Adesso: A guide to getting started with digital transformation

The digital is reshaping the real world from the ground up - with far-reaching consequences for companies. In order to understand these consequences and use them to their own advantage, they need to know the fundamental mechanisms of digital transformation. The theses from IT service provider Adesso make a contribution to this. They make it easier to get started with the topic and help companies to take the step towards their own digital transformation:

The digital transformation is inevitable.
In the long term, what can be digitized will be digitized. On the one hand, because that's what customers want, and on the other, because it enables companies to create new business models.

It is omnipresent.
For these reasons, the digital transformation is permeating all areas of life. It can be felt everywhere and is taking place in both our professional and private lives.

It drives mobilization and vice versa.
Thanks to the extensive availability of cloud services, digital data is now available everywhere. As a result, customers also expect more and more mobile interaction options.

It affects more than just production.
Industry 4.0 potential lies dormant not only in production companies but also in service companies. This is especially true when the services relate to physical objects.

It is more than just automation.
Companies that only see digital transformation as a way to avoid media disruption are missing out on their true opportunities: new products, services and business models.

It leads to cyber-physical systems.
These opportunities arise primarily from cyber-physical system landscapes. In them, objects from the real world generate data and communicate it. The cyber-physical systems have hybrid architectures, as they also include information systems and support business processes.

It demands monetization.
The ever-increasing availability of data enables numerous digital innovations. However, without the right monetization, even the best digital idea cannot become a viable business model.

It requires flexible infrastructures.
More digital requires more infrastructure. IT must be able to meet changing performance requirements from a standing start and flexibly integrate external data. This can only be achieved with scalable infrastructures.

It is interdisciplinary.
New data does not necessarily lead to better services and products. In order to fully exploit their potential, IT, statistics, business engineering and specialist departments must work closely together.

It requires a system.
Companies will not find their digital opportunities through brainstorming or pure luck, but only through a systematic approach. A suitable project tool for this is the "Interaction Room for Digitalization Strategy Development (IR:digital)".

"The digitalization of processes, services and products is unstoppable," says Prof. Dr. Volker Gruhn, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Adesso and holder of the Chair of Software Engineering at the University of Duisburg-Essen. "But one thing must not be forgotten. The most important thing cannot be digitized: customer trust. The more virtual an offer is, the greater the trust in its provider should be. It is therefore imperative that companies succeed in transferring the existing trust of their customers to the digitalized world.

A white paper entitled "Digital transformation - we're doing it now!" is available for further information on Adesso's microsite at WeMakeThatNow.ch ready for download.