A Field Guide to Digital Transformation

by Thomas Erl, Roger Stoffers

Overview

Your Complete Guide to Digital Transformation




A Field Guide to Digital Transformation is the definitive book on digital transformation. Top-selling IT author Thomas Erl and long-time practitioner Roger Stoffers combine to provide comprehensive, yet easy-to-understand coverage of essential digital transformation concepts, practices, and technologies in the format of a plain-English tutorial written for any IT professionals, students, or decision-makers.




With more than 160 diagrams, this guide provides a highly visual exploration of what digital transformation is, how it works, and the techniques and technologies required to successfully build modern-day digital transformation solutions.




Learn from the experts and:

• Discover what digital transformation is, why it emerged and when to apply it
• Identify the significant business benefits that successful digital transformations can deliver and how to turn your organization into a “disruptive” force
• Prepare for and overcome the common challenges associated with digital transformation initiatives
• Understand the data-driven nature of digital transformation solutions and how they use and continually accumulate data intelligence
• Understand how digital transformation solutions can utilize AI technology for intelligent automated decision-making
• Gain insight into customer-centricity and how its practices are applied as part of digital transformations
• Explore key digital transformation automation technologies, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain. and Cloud Computing
• Explore key digital transformation data science technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, and Big Data Analysis and Analytics

The book concludes with a uniquely detailed and highly visual real-world business scenario that provides step-by-step insights into how a digital transformation solution works, how it utilizes data intelligence to improve customer relationship building, and how it collects new data intelligence in support of enhancing future business capabilities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780137571840
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	12/06/2021
Series:	The Pearson Digital Enterprise Series from Thomas Erl
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	7.05(w) x 9.05(h) x 0.95(d)

About the Author

Thomas Erl is a best-selling IT author who has authored and co-authored 15 books published by Prentice Hall and Pearson Education and dedicated to topics focused on contemporary information technology and practices. These titles were delivered for the Pearson Digital Enterprise Series from Thomas Erl (formerly the Prentice Hall Service Technology Series from Thomas Erl) for which Thomas also acts as series editor.

As founder and president of Arcitura Education (www.arcitura.com), Thomas also leads the development of curricula for internationally recognized, vendor-neutral training and accreditation programs. Arcitura's portfolio currently consists of over 100 courses, over 90 Pearson VUE exams, and over 40 certification tracks, covering topics such as Digital Transformation, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), DevOps, Blockchain, IoT, Containerization, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), Cloud Computing and Big Data Analytics.

Roger Stoffers is a TOGAF-certified Enterprise Architect passionate about Digital Transformation and Integration. Roger has worked for (and with) organizations in Telecommunication, Government and Finance industries, building 25 years of experience in multinational organizations. He has served as principal and lead Enterprise Domain Architect for digital business transformation initiatives, with strong focus for customer relationships and sustainable organizational agility in distributed environments.

Presently Roger works as Enterprise Architect for de Volksbank, fostering Customer Centricity and the organization's Sustainability & Social Responsibility goals with Data-Driven Customer Engagement and Decisioning. Independently, Roger is a worldwide consulting architect for digital transformation and integration, and a senior trainer for (enterprise) architecture topics and contemporary vendor-neutral technology and next-generation IT topics. He is a speaker at conferences about Digital Transformation, SOA and Microservices and Enterprise Architecture. He is a contributor for the Service-Oriented Architecture: Analysis and Design for Service and Microservices book from the Pearson Digital Enterprise Series from Thomas Erl.

