But with the increased complexity comes increased risks. New technologies bring along new challenges cutting across security, regulation compliance, and business operations. It necessitates a balancing mechanism between advancement and risk management, failure to which modern enterprises risk incurring reputation, trust, and financial losses.
Here is an overview of the risks of adopting digital transformation and how to mitigate them:
Complexity risks.
Increasing complexity in technology causes massive disruption across business operations, including management. If it is not accompanied with parallel skillsets and viewpoints, it could eat up the businesses from various angles such as:
Clouding
The distribution of responsibilities to different locations, vendors, and services is inevitable under existing complex clouding. If an organization pays less attention to external facilitators, their flaws could become risks to the organization.
Supply Chain
Businesses effectively serve customers using technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies to increase efficiency, increase accuracy, reduce operational costs and promote collaboration. But more sophistication introduces more significant problems such as data leaks, which require an advanced approach.
Recovery
Security breaches and other risks born of new technologies are bound to happen at one point down the line. More advanced technologies often cause more severe disruptions. If an organization lacks an equally effective recovery mechanism, such losses can cause permanent damage to the business.
Coexistence Risks
Businesses need to mitigate conflict between advanced technologies and:
Workforce
Regardless of the efficiency, a technological transformation might bring, a corresponding burden on people will always occur. Digital transformation requires the accompaniment of advanced training, management, and communication, failure to which it becomes a burden.
Management
Organizations need a strategic management approach as they apply conventional Enterprise Resource Planning during a digital transformation.
Technologies
It is almost impossible for organizations to undergo a complete transformation by introducing new technologies across all levels. If an organization fails to plan sufficiently for the risks that might arise from the interaction of different technologies, their occurrence might cause an irreversible disruption in business.
Societal Risk
At the societal level, the spread of the internet and complementing technologies disrupt financial opportunities. As the nature of jobs shifts, the internet takes opportunities from those with poor access and adaptability and rewards enterprises that are well adaptable to arising trends. This is a risk as the response of the disadvantaged becomes unpredictable.
Cultural Collisions
The internet has also facilitated the split-second spread of information globally without the control that traditional interactions had. Since different cultures perceive information differently, this poses a risk of cultural conflicts.
Responding to Technology Risks
To stay ahead of these risks, organizations need to:
- Acquire sufficient control of new technologies by devising advanced business operations before transforming.
- Strategize the use and containment of technologies before their analysis or implementation.
- Equip the workforce from management to execution with skills and understanding for smooth adoption and efficiency.
- Ensure visibility across the different facilitators, such as cloud providers, to contain potential risks.
- Strategize a timely and effective response mechanism in the occurrence of different disruption levels.
