Since the days of mainframes, convergence has always been the underlying aim of technology. So far, however, it has been thwarted by the sheer profusion of transformational technologies that, while vastly enabling new and better business processes, have been deployed in disconnected fashion, suboptimizing their full value. Now, we believe, asset- and capital-intensive businesses must aggressively pursue the goal of convergence if they are to survive, let alone thrive, in the Secure, Intelligent, Connected Economies (SICE).
Today’s Disconnected Technology Environment
If you are like most global organizations today, most of your digital transformation efforts have gone into enhancing the customer experience and improving the Backoffice operations.
Your factories, warehouses and supply chain partners were barely connected, and you were thankful when you could exchange data and analytics intermittently. You launched products that could go online, and you hoped that clients would establish profiles on the devices that would enable you to continuously engage with them and control the devices to their liking.
You dreamed of seamless operations, real-time analytics with your partners, and your products as intelligent devices. However, these ambitions were dashed as they relied on high computing power on your devices, high-bandwidth, low latency connections and highly complex integrations across the edge, IIoT platforms and the rest of the value chain.
Your technology departments ensured that you were rife with digital assets – cloud, wireless, cybersecurity solutions, ERP and PLM software – but these assets declined in utility the further you moved away physically from your corporate and retail locations.
Digital transformation results have been disappointing despite the extraordinary amount of time, effort, and expenditures involved. A McKinsey survey of the results of organizations’ digital transformations found that only 16 percent of respondents improved their performance sustainably. Even digitally knowledgeable industries like telecom and high tech had a success rate of no more than 26 percent, while traditional industries reached just 4 to 11 percent. And small companies were found to be more than twice as likely to report success than those with more than 50,000 employees.
The reason for the failed efforts is simple: a digital disconnect.
About the author
Prashant Kelker
Prashant Kelker is Chief Strategy Officer of ISG, Partner of ISG Americas Consulting and a member of the ISG Executive Board (IEB). He was named to the IEB in January 2023. Prashant was appointed Chief Strategy Officer in 2018, responsible for developing the firm’s three-year strategic blueprint, and he was instrumental in the development of our highly successful ISG NEXT operating model in 2020.
In January 2023, he was named to the expanded role of Partner, Americas Consulting, bringing together all our advisory capabilities in the region to support our commercial and public sector clients in response to the growing convergence of digital technology and enterprise operating models, business processes and revenue-generating connected products and services.
Prashant joined ISG in 2012 from Accenture, initially working for our DACH business and based in Germany. He moved with his family to the United States in 2018. Prashant earned his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore and a BE in electronics from Bangalore University in India.