Table of Contents

About This Book xxvii


PART I: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FUNDAMENTALS


Chapter 1: Understanding Digital Transformation 3


(What is Digital Transformation?) 3


Business, Technology, Data and People 5


Digital Transformation and Business 6


Digital Transformation and Technology 7


Digital Transformation and Data 9


Digital Transformation and People 10


Digital Transformation and Organizations and Solutions 11


Chapter 2: Common Business Drivers 13


(What Led to Digital Transformation?) 13


Losing Touch with Customer Communities 14


Inability to Grow in Stale Marketplaces 16


Inability to Adapt to Rapidly Changing Marketplaces 16


Cold Customer Relationships 19


Inefficient Operations 19


Inefficient Decision-Making 21


Chapter 3: Common Technology Drivers 23


(What Enables Digital Transformation?) 23


Enhanced and Diverse Data Collection 25


Contemporary Data Science 27


Sophisticated Automation Technology 29


Autonomous Decision-Making 29


Centralized, Scalable, Resilient IT Resources 31


Immutable Data Storage 33


Ubiquitous Multiexperience Access 34


Chapter 4: Common Benefits and Goals 37


(Why Undergo a Digital Transformation?) 37


Enhanced Business Alignment 39


Enhanced Automation and Productivity 42


Enhanced Data Intelligence and Decision-Making 44


Improved Customer Experience and Customer Confidence 44


Improved Organizational Agility 48


Improved Ability to Attain Market Growth 50


Chapter 5: Common Risks and Challenges 53


(What Are the Pitfalls?) 53


Poor Data Quality and Data Bias 55


Increased Quantity of Vulnerable Digital Data 55


Resistance to Digital Culture 58


Risk of Over-Automation 59


Difficult to Govern 61


Chapter 6: Realizing Customer-Centricity 63


What Is a Product? 64


What Is a Customer? 65


Product-Centric vs. Customer-Centric Relationships 67


Transaction-Value vs. Relationship-Value Actions 69


Customer-Facing vs. Customer-Oriented Actions 71


Relationship Value and Warmth 71


Warmth in Communication 71


Warmth in Proactive Accommodation 74


Warmth in Customer Rewards 76


Warmth in Exceeding Customer Expectations 76


Single vs. Multi vs. Omni-Channel Customer Interactions 77


Customer Journeys 81


Customer Data Intelligence 84


Chapter 7: Data Intelligence Basics 89


Data Origins (Where Does the Data Come From?) 90


Corporate Data 92


Third-Party Data 92


Creating New Corporate Data Intelligence 92


Common Data Sources (Who Produces the Data?) 93


Operations Data 95


Customer Data 95


Social Media Data 95


Public Sector Data 96


Private Sector Data 97


Data Collection Methods (How Is the Data Collected?) 97


Manual Data Entry 98


Automated Data Entry or Collection 98


Telemetry Data Capture 98


Digitization 99


Data Ingress 101


Data Utilization Types (How Is the Data Used?) 101


Analysis and Reporting 101


Automated Decision-Making 102


Solution Input 103


Bot-Driven Automation 103


Model Training and Retraining 103


Historical Record Keeping 104


Chapter 8: Intelligent Decision-Making 105


Manual Decision-Making 107


Computer-Assisted Manual Decision-Making 107


Conditional Automated Decision-Making 108


Intelligent Manual Decision-Making 109


Intelligent Automated Decision-Making 112


Direct-Driven Automated Decision-Making 113


Periodic Automated Decision-Making 114


Realtime Automated Decision-Making 115


Intelligent Manual vs. Intelligent Automated Decision-Making 115


PART II: DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN PRACTICE


Chapter 9: Understanding Digital Transformation Solutions 121


Distributed Solution Design Basics 122


Data Ingress Basics 127


File Pull 127


File Push 128


API Pull 129


API Push 129


Data Streaming 130


Common Digital Transformation Technologies 132


Chapter 10: An Introduction to Digital Transformation Automation Technologies 135


Cloud Computing 137


Cloud Computing in Practice 138


Common Risks and Challenges 143


Blockchain 144


Blockchain in Practice 145


Partial Business Data Capture 147


Full Business Data Capture 148


Log Data Access Capture 150


Partial Business Data Store 151


Ledger Export 152


Common Risks and Challenges 153


Internet of Things (IoT) 154


IoT Devices 154


IoT in Practice 160


Common Risks and Challenges 163


Robotic Process Automation (RPA) 164


RPA in Practice 165


Common Risks and Challenges 168


Chapter 11: An Introduction to Digital Transformation Data Science Technologies 171


Big Data Analysis and Analytics 172


The Five V's of Big Data 175


Big Data in Practice 177


Common Risks and Challenges 178


Machine Learning 179


Model Training 180


Machine Learning in Practice 180


Common Risks and Challenges 184


Artificial Intelligence (AI) 186


Neural Networks 186


Automated Decision-Making 187


AI in Practice 189


Common Risks and Challenges 189


Chapter 12: Inside a Customer-Centric Solution 193


Scenario Background 195


Business Challenges 195


The Original Customer Journey 196


Business Objectives 201


Terminology Recap 201


Key Terms from Chapter 6: Realizing Customer-Centricity 202


Key Terms from Chapter 7: Data Intelligence Basics 202


Key Terms from Chapter 8: Intelligent Decision-Making 203


Key Terms from Chapter 9: Understanding Digital Transformation Solutions 203


Key Terms from Chapter 10: An Introduction to Digital Transformation Automation Technologies 204


Key Terms from Chapter 11: An Introduction to Digital Transformation Data Science Technologies 204


The Enhanced Customer Journey 204


Supporting Data Sources 205


Step-by-Step Business Process 206


Future Decision-Making 241


About the Authors 243


Index 245