Innovating Against the Technology Disruptions Tsunami

By Ravindra Kelkar, Area Vice President, Sales & Services, India Sub-continent, Citrix

Technology Disruptions are changing the way organisations use technology. Instead of being just an operational enabler, IT has become a key component driving business strategy. Apart from their usual role as technology advocates, IT leaders are now increasingly responsible for improving business outcomes, increasing profitability and productivity.

Combined technology disruptions have caused a phenomenon called - ‘disruption tsunami’, changing the way technology is used in the workplace and in our daily lives. Social media, mobility, cloud computing and big data analytics are the four major disruptors that have together changed the way we live, work and play.

This has affected the workplace the most; work is no longer just about going to an office, it is now an increasingly fluid activity that people expect to be as adaptable and flexible as they are. This change favours organisations that enable employees with flexibility and personalised tools to boost productivity, engagement, and creativity. The business advantage goes to those who can recruit, retain, and empower the best talent, with the preferred tools that make technology an enabler, not an inhibitor.

Complexity in Today’s IT Environment

It is therefore not surprising that while becoming a business enabler, IT has also become increasingly more complex with more moving parts. The pursuit of agility, productivity and workforce mobility has added more systems, applications and services to the IT network of companies. One way of reducing this complexity is for businesses to digitally transform themselves into agile companies with IT fused into their DNA.

Research commissioned by Citrix, into the state of organisational complexity and its impact on business agility, digital transformation, security and cloud readiness, The State of IT Complexity in India 2018, shows a distinct correlation between the increasing levels of complexity felt within organisations and their IT environments.

38 per cent of organisations in India believe their IT environments are significantly more complex today than they were, two years ago. They report that this is due to the sheer volume of applications that need to be maintained and delivered and secured, with 39% of businesses in India using over 100 business applications.

More apps from more disparate sources, cloud computing, on-premise legacy IT, SaaS (software-as-a-service) offerings are all adding to the complexity, hampering day-to-day tasks and impacting productivity.

Despite all this, the study revealed that 99 per cent of Indian organisations are committed to digital transformation. The speed at which Indian organizations expect to be in a mature state of digital transformation is remarkable, with 55 per cent expecting to reach digital transformation maturity within six months.

Having said this, it is also important to note that Indian businesses face three major barriers to digital transformation. The first is the lack of budget to undertake and sustain a digital transformation programme. Inflexible IT culture and workflows is another hurdle to introducing agile processes which are the hallmark of digital transformation. The difficulty of discarding legacy technology and the lack of skill and compliance is the third major hurdle being faced by companies in India.

Despite this, the end goal is worth pursuing. A digital transformation strategy, designed to reduce complexity for the end user and for the IT management, will not only unlock potential productivity for the workforce, but it will also increase and improve transparency.

Organisations must consider a long-term view of digital transformation, ultimately to manage and reduce complexity, with a focus on delivering a unified, digital workspace for the end-user that is simple to use, and more importantly, centralised and simple to manage for IT.