Recap: Transform Tour Bay Area 2019

By Calvin Smith

Yesterday, we kicked off our very first Transform Tour event of 2019! The Transform Tour Bay Area was held at the beautiful Pullman Hotel in Redwood City, CA. It consisted of two analyst presentations and an expert panel focused on digital transformation. The key questions asked yesterday were: what is the best approach to take when it comes to digital transformation? How should I focus my transformation efforts? How can I re-architect my business strategy to focus on my customers? And finally, what technologies will help me achieve this?

Read on to catch-up on the key digital business insights shared at the Transform Tour.

Outside-in Approach to Digital Business

The briefing began with Analyst Betsy Burton debunking common myths versus realities associated with digital business. Burton discussed the shift she foresees taking place in the customer journey process. Right now, enterprises focus on an inside-out approach to the customer experience. Enterprises need to start focusing on the outside-in approach, which focuses on the customer—their thinking, their experience, and their ecosystem surrounding them.

Burton’s final point was that digital business is not primarily centered around technology. Yes, technology plays a role in digital business, obviously. However, a common misconception about digital business is that technology is the only facet. Burton illustrated that digital business is about the business model behind the concept that allows organizations to support customers and partners.

Leveraging Intelligent Content Analytics

Following Burton was CEO and Lead Analyst Jim Lundy who examined the top five areas where AI will impact your business. Lundy made several great references including work areas making a shift in mobility and AI, security and AI, and the rise of intelligent content analytics. Moreover, intelligent content analytics is making a huge splash and can be broken down into four subcategories: document, voice, image, and video analytics. More importantly, organizations must begin leveraging intelligent content analytics; to Lundy’s final point: AI will fuel the shift to a more intelligent enterprise.

Panel Discussion: Digital Transformation Best Practices

The morning’s festivities concluded with a panel discussion featuring Jifflenow’s Ravi Chalaka, RingCentral’s Amritesh Chaudhuri, and Nintex’sDustin Grosse. The panel focused on putting digital transformation to work in the enterprise and what, specifically, has worked for these executives. Some key nuggets of wisdom our panelists shared included that there is a key differentiation between digital optimization and digital transformation. Transformation begins with a vision from your organization and then trickles down into sub departments. Your organization must buy-in as a whole before the transformation can materialize; it’s important to remember that one team alone cannot digitally transform an entire enterprise. To that end, the other key point made was that beginning the transformation journey is often the hardest part! Our panelists encouraged our audience to take the first leap to get started.  

The last point made from this discussion was focusing on the end use cases; break transformation down into core use cases to make it less overwhelming. Organizations should not be solely focused on their product but how their product can be used. Furthermore, when it comes to digital transformation, “look at the problem, isolate the use cases, and see where the technology fits in”. One of our panelists, Dustin Grosse, even advised enterprises to first look at where their processes or areas of the business are most broken, and begin transforming those areas first.

Future Transform Tour Events

The Transform Tour 2019 continues on Thursday, May 2 in Boston, MA. Don’t forget to register to save your seat! Finally, we’d like to thank our Global Diamond Sponsor, Nintex, for sponsoring the 2019 Transform Tour!