Chapter 4: Digital Business, the Digital Business Imperative, and Digital Business Transformation Digital Business 1. What is the difference between the terms digital transformation and digital business transformation?
The term digital transformation is broadly used to refer to digitization (e.g. converting information into digital format), digitalization (leveraging digital data to facilitating / improving processes), and leveraging digital technologies to redesign processes. It is often used to discuss digital changes to a single process, activity or event, or to a collection of processes / activities / events. Given these diverse uses, it’s meaning is ambiguous. In contrast to digital transformation, the digital business transformation has a more clear and specific meaning. Digital business transformation refers to the change process involved in becoming a digital business. This change process involves: • structural changes (e.g. business units, leadership roles, reporting relationships), • cultural changes (e.g. enabling beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours), • Capability / Competency changes (e.g. digital technology skills, digital business skills, accelerated change methods), and • Digital infrastructure changes (e.g. technology infrastructure / architecture, digital technology tools) 2. What is the difference between the terms digital business and digital business transformation?
Digital business is the use of digital technologies to facilitate business models and processes and to offer digital or digitally enhanced products / services. Research firms Forrester puts it another way by proposing that digital business is
