Digitalization is many things: a buzzword, hype, upheaval in the digital world and a competitive advantage. Hardly any company is unfamiliar with it, and yet only a few industries have so far been able to penetrate digitalization so successfully that they are decisively ahead of the competition. But what are the key success factors for companies to make digitalization a practical success?
Our economic system is an ecosystem that is comparable to biological systems. In nature untouched by humans, plants and animals create a kind of balance and coexistence. If a new species appears on the scene, all existing species have to adapt again and assert themselves through evolution - or they die out. Economic systems work in exactly the same way: companies pursue growth targets. They want to become better and better in order to compete successfully on the market. New companies bring new products to the market, while others disappear - sometimes along with their company. Those who can hold their own in this competition survive. There are phases when everything works in balanced coexistence. There are also times of change and tough competition, in which markets are reorganized. The liberalization of the telecommunications and electricity markets, for example, is such a phase of change, accompanied by fierce competition.
The "new breed" of digital companies is currently shaking up this market balance. Companies already consist of analog and digital processes - communication via email, cloud storage, ERP systems, etc. has now become established. Physical production processes are increasingly becoming fully automated and networked production lines. How did it come to this? Digital processes are generally faster and, above all, more efficient. Technologies and data networks have evolved. They no longer represent a limit. Better scaling creates cost advantages in production and organization, better products can be brought to market much faster and the time saved can be used to develop new innovations. The leap into the digital transformation of one's own company is out of the question and will be a prerequisite for success on the market in the future. But if all companies digitize, where is the competitive advantage? This is where the HOW decides.
- Select the processes for digitization according to where the benefits are greatest
- Adapt their corporate culture to digitalization
- Involve all managers and employees in the digital transformation from the outset, involve and empower them
- Build up and expand technical knowledge and harness the right technologies for successful digitalization
Flexible and modern software solutions as a key success factor for digitalization
If digitalization is to succeed, change must start with software development. After all, digitalization means using software. It is the basis for digital processes and therefore the central component of technical feasibility.
Until now, their introduction has been associated with a lot of time, high technical effort, complex, time-consuming quality assurance, expensive operation and costly maintenance - at the same time, the benefits were often realized very late or not at all. The reasons for this were Long release cycles, high initial costs and poor scalabilitywhich is accompanied by a proportional increase in (operating) costs. The difficulty of reacting flexibly to changing framework conditions and software requirements has deterred many companies from digitization. In the meantime, new methods have become established that Software more flexible and cost-effective become a reality. This means that software development is also facing a transformation process. One characteristic of this is that the focus is increasingly shifting to satisfying the individual needs of the user. It must be scalable both for mass use and for individual requirements at low cost.
This change is also accompanied by a considerable transfer of expertise. In order to be able to create modular and adaptable software, technological expertise usually has to be built up or purchased first. This is creating a new market for software services with new technologies that enable digitalization or make it even more efficient.
We are convinced that the technological key to successful digitalization lies in these approaches / methods:
- Agile software development: Changes are incorporated during the development process, making it significantly faster.
- Continuous Integration & Delivery: Enables constant adjustments and automation including quality assurance in the development and delivery process in contrast to classic release cycles.
- API economy: From the outset, systems are equipped with programming interfaces that enable rapid networking. The billing of services according to so-called API calls is one of the major topics.
- Microservices: Focus on simple functionalities, away from cumbersome monolithic systems. Smaller modules are built with better adapted technology, making maintenance easier and cheaper.
- Cloud computing: Creates better scaling options through new computing capacities or storage that can be easily integrated during operation.
- Big Data: Provides much more data to feed the digital process with information from inside and outside. In data hubs, all information is available everywhere and in real time.
- Artificial intelligence: Artificial intelligence algorithms such as machine learning, cognitive computing and semantic networks can be used to better recognize patterns and make automated decisions.
The digital transformation is being driven forward by these approaches. As a result, all factors in which digital processes were once inferior to analog processes are gradually being eliminated. Flexible, modular and open software structures are being created and Technologiesthat meet the need for individual services and the design of automated and efficient processes. Efficient software development is therefore the key to practical digitalization success, alongside cultural and structural company factors. In order for a company to be involved here, technological expertise is required above all.
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