| |November 20189Fill the Lakes ­ Store DataOnce you have the architec-ture of the data lake, make sure the data from all sources, internal and ex-ternal, are getting stored. Data governance is nat-urally a very important factor here. For some pro-cesses, it may not be a very easy transition to start capturing all data. Creating incentives and easy to use digi-tal tools to shift the behavior helps. It may also need compliance and mandates at places.It is the start, not the endMaking systems digital and not using the digital asset ­ the data ­ for its worth will very soon make it a low ROI exercise. Use the data for decision making. With that come dashboards. But the digital journey does not end with the dashboards, it only starts there. Ask how the digital systems will be made `intelligent' with the right analytics (read AI) into them.Get (Artificially) IntelligentOften, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learn-ing are relegated as trivial. To my mind, that is a big mistake. It has to be at the heart (and mind) of the dig-ital journey. This is what makes the apps and systems intelligent and effective.As per Gartner, 2018 will mark the beginning of AI democratization. With many open source AI/ ML libraries already available (Keras, Sickit-learn, Ten-sorflow, Caffe2 to name some), the tech bigwigs are steadily making progress in making AI more acces-sible. Facebook has tools for developers, Amazon and Microsoft has pay-as-you-use ML platforms. Open AI has research and blog for learning. Google has launched Dataset Search a few days ago to enable re-searches and AI enthusiasts to get relevant data to train the models. Proprietary algorithms are what make the likes of Google and Netflix what they are. It is yet to be seen how open the organizations will be to share the learn-ing or algorithms, but Algorithm economy has a very serious potential. There is increasing debate about the ethical use and dangers of AI, I personally believe that it is like any other tool that can have the poten-tial for misuse. Governance for AI is gaining momen-tum and is very much needed. It's a Team Sport ­ Develop the Ecosystem For a business, it is very important to enable the eco-system of customers, suppliers, consumers to be digi-tal. Some partners in the ecosystem may be ahead and some behind. Unless the whole ecosystem evolves, the true potential of digital will be untapped. Remember, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.Customer is the BossIt is most important to drive the culture of using the power of systems, data and algorithms across the organization for one critical thing: make it relevant and meaningful for the customer. If not anticipate them, at least meet the needs of the customers. If my relationship manager could use the might of digital transformation for meeting my needs, the conversa-tion would have been very different.Any business that is flourishing and surviving to-day and has a chance of survival in future is well un-derway its digital transformation journey. Without a digital strategy, the chances of a business to exist would be very bleak. Leveraging AI strategically for its full potential and making it part of the culture across the organization is very important for the strategy to come to life. ANY BUSINESS THAT IS FLOURISHING AND SURVIVING TODAY AND HAS A CHANCE OF SURVIVAL IN FUTURE IS WELL UNDERWAY ITS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY
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