- Judyta Słodowska
Organizational and business challenges
According to Piotr Szypułka
Piotr Szypułka, Director of Infrastructure Maintenance Department at Polcom, has been associated with the IT industry for many years, and he has successfully led numerous digital transformation initiatives. Through the eyes of this expert, we present the organizational and business challenges faced by Polish enterprises on their journey towards digital transformation.
The changes in business demonstrate that digital transformation may prove essential not only for building competitive advantages but also for the future functioning of the company.
Digital transformation strategy
According to the “Jabil” study, only 23% of companies have an enterprise-wide digital transformation strategy. It is important to emphasize that the success of digital transformation relies on this strategy. Just like any other process, it must articulate the vision for change, set goals to be achieved, and align the entire team. Without a strategy, it can be immediately concluded that success is highly unlikely.
Openness to collaboration
To undergo digital transformation, it is essential to combine talent and technology. Therefore, if current IT systems or IT infrastructure are hindering the company, it is time to reassess their technological effectiveness and what they have to offer. From my experience, I can say that digital transformation brings numerous technical challenges, hence the need for the right people on board with the appropriate skills.
First and foremost, the key to success lies in training the team members to effectively use and manage new technologies. Secondly, if the company currently lacks internal specialized knowledge, there should be no fear of seeking an external perspective and finding suitable technological partners. This is something that can be observed, for example, in the implementation of cloud technologies within companies.
Main IT challenges
Business looks to IT more often than ever before, and IT departments must face both old and new challenges.
One-third of decision-makers believe that IT departments will need to actively contribute to building the competitive advantage of the company, and the implementation of new technological solutions is one of the important elements of the overall corporate strategy. For every fourth respondent participating in the study conducted by Polcom and Intel, representing the SME sector (with IT managers being the main respondents), the most significant challenge in the coming year will be to increase the level of IT security and, consequently, the security of the entire company. Other challenges, such as optimizing and reorganizing the IT department to better meet business expectations (17 percent) or reducing IT costs within the company (11 percent), are still noticeable but no longer play such a fundamental role in shaping the position of IT in enterprises.