FEATURE
POWERING A CONNECTED FUTURE HOW TO BRING THE CONNECTED ENTERPRISE TO LIFE AND MAKE SMARTER DECISIONS.
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n this age of digitally-enabled business, organisations have to connect people, processes, and technologies seamlessly to deliver a better customer experience. The connected enterprise strategy is essential to accelerate the digital transformation journey and create costeffective business processes. What is a connected enterprise? How does it give your business a competitive edge? Finally, how do you build a connected enterprise? “In today’s digital environment, every organisation is heavily investing in disruptive technologies such as IoT, AI, machine learning, analytics and various other automation technologies. Use of these technologies enable them to stay connected with every stakeholder— customers, employees, various line of businesses such as HR, IT, operations and finance, as well as various other physical and virtual environment,” says Manish Ranjan, Program Manager for Software & Cloud at IDC Middle East, Turkey and Africa. Connected enterprise implements IoT, sensors, and various connected devices to collect various data, analyses them using advance analytics, AI and 16
CXO INSIGHT ME
DECEMBER 2020
machine learning (ML) and gain greater business to improve its productivity and achieve greater customer experience. A connected enterprise is able to converge information technology (IT) and operation technology (OT) to streamline its operations, processes and optimise its resources, he says. According to Vijay Jaswal, CTO, Middle East and Turkey, Software AG, a connected enterprise can be defined where people, data, and devices are connected in a manner that facilitates the enterprise to run at optimum operational efficiency levels and provide excellent customer service. “Having said that, a truly connected enterprise is not the one that operates seamlessly within the system. An enterprise that integrates harmoniously not only within itself, but the connected ecosystem in totality is a truly connected enterprise,” he says. A connected enterprise has data at its core and leverages that data to improve business processes, enhance productivity, cut operational expenditures and increase revenue and customer satisfaction. “It can also use that data to enhance the work environment for improved employee well-being and
output. Connected enterprises gain intelligence from data collected and turn that intelligence into meaningful actions in order to get ahead of the competition,” says Prem Rodrigues, director for the Middle East, Africa & India/SAARC at Siemon. Building blocks The Internet of Things (IoT) plays a fundamental role in building a connected enterprise as it facilitates the connection of billions of ‘datagenerating’ systems and devices. Gartner predicted that 50 billion devices will be connected to the IoT by 2020. “A majority of these devices will be industrial equipment and machinery such as jet engines, vending machines, health monitoring systems, and other industry-specific devices. Therefore, it is imperative to calibrate enterprises around this impending reality,” says Jaswal from Software AG. He adds the varied groups of people as a part of the ecosystem are most vital building blocks of any connected enterprise. These could range from customers, employees or partners to name a few. Different function responsibilities may involve
