Microsoft and IDC representatives were joined by Auckland Transport CIO Roger Jones on a round table discussing digital transformation earlier this month.
Enterprises now have an array of services options to work cheaper, smarter and better in the cause of transformation -- and the benefits could be huge.
Speaking at a digital transformation roundtable this month, Auckland Transport chief information officer Roger Jones pronounced the era of big IT over as enterprise customers pursue transformation through services and break down legacy software platforms.
"There won't be the big projects, the big SAP and IBM projects of the past with single products. They're gone," he told an audience in Microsoft's Auckland office.
"In our organisation we are busy shifting to a service-based approach so you are just consuming services from wherever and cobbling that together. We see the whole technology landscape changing -- you won't buy a solution, you'll buy a whole package of services that you workflow together to get an outcome.
"The big solutions are dead. We are actively breaking those big systems down, saying we can do it through services, the IoT, cheaper faster startups are coming.
"Years ago the real-time systems were big and expensive now all of those algorithms are available on the internet for next to nothing," he said.
Jones, a member of the Microsoft Services Executive Board of major customers, joined the company's New Zealand’s national technology officer, Russell Craig, IDC analyst Shane Minogue and Microsoft NZ managing director Barrie Shears to launch a new Microsoft-sponsored IDC report, Unlocking the economic impact of digital transformation in Asia-Pacific.
Specifically, the report forecasts that by 2021, 55 per cent of New Zealand's GDP will be contributed by digital technology, up from just six per cent now. That will add $9.6 billion to the economy, IDC says.
Digital transformation is estimated to add an additional US$7 billion to New Zealand’s GDP by 2021 and increase the annual growth rate by 0.7 per cent.
According to Sheers, it's now an accepted viewpoint that soon every organisation will become a digital organisation.
Transformation, as outlined by Sheers, is a process of shifting the organisation from a legacy approach to new ways of working and thinking using digital, social, mobile and emerging technologies.
"Digital transformation is about reimagining how you bring together people, data and processes to create value for your customers and stakeholders while maintaining a competitive edge in this digital first world," he added.
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