Fireside Chat: Highlighting Digital Transformation Success | Predict 2023

here Hello. Hello. It's a beautiful day.

I'm Amanda rosani with techstrong group. I am blessed to be here today with a wonderful group of speakers. First off.

Can you each introduce yourself and a little bit about the company you're with and some of your experience. Let's start with Bonnie. Hi everyone.

I'm Bonnie Schneider and I am a contributor in climate and sustainability for the tech strong group. My background is as a meteorologist on television and an author of a book recently called taking the heat on climate change and how it impacts your health. Wonderful.

So glad you're here today Patrick. Yeah, thanks. Also very excited to be here today.

Thank you Amanda Patrick Pew. I'm a principal at PWC. I focus on the tech sector and from a work perspective.

I've spent a lot of my time in the deals and Workforce spaces. So really excited about today's topic and can't wait to have a discussion with this crew. Great, so glad your hair being.

Thank you, Amanda. Hello, everyone. We do.

Have a great weather out here after all this rain but money is being gone. I started my company transcovery Consulting in 2022. We provide all the digital transformation acceleration services, but prior to that I run a digital agility platform solutions group for UST Consulting and you know, we provide devops Consulting SRE Cloud platform engineering so anything to make company go faster better and cheaper is what we focus on All here this morning.

Well, let's start off digital transformation covers a broad territory and range of topics. So before we dive in can one of you kind of share what is digital transformation and then why is it important? And what are some areas that IT addresses?

Yeah, I mean I'd be happy to when I step back and think about digital transformation. I really try and apply just a simple view of it. It's just using modern technology to either create new or change the way work gets done and while often it focuses on process and insights and and the way it gets done.

It can have a very strong impact on cultures and experiences of both employees and customers so really in my view. It's how do you simplify and just use technology to make life better from a work perspective? Yeah.

Oh anything to add? Yeah, I'll add a little bit to that as well. I fully agree with what Patrick just said, but I think in additionally I think it has such a trend transformative impact on the especially the current Society without everything that's happening right now to meet digital transformation.

Now more than ever is become a matter of survival. A lot of business models can get so fundamentally disrupted over the next probably I say three five years. I'm already seen it happening and so did I I yeah, like I said, it's it's a matter of survival at this point.

Thanks, I would agree with that as well what mean just said because when it comes to the climate change and sustainability if anything science shows us that climate change and the impacts of climate change or accelerating. So the better we are able to digitize gather data faster and course communicate those messages at a more rapid rate. It's going to be helpful to not just business but to individuals as well.

most definitely So to that note, what are some digital transformation initiatives that companies you worked with or your own company went through in 2022 Ming that you want to start. Oh, yeah. Okay.

Great. Yeah, no problem at all. I'll say, you know, obviously my profession it's all providing because advisory service to the other companies, you know in 2022 we support in many large companies selling one of the largest telecom companies credit report agencies and so on so forth, but I would say the one of the biggest thing for me my unit finally hit a hundred million dollars after three and a half years when we started from literally very like ten million dollars a year, right?

So it's really just kind of continuation of executing our blueprint which we put into place in 2020 when everything started happening and to you know to my point earlier, this is really a matter of survival and we had a such hard time in the last, you know, 2020 21 finding. Capable experience kind of Consultants who knows the cloud who knows the devops to scale up our business. So we put a lot of kind of scaling methods into our strategy which we continue to execute and equine two is really we start seeing the kind of food or labor.

Right? So so we're very proud of that to us. It's almost like we we ate our own dog, and it paid off so I can talk a little bit more later, but that's that's why Did you have anything to add to that or some experiences you went through Patrick?

Yeah, our clients Bakery percent of Executives at work. This on growth and growing especially in this complex environment. You really have to actually engage with people.

So with that we're seeing every single one conversation around technology changes, which enhance the digital transformation this could be a cloud strategy. This could be automation. This might be visualizations as Bonnie mentioned but it's in every single conversation.

We're having and our firm is PwC. Send me all may have seen our announcement around our my plus initiative, which is really changing the way our employees will manage their career changes the way we staff work changes the way we enable people to get new skills. It changes really the whole relationship between us our people and our clients.

So this is a multi-billion dollar investment. We're making so not only do we believe it for our clients. We're putting it to use and really applying it across our whole ways.

