Software dictating digital transformation – IT expert

The digital transformation of business is being rewritten by software, says software corporation CA Technologies chief technology officer Otto Berkes.

Speaking at the CA IT Management Web Symposium, held in Midrand, Gauteng, Berkes noted that information technology (IT) was no longer limited to maintaining servers and equipment and “keeping the lights on” and included companies creating software applications that enabled them to connect directly to customers and deliver “compelling experiences”.

Berkes noted that, while software develop- ment and incorporation were large investments, the return on investment was equally significant.

“Investment in technology has a greater impact on a company’s profits than comparable levels of spending on advertising, or research and development, according to research published in the MIT Sloane Technology Review.”

To effect this change, IT departments were being refactored and rebuilt as software development organisations, with this change also involving upscaling for constant innovation to achieve a sustained business advantage.

Meanwhile, US multinational technology and consulting corporation IBM suggests that small cargo drones, called ‘flying donkeys’, could be the answer to some of Africa’s most pressing problems. These drones, currently in development, could each carry 10 kg of cargo for up to 120 km to supply medicine or food to remote communities or refugees.

Consequently, Berkes highlighted, integration of design, development and operations, as well as a multidisciplinary approach, focused on user needs and values as practical suggestions for companies in their pursuit of digital transformation.

Additionally, the speedy realisation of a new idea or service should be followed by continuous iteration and improvement, while there should be a focus on services that leverage company data. Companies could divide their services into components and use application programme interfaces (APIs) to harness the value in data to improve robustness, scalability and security.

Further, companies should ‘instrument’ all operations, as robust instrumentation and management of operations are essential for problem solving, speedy resolutions and generating insights, such as operational efficiency and performance insights, to understand user experience in real time.

He further suggested securing all operations and services. With applications and APIs that increase the surface area for threats, security requires a holistic approach, must be addressed using algorithms and intelligence, and be incorporated into every aspect of design, development and deployment.

Berkes also underscored that containerisation, data analytics and open-source software (OSS) in software engineering could potentially accelerate digital transformation.

Containerisation is the division of large and complex online applications (apps) into more manageable parts that deliver microservices, each of which can be managed separately without affecting other services through a loosely coupled API-based architecture.

Data analytics is the examination of raw data from data generators that could assist com- panies in their services provision and in draw- ing more detailed analysis of their customers’ requirements and preferences. Software recom-mendation engines, with data ana-lytics, can also make purchase recommendations based on a customer’s past experience.