Page 37 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2020

• Access is widely available, with a high degree of or stove-piped organizations. One not so subtle point is that
interoperability the possibilities create tremendous pressure on the way
enterprises, both public and commercial, are organized and
The consequence is that, for any enterprise or use case, the the way they perform their functions and do business.
existence and availability of that common infrastructure and Change does not happen without disruption.
horizontal technologies greatly lowers the resource threshold.
The availability of reliable and scalable infrastructure The characteristics of deep digitization that an organization
available as a service makes it easier to develop, deploy, and needs to consider go far beyond the technical underpinnings.
operate a solution. This spurs experimentation and The single most important aspect is to understand that it is a
innovation. At the same time, the organization requires the means to better results, improved performance, and greater
skills and mindset to partner and cooperate with other satisfaction for customers and for employees. That in turn
suppliers and vendors in the ecosystem that have unique means buying into the technologies that have been
advantages and specialized resources. The suppliers in turn enumerated above and following acceptable principles for
can deliver their specific services more efficiently and operating ethically and responsibly in the context of societal
reliably because they do it for large pools of enterprises and needs. A non-exhaustive list of the issues for an organization
use case projects, capitalizing on efficiency of scale. can be summed up in the following points:

Central to all of this is the emergence of new utility-like • People: Mindset, organization, training, talent and
infrastructure and of adoption of use patterns first seen in the skills, incentives and rewards, involvement,
consumer realm. They are forcing industrial and public investment in employee and customer digital literacy,
organizations to confront the feedback from workers, active engagement and dialog with regulators, policy
operators, and end users, closing a loop that gives a much makers, and community.
stronger voice to “customers” and “stakeholders” alike. This • Management: Commitment, persistence,
is feedback about how well the products, processes, and empowerment, partnering, contributing to the
services actually work, how they are actually used, and the ecosystem, experimenting, investing, allocating
level of satisfaction expressed by the end users. Acting on resources, providing vision, goals, and metrics, focus
the feedback, in a systematic way with powerful new tools on value and the customer, alignment with societal
to conquer the complexity involved, is what distinguishes needs and responsibilities.
what is now possible compared to what we could do even in • Integration: Enterprise, supply-chain, service
the near-term past. providers, enterprise and user data, as well as
computation, storage, connectivity, sensor, actuator,
Broadly speaking there are seven technology areas involved and human interface, and software integration.
and they include: Computing, Storage, Connectivity, Organizational integration across functions. Lasting
Sensors, Actuators, Interfaces (for human interaction), and for the life cycle of the product or service.
Software (the glue that mediates between the technologies • Data: Across the enterprise - Data strategy,
and orchestrates the functionality and attributes of governance, data collection, storage and analysis,
applications and solutions). Each of these technology areas curation, data-driven decision-making, data-driven
has considerable heterogeneity and a hierarchical structure operations, compliance with policy and regulation.
that is important for efficiency and scalability. (Volume, Velocity, Variability, Variety, Veracity,
Accompanying these is the specific Domain Knowledge for Value, Visibility).
the market or vertical where the solutions will be applied. • Connectivity: Everything on the network, planning
across the enterprise (no silos), built into goods and
There is a host of additional technologies that are important, products, embedded in services, supporting
and without doing a complete list I would include: power and functionality and attributes across the life cycle,
energy, system analysis and design, integration, and orchestrating processes and procedures, use of sensor
operations. The ultimate value is also impacted by and computing embedded in production and output
specialized but important enabling areas such as: artificial equipment and plants. Sharing data and processes
intelligence (including machine learning), modeling and with partners, suppliers and vendors. Closing the
simulation, digital twin, data science and data engineering, feedback loop with products in service and with end
augmented and virtual reality, additive manufacturing (3D users.
printing), software virtualization, modern control methods • Adaptabilit a resilienc Customization
and techniques, photogrammetry, robotics, the Internet of capability; Design tools to model outcomes robustly,
things, and many more. The picture I hope I am conveying is a high degree of automation. Has the hooks for
that there is a very rich set of ingredients in the digital world evolution and future upgrades as is aligned with
and if worked right they allow us to do complex things. To partners’ roadmaps. Includes features to deal with
be repetitive for emphasis, the many complex problems that failures and outages.
industry faces were impossible to address previously but • Security, privacy, and assurance: Built in by design,
with the advances in technology and business models they at a system level. Compliant with laws and
are addressable today. Accompanying this is a much faster regulations, thoroughly tested for functionality,
path to value than what was possible in vertically integrated quality, and customer experience. Safety of use in

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