We work in the way we build our relationships with our information planning initiatives in 2022 that you dealt with What were some things that went well that you would want to highlight? Um, I'll go start on. I think not looking back.

I mean I haven't even had a time to stop and think about it yet. But I think what went well is we obviously had a I think we had a great in terms of the kind of strategy in terms of how we do need to scale it because that born out of the absolutely necessity because without that we simply it's not going to get to where we need to be. So for example, we one of the things that we have major scaling Factor we put into place is we build a solution Hub because we we had a 500 people in your practice providing all those different services to companies and because of our struggling to get to be able to expand that capacity even more we took a lot of these kind of reusable components and to build a very strong Library.

Has been operationalized that it included all the kind of security that's necessary in order to production for the client. And we I believe we did a really good job in terms of building that out in a very cohesive Manner and we were able to leverage that to the great effect. For example, typically, you know for a company that we build on tons of devops pipeline right in the past.

It took usually about me, you know anywhere from six to eight weeks to for a set of applications, but with the usage of solution Hub in everything within it we were able to deliver that in about half a cost probably I would say third of the time so that obviously it's all acceleration for or customers. I think for digital transformation now more than ever the the entire time is being sped up in terms of how fast they need to deliver results for the business. So anything we can do to really help them achieve the value faster.

I think it's it's absolutely essential. Yeah, I would agree. I would agree with that it it's interesting.

I recently joined the tech strong group kind of building out the space and climate and sustainability and in just the short time I'd say from the end of 2022 when thing that I found and I found it actually as a moderator during climate week in New York City in September is that there's just a growing interest in organizations in talking about the solutions that they're working on towards climate Technology Solutions reducing carbon emissions how they're going to handle more extreme weather events, and in terms of digitalization that process of communication because it seems like we're getting these emergency events like the flooding in California. It's just happening more frequently. So businesses are forced to respond to it.

And that's all related to The Climate crisis. So there's a growing need to come up with Solutions and I think that through digitization that will only enhance it these solutions to happen faster and the communication as I mentioned before is key and that is something going into 2023. I'm seeing as well.

Yeah, that's yeah, I mean if I were to add it slightly different lens on this first, I agree with the Enterprise and business unit level changes that are happening. This is about survival. This is about staying ahead staying up or defeating the competition.

However, you want to look at it. I also think one thing that's been exciting in the last let's say 12 to 18 months or so is the amount of upskilling that has happened at the individual level. So why we often talk about the big transformative change at the Enterprise level, we're also seeing some really exciting things done at the individual level.

So companies are investing people and they're teaching them new technologies, whether that's automation technology again or visualization technology or even Cloud fundamentals. So people can use this technology that companies have been a lot of money on and when you think about the new modern Finance work or modern sales for sure modern engineer, they are finding we're seeing even at the entry level kind of less tenured level employees finding really creative and innovative ways to change little even bits and pieces of a process and as you start to get that scale effect going back to what mink said, you're really seeing transformative ways of changing how work gets done better faster deeper as a thing that you're really here and now and we're seeing it not only the mindset at the top but the actual ability to execute on that down at the level will work. It's a lot of work it's done.

Such I will have just got to what you just said. It's it's what's exciting to me also is I think besides the all the individuals has so much resources to be able to upskill themselves. But the advancing technology just the last year alone.

It's absolutely my boggling right those I advancements the delis and all those things where now the individuals can literally be their own professional artists with a simple come in right? I mean, it's just it's absolutely amazing. I I'm really excited to see what's coming 2023.

Absolutely. I love making up well, and I'll steal it later and give you credit make but I really like the way you talk about and and framing it as Artistry because it really is some of the things people are doing when you often step back in here. It's so simple and so practical and logical but without the tools and the technology and the skill in the passion to make the change it never would have happened.

The other thing again, I spend a lot of time talking about mindset and behavior, um, executive and leaders both openness and appreciation for change coming from that democratized level. Now where they will take advice and guidance and Technology as long as it's governed. It's important to govern it because we've all seen technology unleash just not necessarily good thing, but the way that people are approaching and embracing those changes.

I really like your your comment on Artistry. Yeah. I think you're spot on there.

