How do we get where we need to be?

A question I hear myself asking all the time. For clients, to clients, to partners, to consultants, to resellers, and especially to myself.

I might need to add to avoid portraying myself as single minded: it’s not the only question seeking answering of course, but a profoundly important one I recently came to realise.

Now, one might assume there isn’t much to it. When a client seeks a solution to a problem, just solve the issue at hand and off you go, check it as a successful sale and move on to the next.

A common practise in the local IT industry I observed over the many years I’m doing this job @LOGIT Systems. Solutions. . Unfortunately because of this (and some other factors), clients tend to end up with so called „island solutions“. Isolated in solving one particular issue, but providing little to no connectivity and thus no extensibility for business needs arising in the future.

I was wondering though, why is that the case? Why do such solutions still exist which disregard this very important dimension of "time", and why are they still being bought?

Over the many conversations I held with decision makers and people working in the field, one possible reason for this materialised: missing understanding from all parties involved, clients as-well as IT solution providers.

But missing understanding of what exactly?

When we look at IT systems from a business perspective, there still seems to be this notion of those systems being a singular tool in general. And this applies no matter what type of system we'd be talking about. ERP, CRM, or OPC UA connected automated production plant lines, and so many more.

All of them were traditionally deployed in a disconnected fashion. Just one more brick in the wall of your house if you will and that’s a persisting view. In my believe it stems from a culture of risk aversion (an entire topic for another day), fueled by the fear of making a wrong decision on the client’s side and by the fact of non-communication of this status quo by solution providers.

The idea that information technology is the foundation of your house, which binds all the things together, and eventually becomes the entire house hasn’t reached nor convinced German medium-sized enterprises in the offline world, with a few exceptions, yet.

Everyday „digitization“ and „digital transformation“ buzzword bombardment with little substance of content and knowledge transferal has made the respective decision makers slightly numb to the idea online operating enterprises have already implemented for years.

It has evolved to a point in-which it seems necessary from the consultancy professionals point of view, to come up with entirely new job titles. „Tech translator“ is among one of those (un)lucky ones, to apparently tackle this communication problem.

But will they solve this colossal market access issue if solution providers keep going on in silence mode? Avoiding the necessary engagement with clients has in my opinion contributed to this unpleasant situation. But is it really just an inconvenience?

Even in times of global markets being in emergency situations, local companies still believe it’s a feasible way to hang on to this mentality of „one brick in the wall“, though global competitors have already moved and evolved beyond this. The disregard of this disruptive world changing shift of views might seem astonishing, but it comes off unsurprisingly considering the silence from solution providers surrounding this topic.

This is why we at LOGIT Systems. Solutions. have decided to openly take on the discussion with our partners and clients, to give them the means to shine (and to continue to do so) with quality products and services in an ever changing market environment, by utilising the power of a digital transformation that is much more than just to deploy the newest singular gadget. It’s a transformative process at which ends lies but only one result: The only way to continue doing business in the future. And fearing to do the necessary steps towards it now will only lead to your business becoming out competed tomorrow.

Now, as I said, I believe fear of making a wrong decision has contributed to where we are today and what we can witness: Stagnation and minor innovation in offline markets compared to the ones residing in the internet realm. Hate to break that to you.

While it’s a bit ironic to see the wrong decision (to do nothing) being applied and accepted all the time, without perception of being false and especially without the mentioned fear of this being a wrong decision, we shall look at what that buzzword “digital transformation” means to decrease any anxiety that stops you from making that leap to gain access to online markets, to stay competitive and get rid of uneconomical structural conservatism.

In the next article, I shall convey to you the fundamental idea behind digital transformation, what it is, and especially what it’s not about.

The moment it goes live, you'll find the link here.