VIDEO | INFINIDAT, Field Chief Technology Officer: Digital Transformation Has Been Going On Since the First Computers

VIDEO | INFINIDAT, Field Chief Technology Officer: Digital Transformation Has Been Going On Since the First Computers

(US and Canada) Ken Steinhardt, Field Chief Technology Officer, INFINIDAT, speaks with Mark Johnson, Regional VP, Fusion Alliance and Editorial Board Chair, CDO Magazine, about the concept of digital transformation, the strategy required for it, and how organizations can leverage digital for better interactions with customers.

Steinhardt points out that digital transformation has been happening everywhere, but it isn’t exactly new. Changing from physical banking to online bill payments, physical counters to handheld devices issuing receipts, airlines’ online check-in capabilities, real-time credit card fraud detection, planning activities and booking meals online at amusement parks …

“These are all digital transformations and it's going to keep going on now,” Steinhardt says. “Despite the fact that the term is relatively new, the whole industry has been going through digital transformation literally since the first computers. We just didn't use the terms to describe it in the same way at the same time.” 

Regarding data, Steinhardt says that the fundamental transition has been from studying past data to analyzing future trends using predictive analytics.

Things have changed since the early days of data processing, he notes. The only people that knew about an issue were the people in the data centers, and no one outside the data center had visibility.

“Then we grew into the world of interactive processing and suddenly our internal users have access to something. Or with the emergence of things like ERP,  suppliers, customers, and clients now have access. Today on the web everybody sees everything. So you've got to be online all the time. If your systems aren't highly available, everybody in the world is going to know it and it's going to directly impact your entire organization and your business very negatively, very fast,” he says.

Steinhardt emphasizes that performance and response times have to be consistent and organizations will need more data to work with to be able to serve analytics.And now service levels are the key differentiators between organizations, particularly if they have similar products.

“It's how organizations will differentiate themselves in the market. If you go to a retail website to purchase an item, and one particular site is constantly giving you immediate responses and giving you detailed information about a product, you're more likely to do business there. Service will be the differentiator between competitors providing relatively similar products,” he concludes. 

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