Most definitely. So on the opposite side of that we talked about all the positives what were some of the things that didn't go as planned in 2022. What were some of the challenges and the obstacles that you might have seen?

You guys want to go first? Bonnie you want to hit it or I'm happy to who either either way. I was just gonna say and in 2022 that is when my book taking the heat was published with Simon Schuster and the challenge was even though we were still kind of coming out of the covid phase many people were reluctant to to meet in person and we were still dealing with that.

So I think there's that. Luckily we're still we're not going to conferences and meeting people in person, but I think that there's still that challenge of doing things remotely even though people got a lot better at it in 20 and 2020 21 2022 in my opinions. At least the first part of it was still lingering where that was a challenge, but I'm pleased to say things seems to be doing better in this cross going forward, but just being being quickly to respond to those challenges.

I think that the resilience that we all built in the prior years has helped us now where it does seem a little bit easier. Yeah building on that and Amanda. You'll see it a theme where I like data quite a bit.

So and some of our recent studies we found that 82% of the executives out there believe that they're digital transformation plans and strategies will be successful. You couple that with 50 plus percent believing that the cloud is the future but also 50 plus percent bleeding leaving. They've nowhere near gotten their Roi or their value from the clouds you Collide this optimism with expectation with the real challenge of driving change in a company.

I do think that there is a little bit of a collision of optimism and reality that we also had to deal with a lot you couple that with the rising complexity of talent. We've all been dealing with the talent challenges right right now, Um, there has been a lot of stalled. Progress just because it's really hard and we talk about the process we talk about the tech.

But again, excuse me, I go back to the change Readiness and the mindset and the behaviors to embrace and accept the change the collaboration between business groups which for a lot of these to be successful. It can't just be one group driving change. It has to be all those connected parts.

So one of the things that I saw is a big challenge in 22 is the optimism coupled with the technology openness. All on a foundation of the talent complexity probably did stall some of the progress that we would have seen in light. The good news is I think there is an openness and an eagerness.

You combine it now with a little bit more uncertain in the economy where people are now going to think be a little more committed to actually driving change. I would step back and say 2022 is a very successful year on the tech enabled change front. But at the same time, I think they're continues to be a lot of room to improve and do things differently within companies as well.

Yeah. um, I think for my perspective certainly went through what we went through 2020, even though we did grading terms of hitting that concentric Mark, which is you know, we do we expect to happen so quickly, but we did but on the other hand part of the other solution the in terms of ours Strategy to kind of scale our model is to try to codify all of our you know experts in the field whatever solution have created and be able to deliver that to our client in a very automated fashion. So we build our own product platform and software product platform, but I think even though we were able to deliver very compelling solution to the market and we start begin to get the momentum of getting to the customer's hands and start test driving it, but if we had to do all over again, We definitely would love to be able to take a page from you know, whether it's SpaceX or whether it's a Tesla's Playbook where?

Iterate like crazy instead of you know, trying to get a really nice looking product to this, you know to to the customers for the first time we should focus on less is more approach and and really get that feedback in as quickly as we can so we know what's working. What's not so we can't make our product better because we went through I think we should talk too long to get to the market and but I mean now we become momentum, but we could have done much better. I mean if Elon can't do rocketing that kind of fashion accelerated test drive fashion.

We definitely should be able to do it with our software for sure. Yeah, I mean I it's funny as I advance in my years. I find I get more and more mantras that I start to preach and live by and such but one of the ones I constantly say in my team's get tired of it is focuses a friend and I think to your point a lot of these when we take him, I'm sure Bonnie Amanda being all of us and we've been talking to companies and clients and even our own firms about these is it's so easy to get caught up in magnitude.

It's so easy to say we're gonna change everything in the world. We're gonna do it one big bang and it's just it's really hard. So I often preach focuses a friend a lot of put yourself but Milestones that you can achieve and then celebrate those Milestones as you go set some that are really hard and then frankly set some that are achievable because when these Executives go out Proclaim, we're gonna greatly change the way we do business you want to be able to show your team you're making progress.

So sometimes everything doesn't have to be the most complex set yourself up for some wins when you're doing this, but man you're not and it looks like that resonates. With you as well. It's it's a success brief success.

