Question

1. Other than a difference in terminology, how is a "Digital Strategy" as presented different than an IT Strategy that you read about?

2. What is  SMACIT? How are the technologies included in SMACIT disrupting businesses? What operational or digital foundations must be in place in order for a business to successfully build an integrated digital strategy with SMACIT?

3. provide an example of a company you believe is successfully employing a digital business strategy and provide several examples as related to SMACIT and backbone?  ( Avoid choosing a tech company such as Facebook or Amazon.)

Answer 1

sol-1    Digital Strategy

1. Digital Strategy focuses on using technology to improve business performance either to create new products or to visualize current process.
2. It specifies the direction an organization will take to create new competitive advantages with technology as well as the tactics it will use to achieve these changes.
3. Digital strategy focuses on technology not culture and is most relevant to changes in business models and uses technology to create the capabilities a company needs to become a digital business(doing business other than the traditional way).

IT Strategy

1. Digital Strategy looks for the ways to use technology to transform activity and therefore business whereas IT strategy aims to transform technology in isolation from the rest of the business.
2. The process of IT strategy has been to determine which technologies to invest in based on the current direction of the business.
3. IT strategy deals with the infrastructure of an organization like setting up of servers,IT ticketing support etc effective and efficient way of managing is the key for such strategy.

sol-2

The SMACIT is an acronym to describe the key technologies of today's digital businesses that is   social,mobile,analytics,cloud and Internet of things.However,becoming a digital business is not just a question of adopting these technologies and running a little bit faster rather companies are deluged with data and they need to process that data as well as coordinate activities both inside and outside of the organization and to achieve these objectives in a positive way there are four business strategies:

a) CMO-CIO(Digital Marketing Strategy)

b)COO-CIO(Digital Operations Strategy)

c)CIO-HR(Digital Workplace Strategy)

d)CSO-CIO(Security)

Technologies included in the SMACIT is disrupting businesses in such a way that it basically increases the technological complexity by simply integration of legacy system and continued migration to cloud and mobile platform which itself is a big challenge and for understanding this we can take the example of UBER cab service which provides the all comfort to the passengers who earlier needs to wait for the cab to take them to desired destination but due to cab services provided by the uber the passengers life becomes so easy.

The operational and digital foundations that must be in a place in order for a business to successfully build an integrated digital strategy with SMACIT are as follows:

companies rely on three key technology resources to build this innovativeness and agility and a digital services platform with reusable business,technology and data components; and linkage between newer digital services and data infrastructure services embeded in the operational backbone.

sol-3

1) Flex and the "Intelligence of Things": After a few years of playing around the edges of our lives, the Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming a reality. Connected, intelligent objects are all around -- on our wrists, in our cars, around our homes and offices, and in our factories. Flex, the "sketch-to-scale" solutions provider, and the largest electronics manufacturer in the United States, is at the epicenter of this proliferation. The company is now not only building, but also designing, innovating and scaling the connected world that we live in, and in the process aptly dubbed IoT the "Intelligence of Things." Today, with best-of-breed cloud technology, they are building the next generation supply chain to more seamlessly connect thousands suppliers globally -- a move others should emulate in order to improve the experience for suppliers, and ultimately increase productivity.

2) Pitney Bowes Builds the Commerce Cloud: Almost 100 years ago, Arthur Pitney invented the postage meter, introducing the concept of metered mail to the world and smoothing the path of commerce for the foreseeable future. Nowadays, shipping is just one aspect of the Pitney Bowes brand. Since building the Pitney Bowes Commerce Cloud, the company has become one of the largest software companies in the world, with customers relying on it for everything from location intelligence to global e-commerce and customer information management solutions. In order to evolve your business like Pitney Bowes has, you have to take advantage of your greatest asset: data.

3) Experian Better Understands Its Customers: Transforming an established enterprise into a fast-moving, agile organization isn't always easy. But Experian, the largest consumer credit reporting agency in the world, is successfully doing just that. Today, Experian helps business customers prevent fraud, offer on-the-spot credit to consumers and make data-driven marketing decisions. "Experian, to a large extent, really is a technology company. Gone are the days where our responsibility was to keep the lights on and keep financial systems operating," CIO Barry Libenson recently shared. Experian has successfully navigated its transformation by morphing into a strategic partner to the business. In order to follow suite, you should help your organization's leaders understand how customers want to access information, and decide what type of products should be built based on that understanding.