Businesses are already observing the benefits of digital transformation. Management of enterprise IT systems is now easier and more cost-effective with cloud-computing solutions, mobility and BYOD (bring your own device) initiatives have allowed for greater flexibility on how and where employees work, and businesses are smarter and better-connected with the introduction of IoT (internet of things).

These latest technology initiatives and others are enabling businesses to become more agile, but at the same time they present a whole new range of challenges for today’s CIO. There is now more technology than ever to manage, more diverse ways of using it and more complications in deploying it.

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The growing scale, complexity and diversity of IT infrastructures demand an integrated approach to administering the technology behind a businesses’ digital assets.

Every business today depends on the technology that supports it. As such, building a more strategic approach towards technology management can be the most critical investment that a business makes. What steps should CIOs take to successfully digitally transform their organisations?

Effectively implementing digital transformation

CIOs must reassess how IT is managed throughout the business. They must identify new opportunities and address potential challenges caused by the ecosystem of merging old and new technologies. To do this, CIOs need a complete view of the entire enterprise. This signals an end to working in isolation and business units working in silos.

Executing an integrated portfolio of intuitive, intelligent and data-driven solutions ensures digital solutions operate at optimum levels of performance and capacity. The analytics from these services not only help CIOs build and maintain a leaner, more cost-effective digital infrastructure, but also help CIOs create an accurate view of the infrastructure across departments and processes.

CIOs benefit from a stronger return on their investment in technology and a consolidated, easier to manage, lower risk platform by avoiding wasted capacity and licensing across the entire organisation.

Building a digital enterprise

To architect an effective digital enterprise, it’s critical that CIOs prioritise effective management and control across the whole organisation. There can be no digital transformation for the enterprise if all stakeholders within the organisation do not realise the benefits from the performance, integrity, efficiency and agility of digital services. This is only possible if CIOs work with, rather than against business stakeholders.

This is especially true for organisations that deliver sophisticated and interconnected digital services via a simple user interface. Examples include AirBnB and Uber, which are backed by multiple interdependent technologies upon which the whole ecosystem is supported.

Only when digital services and the successful management of them become pervasive across an organisation is when a business reaches the level of 'digital enterprise.' A digital enterprise is designed to delight customers and empower employees with digital services that don’t compromise data security or bust the IT budget.

Every function is based on a process and nearly every step of that process is automated. In other words, every function is digital, measurable and optimisable.

There are multiple digital services that influence and define customers’ day-to-day lives—and most people never notice the backend technology supporting it. IT is responsible for the management of these resources and corresponding services: the integration of siloes, the maintenance of compliance and governance, and driving innovation with lines of business. Managing the digital enterprise is the biggest challenge, as well as the biggest opportunity for CIOs.

For example, the booking system for AirBnB touches sales, customer support, operations and logistics and finance. In other words, what an end user experiences is the result of the integration of a myriad of systems and processes.

Every process is updated instantly and all of it coalesces into an experience that the end user does not notice because everything works seamlessly. The digital experience that IT delivers from the backend touches every facet of a business.

In the past, IT services were delivered through siloed IT functions driven by process and rigid SLAs. Today, digital enterprises require a more dynamic and expansive system of service management that includes mobility, cloud, social, and Internet of Things, all delivered via networked digital services and platforms in a hybrid technology environment.

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One solution to these new requirements is Digital Service Management, a groundbreaking new paradigm for IT Service Management (ITSM), based on a forward-looking and human-centric view of how IT is transforming employee productivity and driving innovation in the era of digital services.

At the centre of Digital Service Management is a sophisticated and compelling experience for the end user, whether it’s a consumer ordering products or a customer service provider answering a query.

Digital Service Management has the potential to fundamentally shift the tone and direction of where customers are headed and how businesses can delight them. This is the future for the entire IT Service Management ecosystem.

Sourced from Jason Andrew, general manager and vice president, BMC EMEA