That's what I learned in life. And what went well and some of the challenges are you familiar with any companies that did a really amazing job that you think deserve a shout out or to summarize what they did that really improved their business. I mean, I have a tablet unfortunately.

We don't talk about our client publicly like yeah, it's the worst Consulting answer ever, but it's it's the right one. I'd say what I often do is is I think there is sometimes a fine line between digital transformation and digital disruption. So what I tend to look at are some of these industries who've done it really well, I mean Maine talked about it you look at the space industry.

It's been revolutionized by that no longer. Is it just a public sector industry. It is now a collision of the best of both sectors.

You look at the TMT space the media space. You'll talk some telcos earlier. Um what they've done in the way we entertain ourselves the way we watch movies the way we listen to music.

Yes, that's disruptive and we will also often talk about it. But now I I would argue they've digitally transform the way the media process went to work. So while I can't and won't name companies you can probably take a guess at some of the ones I'm referencing there that are that are pretty well noted, but I don't know my colleague if they have other views.

Yeah, I would I would like to jump in on that since I've worked for a major media companies my whole career and one of the things It's really been impressive is the way the stories are being told in terms of weather and climate. For example, I previously worked for the weather company IBM and there they've been using augmented reality to show what is it? Like if you're standing in the middle of an area where there's storm surge because it's one thing to say that on television something to see it.

So the augmented reality has been a key visualization tool to really Going into the viewer what the dangers and threats are and other companies that are doing really sophisticated climate modeling as well using the vast amount of data that we now have available that we didn't even have five or 10 years ago and using machine learning and very sophisticated AI to make high resolution detailed climate predictions, which is key and that's going to be in Greater demand as we go forward as these risks continue. So I've seen it on the private sector side as in business, and I've also seen it in media companies kind of public facing and how those messages are communicated as well. Yeah, Bonnie, I love that you took us there because I I think in the digital transformation world, we would all be remiss not to talk AR VR the metaverse all of those.

I mean even in your world we have seen a large increase in the acceptance of sustainability what I mean by that is not just talking about it, but really through NetZero activities, the way factories are built the way things happen through the ability to use technology with digital Twins and such and really get into some cool simulations of what happens with different parts. So I think you're I I think it's a great. Add to this digital transformation story that now if you look that next wave of Technology that's allowing us to address some of the biggest challenges facing us both in the business world, but in kind of as humans Technologies, really bringing it to life and making it real for people.

Yeah, no doubt. I mean one of the things I wanted to disruption I've seen you continue to technology advancement is the whole you know, whether or not you know, Chachi pd3 is going to be the thing or not. But what they have open up these though Endless Possibilities now, right?

So we actually forward the one of the client I'm Consulting with right now. We are looking at their strategy around the chapel. For example, please see how we can leverage these kind of advancement to completely change ball game because instead of focusing on using chat about just for the traditional kind of it type of a, you know, I teach service tickets or whatever case might be those are you know table Stakes with this kind of a conversational way of interacting with a bot.

We can't do all kinds of crazy stuff with it in terms of for example You know the the company I'm in Consulting with that they're doing at least that the group I'm working with their responsible for delivering Digital Services to the rest of the organization. So with with a chatbot it completely opens up possibility now to have the bot to be the primary interface or one of the interfaces for their constituents, right so they can now ask about pretty much any kind of question and be able to ask clarification question in order to get the information they need and we can deliver those contextually to them you much more accelerated manner instead of having them surf through a bunch of website pages and trying to find exactly what they want to find we can make that happen immediately. You can shorten that time so so many things are changing and story exploring.

We've talked a lot about the benefits of digital transformation today, but we haven't talked about any of the cons. Are there any reasons why a business should not attempt a digital transformation initiative. And what would those reasons be or a reason?

They should postpone? I mean at the at the ultimate level I would say no, I think the question really begs to at what scale and what degree do they undertake them? We know right now with the the current marketing conditions.

I think it's just under 50% of executives are really looking at reprioritizing their portfolios right now. Where do they make investments? So and there's a financial component to win and what do you take on that?

We're all dealing with. I mean as I always tell people I can deal with the good economy. I can deal with the bad economy.

