• Friday, March 29, 2024
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COVID-19: Digital Transformation not a conversation about technology – CIG

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As companies and businesses around the world grapple to survive the challenges occasioned by COVID-19, a Lagos-based B2B Consultancy has organised a webinar to offer solution to businesses striving to operate.

The webinar, organised by the Creative Intelligence Group (CIG), featured a panel of business transformation specialists from Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, focused on opportunities presented by COVID-19 for companies to evolve their growth and operational strategies with digital technology.

Femi Odewunmi, CEO of CIG, stated that companies must embrace digital transformation to stay afloat during the pandemic. However, the transformation must be tailored towards solving specific problems of the business to effective, he said.

“World over, about 70 percent of digital transformation problems fail to meet their goals. This can be attributed to the fixation on emerging technologies, rather than focusing on problem-solving strategies, which can then guide the right mix of technologies to adopt,” he said.

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Therefore, businesses were advised to fall in love with the prospect of solving the business problems forced upon them by COVID-19, not just the technology. “This way, organisations can avoid wasteful digital transformation projects,” he said.

The key points of the webinar emphasised that digital transformation under COVID-19 was less about technology and more about re-mapping existing products, services and operational strategies in a manner that allows organisations to survive and thrive in a pandemic-stricken society.

“Cloud services, however, will be the primary advantage in sustaining organisational operations and growth.

“Businesses need to accept the new way of working and re-evaluate their business policies and strategies and bring them up to speed with the current reality.

“To be successful, digital transformation programmes will need to be driven by organisational leadership, along with employees with competent digital skills,” it emphasised,” he said.

The webinar pointed out some key considerations in designing a digital transformation activity in response to COVID-19 to include: Communication, data storage, data protection, delivering satisfactory customer experience, and how to enable smarter collaboration.

Some of the panellists tha featured at the webinar were: Helen Anatogu, a director with Knowledge Resources UK; Toni Sokunbi, a senior management consultant with CAPCO US, and Busola Osilaja, a financial services consultant based in Nigeria.