Some Information and Communications Technology (ICT) experts have called on business owners to embrace digital transformation to enhance the image and growth of their businesses.
The experts made the appeal during the 2019 Edition of Digital Transformation Summit organised by the Institute for Enterprise Management and Analytics in Lekki, Lagos.
The event had as its theme: “Positioning African Enterprise with consideration for Digital transformation, Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Platformisation as the edge that will propel the Nigerian business to prominence”.
Mr Sikiru Rufai, a former Managing Director/Chief Financial Officer, Honeywell Group Plc, said that businesses should move with new trends in technology to enhance their success rate.
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He said that businesses that do not upgrade themselves in terms of technological advancements were bound to fail.
“Innovation and technology are key drivers for businesses, so it is necessary for companies to tap into it.
“Digital transformation can improve efficiency, collaboration, increase productivity and also improve customer engagement,” Rufai said.
Also speaking, Mr Charles Ofoefule, Executive Director, Hemingway Global Services Ltd., said that businesses that would survive the next century were those that were ready to embrace digital transformation.
He described digital transformation as the adoption and usage of technologies to positively change business processes, models, operations and competencies.
“Digital transformation is universal in scope and can be applied to businesses irrespective of the sector.
“The 21st Century businesses hover around people, technology and process. These three things must be fused together because if one is suffering, a company/organisation is bound to collapse.
“For example, if a business has the right process, technology and the wrong set of team players, such business would definitely fail and vice versa,” Ofoefule said.
Talking on the sectors that were conforming to digital transformation in Nigeria, he noted that banks were leading in that regard.
He said that 75 per cent of those in the banking sector used technology to perform practically all their transactions.
Ofoefule said that upcoming sectors conforming to digital transformation were the government, education, transportation, oil and gas and capital markets sectors.
“Up to 35 per cent of government organisations now use technology in terms of payment of taxes, registration processes among others.
“Others sectors that have not really embraced digital transformation are the manufacturing, construction, health care, informal retail and the insurance sector.
“We need to understand that with technology, Nigeria will be able to compete globally with other markets,” he said.
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