What's complex is an uncertain economy. And I think that's what has a lot of these big programs right now under microscope when I think about digital transformation again, the three of us have talked today, there's brand at the Enterprise level and there's at the individual level companies who are not doing some sort of improvements through technology process visualization Etc will fall behind. I mean, I do believe that with pretty strong certainty that you must do.

Us to continue to thrive and prosper in today's economy when I always look at how much you should take on. It's the standard factors. What's the cost?

What's the return what's the change fatigue that your people have experienced? When is the right time to introduce significant change to a company? So I think it really is not should you do it?

I think it really is that what degree and what scale and what pace do you do it all underlying with the financial returns. I love to do cool stuff. I want to return on it cool stuff for the sake of cool is nice cool stuff for the sake of cool plus say nice return.

I'm all in on that but Ming Bonnie and other thoughts dad. I I told wholehearted agree. I definitely don't believe that anybody shouldn't do to transformation it to your point is really a matter of prioritization a value is really big word in my report, you know, you might dictionary as well.

That's what I preached to our customers. Like why do you for example, if you're building a devops capability, why would you do that for a application that maybe only gets minor updates maybe once a year that's no point. So you need to focus on where it's going to deliver the most the big bang for the buck, but I think the other the other side equation though.

I think when you plan out the transformation, I have seen you know, that's different competitive different different path some for some people take a top-down approach. Some people take a more of a reactive tactical approach to say. Oh I have a you know major paying this area.

Let me do some transformation there. And I think too for the company who starting out this journey. I think they really need to try to strike a balance between the two two approach top down and bottom up for me.

I think it makes sense. Especially given today's climate where any business model can get disrupted like overnight. It's really important before, you know company invest a lot of money to transformation.

They really think about from the business model perspectives to start from there because if they feel they have to actually use the transformation to alter their business model. Well, then maybe they need to allocate the money a little bit differently. But if they model the sound and they have, you know, acute painting some areas and then perhaps they should allocate money there right to address those pain but blindy just going to One Direction all the other.

I think it's just could be a lot of waste of money as well as not going to get the results very quickly. Yeah, I would I would just add that. I think that based on what Patrick was saying.

So when you're looking at uncertain economy, you do want to invest in what would be given you the best return on investment. So one of the things that come to mind is I think it was last year. I spoke to a climate data company that was showing me their Innovations in Ai and one of the things that they had was An augmented reality International Global meteorologist that you know as an image of person on TV for delivering the weather and I remember thinking I think that's a little too much and he had said that at the time some people were not quite ready for that and it was also very expensive to produce.

So I think that's that you kind of have to decide. Where do you want like you were saying earlier Ming as well? Where do you want to invest and what would give you the best reward on that as well?

I'm glad you brought that up Bonnie because let's talk about that a little bit with today's macro environment thinking about now and Beyond in 2023. How is it affecting digital transformation initiatives? And what do you see happening as it relates to those initiatives moving forward?

You yeah, I mean, I think it's causing some companies to pause what I'm not seeing in my conversations. Is anyone taking it off the table. So the good news is I think people realize whether it's a it's a massive system enabled like like big Erp type change a big cloud implementation or if it's just automating some prophecies I a companies are still actively talking again.

I I looked my colleagues too, but I haven't seen anyone to say we're gonna stop innovating we're gonna stop using technology the pause to Bonnie's point that she just made there's again some really cool stuff you can do but should you right now? So when we think about the micro economy what we're seeing is a lot of prioritization a lot more focus on Roi but what I am very excited and encouraged about It's historically I think you would have seen a drop-off purely on Roi what I like is companies are still talking about how do they use technology and changing the way work gets done in important areas, like sustainability like diversity and inclusivity doing things for the community. So I think we're the pivot has changed to some of the big major grandiose activities may be done in stages over phases over Pilots, maybe some delayed.

It's not being done at the expense of some of these other very important initiatives for our communities. And so I do like that the mindset has changed in the last number of years that we need to I often talk about having doing what's right with both your head and your heart and I think that is that combination that we have changed. I give a lot of credit to different Generations coming in the workforce that have brought different lenses and experiences to sets that has been listened to and so so slower more methodical more more Focus, but also balancing some really important initiatives that I think will make us better for the future.

Yeah. so in thinking about Me. Did you have something to add sure not just kind of playoff the same kind of theme I mentioned earlier I think into the trend looking forward in 2023 and Beyond.

