused on Information Management, Enterprise Risk / Governance, Marketing Automation and Analytics. Close to 40% of the respondents felt that lack of technology infrastructure and applications were key challenges to execute a digital mandate, while the lack of a cohesive strategy and vision came in close at 32%. For 2016, the main items on the watch list included real-time customer interaction, Mobile analytics, marketing automation and information management / governance.
While the general direction for digital transformation is fairly clear, ensuring successful implementation through the enterprise is far more complex. Digital transformation represents a change in the way companies do business in this digital age. While there is no doubt that the IT organization will play a very critical role in digital transformation projects, successful projects will rest on how the digital change is initiated in the enterprise from the top down in order to create a cultural shift in the way the entire organization engages in the new scheme of things.
For most parts of 2016, Illuminar will focus on the key elements of change management. This year, we’ll bring you opinions and thought leadership from experts around the world, on how enterprises can and have leveraged innovation for accelerated change management, leading to successful transformation. After all, digital means increasing speed of change and hyper-connectivity. Irrespective of how well a transformation is envisioned and planned, if not executed with care and precision, it can lead to sub-optimal results at best or worse, can cause immense damage to the enterprise.
This year, we look forward to engaging with you in deeper, more fulfilling on-going conversations as our team keeps the Illuminar flag flying high with fresh news and perspectives. Thanks once again for your encouragement.
Wish you a fulfilling year with lots of health and happiness.
Best Regards,
Srividya Kannan,
Editor, Illuminar
editorials@avaali.com