Published on the 19/04/2016 | Written by Intergen
Kiwi companies can take some easy steps to get on the path toward digital transformation [Register to download]…
The constant chatter surrounding ‘digital transformation’ can make it a little difficult to figure out if the concept has any place in your own organisation – and just how to go about it. According to software solutions company Intergen, the answers to those questions are a resounding ‘yes’ and ‘it depends’.
With the release of a new whitepaper titled ‘A guide to digital transformation’, the company is lifting the veil on how local organisations are going digital and reaping the benefits – and what it also reveals is that transformation doesn’t have to be difficult. Instead, digital transformation involves the strategic implementation of technologies which are often considered ‘commodities’, for the sort of quick wins associated with cloud-first, mobile-first environments. Success depends more, says Intergen, on how digital transformation is approached and executed than the specific underlying technologies.
Not only does Intergen provide insights into what those technologies are, it also shares real-world examples of Kiwi companies which are embracing digital transformation. Among other examples, the whitepaper explores how JUCY Rental’s use of Office 365 opened doors to driving process automation through the organisation; according to Tristin King, technology head at JUCY Rentals, “Everything started with Office 365; we were early adopters three years ago. Thanks to Office 365, we developed quite a heavy presence in SharePoint and that, in turn, drove a lot of automation.”
It also shows how Ryman Healthcare’s CEO is harnessing social media to share insights and information to drive cohesion and morale, and tracks how the healthcare company is using mobility to innovate in its sector; and demonstrates how a cloud enterprise content management system is saving money and driving efficiency at the Ministry of Primary Industries.
Intergen said the emergence of cloud computing, software-as-a-service platforms and innovative new business models means every organisation is obliged to examine its strategy and operations. The company urged Kiwi businesses to evaluate competitiveness and assess whether full advantage of cost-saving, efficiency-improving and productivity-boosting digital technologies is being taken.
According to Intergen, the question for New Zealand businesses has moved on from ‘do we need to embrace digital transformation’, to ‘how do we approach it?’.
To find out how digital technologies can increase productivity in your organisation, access ‘A guide to digital transformation’ here.
Register to download the full white paper:
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Hi Grant – interesting question! and quite a sensitive topic. Definitive stats from a purely desktop application usage perspective are elusive. There’s no doubt Google Apps have grown, but I think in a business context this is as a layer on top of Office, not instead of.
Anecdotally, in business the Office apps from Microsoft are close to saturation as Word and Excel have such a hold as the common file formats of business. Installations are rapidly transitioning to the cloud version (Office 365).
From your perspective in terms of exposing students to the right platforms, they would be best equipped by using both. These days everyone needs to be able to be adept at bouncing among multiple apps both on desktop and browser, it is about using the right tool to solve the problem (but ref below re Excel).
Mail and web browser clients have a much more distributed share, with Outlook still holding the edge on the desktop in business (Apple Mail has a large share due to mobile device access for e-mail). Google’s Chrome holds the lion’s share of desktop browsers.
Apple/Mac does have a reasonable share with Mail/Pages/Numbers, but many Mac users also run Office apps to make life simpler sharing with the rest of the world. In terms of deep functionality for doing complex formatting and number crunching, I don’t see Google Docs (etc) competing.
Where GDocs does have a strong play is in collaboration/shared work spaces, and the more that happens, the more users take that approach for ongoing reporting/sharing.
I would suggest though that students should be challenged with more complex problem solving in terms of formatting, layout, design and number crunching. Excel is an incredibly powerful tool but it seems usage among students is almost non-existent. In this “Big Data” world, that is crazy and a huge opportunity. Students should be coming out knowing at a minimum how to create a pivot table and do a vlookup – it opens up a huge capability to deal with large data sets (a favourite beef of mine this one). I doubt most would even know the first step to take in an Excel spreadsheet – in terms of numeric (and financial) literacy, that is a ridiculous situation.
I have requested stats from Microsoft NZ, and am tracking down a real person from Google NZ – we’ll get something published.
I’m in Education and I’m constantly hearing from Junior schools in the area that Google is the way NZ businesses are heading, and we should be changing, we are a Microsoft 365 Secondary School.
Do you have statistics to support a stronger presence of Microsoft 365 in the current business environment?
Thanks