One thing I definitely see is because the power or because the such acceleration in the technology advancement over the past couple years the whole democratization little Technologies, give unplus site give people so much of a possibility now than where they can for example right now in the past. You have the kind of ux designer and the UI are kind of sort of separate profession because each of them have to take different kind of discipline and it takes a long time to do but nowadays with those kinds of tools that you already have to have one person that can just simply do it. All right.

So those lines are definitely a blurring but the other thing is that the dematta democratization that other flip side to that is that The whole notion of Citizen development, right? Because now you have none techies can also pick up those tool and start creating workflows creating new applications. So they can take care of the distinctive needs.

But the problem with that is if you do that without the collaboration with it along the way very very likely you're gonna see in once things goes into production when something breaks or something gets hacked because you didn't take all those important measure. That's my big issue for 24 companies who's in those kind of a line of business. So I think you know for 2023, I think that's Cerny.

One thing the company needs to really start focusing on is how do we make sure we recognize the need for business to move at the lightning speed that same time provide enough collaboration, but in a very fictionless way to make sure things are still secure and and availabilities there in your stability. All those things are still maintained. So they Much the best experience possible.

So real quick we have I want to ask one more question for companies that are just now looking to digitally transform and entering into this process. What are some of the key tips that you can offer them? Where do they start?

How do they get started? I'll go first. Um, so I sort of alluded to this earlier.

I think before you embark on this journey you starting with the top down approach is really important because at the end of day, if you're the direction, you're rolling the boat towards it's not the right direction all the money. You invested may give you some short-term gain, but it will absolutely hurt you in long term because you're now you're taking your eyes off the ball of where you're going. So understand how your business model will be changing our commit most likely be changing the next couple years.

That's really good starting point because that will kind of map out. The rest of it will help you kind of prioritize the rest of the investment if you will to get them most Roi. Yeah.

Yeah building on what would mean just said I always like to start anything with what are your desired outcomes. So really taking I think he I think I agree with the approach of what needs to change. But also what are what do you want to accomplish?

So what are you setting out doing from there? You can get an understanding. Okay, what are the key groups that need to be involved and think broader than you normally would because there's always kind of a domino effect of Who's involved on the tech front.

It is very easy to fall into the tech trap and think there's kind of an easy button or one Tech consult at all. The inner operability between Technologies is pretty amazing these days and so very rarely do we see a single Tech thread anymore at a company these usually and we're seeing more and more kind of best to breed coming together to solve client problems on that note. Don't over customize when you do start to build it.

I can't tell you how many companies have said we're gonna get a cloud application. We're gonna implement it. We're gonna simplify two years later.

They've created Frank Eye and so all the benefits of standardization of cloud are there and probably last one I'd mentioned before I handed over to Bonnie is talk to your peers do do research. There's a lot out there on it. Even if your direct competitors won't and often they won't want to have a conversation about how to improve you can find other companies of relevance that have characteristics whether it's a Geo presence a Workforce type presence a whatever that common factor may be talk to people.

There's no reason to start this Blank Slate more. There's been so much good work done out there but money I don't know what you know, it's gonna build on that Patrick because I think communication is key talking to other people talking to others and how they have the implemented their transformation but in throughout the process, it's also very important to communicate internally. Some people might be threatened by this digital transformation employees and they want to think that being replaced and you mentioned and the outcomes have to be clearly aligned as well.

So I think it's important that communication is transparent through the process get the leadership and employees all excited about the digital transformation and talk about the benefits of it and that clear communication and consistent communication is really important. Yeah change. I'll just pick it back off that.

Usually you might in my experience the transformation project. They usually didn't deliver as intended. It's usually due to the lack of change the effective change management tactic because technology, I mean we got so much stuff going on.

We can solve any problems, right? That's no problem at all. It's really usually the people factor that really make things become uncertain if you don't manage it well for sure.

Definitely. Well mean Patrick Bonnie. This has been a wonderful conversation and I appreciate your insights for our audience.

Don't go anywhere because we are gonna get a chance to chat with all the speakers from predict 2023 here in just a few minutes. So stay tuned move over to that chat room. It's gonna be great.

Great. Thank you. Thank you.