Page 36 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2020

[2]. It was accompanied by the emergence and proliferation
of new technologies for data communications and new
software paradigms. A key factor was the exponential
growth of basic performance for computing, storage, and
communications. Not only did that lead to greater adoption
of computers within the business world but it also hastened
the proliferation of computers in the hands of consumers.
One consequence was the great broadening of the pool of
digitally literate individuals and the demand for digital
connectivity and access to content. Seizing on the
technological advances, Hammer and Champy [3] wrote one
of the bestselling business books of the 1990s that drove an
almost two decades long transformation of the corporate
landscape. Enterprises concentrated on digitizing routine Figure 1 - Current and projected growth of
processes in the business world and exhibiting an endless connected devices
appetite for new computing, storage, communications, and
software technologies. The results included profound 2. DEEP DIGITIZATION
changes in business models, and relentless reorganization of
corporations.
“The common definition in the Wikipedia [4] of the word
In the background, on top of the changes that the commercial Digitization, less commonly Digitalization, is the process of
and industrial world has seen through the 1990s, there were converting information into a digital (i.e. computer-readable)
format, in which the information is organized into bits. The
earthshaking changes that have happened in the last two
decades, led by the consumer sector. One was the emergence result is the representation of an object, image, sound,
document, signal (usually an analog signal) by generating a
and dominance of the Internet through explosive growth now
accounting for ~ 4 billion personal connections. Another was series of numbers that describe a discrete set of its points or
samples. The result is called digital representation, more
the buildout and adoption of mobile and broadband
communication services globally. The average penetration specifically, a digital image, for the object, and digital form,
for the signal. In modern practice, the digitized data is ……
rates have exceeded 100% in many countries and are
accompanied by computing power and storage in the user’s Digitization is of crucial importance to data processing,
storage and transmission, because it "allows information of
hand on smart devices. These were delivered on miniaturized
terminals (books, pads and cell phones - with more than one all kinds in all formats to be carried with the same efficiency
and also intermingled". Unlike analog data, which typically
device per person). A fundamental shift has been even more
powerful computing and storage in the cloud, and suffers some loss of quality each time it is copied or
transmitted, digital data can, in theory, be propagated
democratization of access to resources that were previously
available only to the largest enterprises. Lastly, the changes indefinitely and reused with absolutely no degradation……”
also saw the reinvention of consumer goods retailing with
rapid and efficient residential delivery in the form of Getting data and information into a machine-readable form
ecommerce. That’s four global infrastructures built out from is just the start. The value, enjoyment, or potential that we
scratch in less than two decades – all fundamentally extract from the information is what is important. That is,
exploiting digital technologies. what deep digitization is about, the orchestration of the cycle
of actions that leads to tangible results and desired outcomes.
In almost all spheres of what we experience today, some
This brings us to the next chapter in the tale, where it is likely level of digitization has already crept into: the
the turn of the industrial and commercial enterprises, and
public sector services to take the lead again with a rollout Manufacturing of products and goods; as an important
feature of how the Products and Goods are designed and
that will last at least for the next two decades or more. At the
latest count, the number of machine-to-machine connections how they function and behave; as an essential element of the
Processes that we use to manage our organizations and the
was ~ 30 billion and was the fastest growing segment of the
“Digital World” with projections of over 75 billion interaction that organizations have with suppliers and
consumers; and finally in the design and delivery of Services.
connections by the mid-2020s according to IDC and Statista.
The growth that this represents outstrips the opportunities in As alluded to in the introduction we have deployed
horizontal technologies and infrastructures that are
the consumer space. There are several factors at work, but
the most important is that the wide availability of the extremely more powerful than a mere decade ago and that
possess multiple properties:
computing, storage, connectivity, and delivery
infrastructures greatly lowers the threshold for commercial
and public enterprises to achieve a return on their • They are inherently digital
investments from revamping their operations across a wide • The performance is advancing rapidly (doubling at
front of activities. least every 2 to 3 years)
• They can be provided as a service by third parties or
readily integrated

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