With the rapid emergence of new technologies, many businesses are on the eve of a transformation. This is possible only if the IT architecture is adapted accordingly, according to Conclusion subsidiary myBrand.
Managing Director Seger Theuns and Marketing and Communications Manager Corianne Visser of myBrand tell about the adaptive ability of organisations, the changing role of IT departments and the value of true partnerships.
How would you, as IT professionals, describe our current time?
Theuns: “Speaking for myself, I think we’re living in a fascinating era. I often find myself thinking back to the mid to late 1990s, when e-commerce first began to take off and the business world was suddenly faced with all these new opportunities, which provided access to alternative business models. This brought about an exciting new dynamic. I can see a similar dynamic now, except it’s occurring on a much larger scale, with a far greater impact.
Whereas at the time the revolution mainly involved new functionalities, it’s now about trends that will affect the current business models on a much more fundamental level – I’m talking about technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the Internet of Things. We notice that companies are trying to figure out what impact this will have on their day-to-day operations, how sustainable their business model is, and what changes they need to make.”
But is it always clear what changes need to be made? Or would you say there are businesses that feel some anxiety or trepidation?
Visser: “What we’re seeing is that some companies have been very successful in pursuing their vision and are making great progress, while others are only just starting out. The fact is that many companies still have quite a few legacy systems in their current organisation, systems that were developed a decade ago, which tend to have a lot of customised features. These systems are limited in terms of what they can do, and making changes is difficult, time-consuming and expensive. That in itself makes it a tough decision: are we adding yet another extension to our home, or are we tearing the whole thing down and building something new?”
Theuns: “The question: ‘Will we still be around five years from now?’ is a legitimate one that people are asking in virtually every boardroom right now. Because your competitive position soon ends up being affected if you need a full year to implement every change – after all, changing your existing systems is a hugely complex process.