The pace of digital change has been accelerated by over five years because of the pandemic. CEOs recognise, now more than ever, that their organisation needs to be digital at its core. Companies that can successfully achieve digital transformation at pace, will inevitably succeed over competitors and find success in the post-pandemic economy.
As we look to 2021, we anticipate this accelerated growth and innovation will continue. The pandemic has prompted businesses to think differently. As the shift to digital transformation continues, unlocking data, building secure business resilience, and establishing strategic relationships with partners who can deliver end-to-end solutions that directly impact top and bottom line, will become essential priorities for business leaders in 2021.
Data-driven Digital Transformation
Unlocking and activating value from data has significant top-line benefits for companies and will be critical in 2021. According to recent research by McKinsey, data-driven companies are 23 times more likely to acquire a customer, 6 times more likely to retain that customer and 19 times more likely to be profitable as a result.
Long-term success can be heavily influenced by the effectiveness of the company’s approach to data management. Making the right investment with the right partner is critical if organisational leaders want to attain successful digital transformation.
At Logicalis, we are helping our clients build a digital nervous system throughout their organisation which manifests itself in a modern cloud data estate. Enabling business leaders to gain insights on any aspect of their business at any time, it helps them make informed decisions and provides business agility like never before. By putting data as the central tenant of the digital transformation and cloud journey we can directly attribute these solutions to positive changes to top-line revenue or bottom-line outcomes. We call this data-driven digital transformation.
Business Resilience must include Security
Over 2020, new digital architectures were reactively created to bridge gaps during a challenging time. However, now the dust has settled it is important to address any risks or issues arising from this accelerated change. We are seeing an opportunity to better define and deploy holistic security technology to remove vulnerabilities and reduce the risk of future attacks.
According to Forrester, insider data breach incidents, whether accidental or malicious, are on the rise and will increase by 25% in 2021. These insider incidents are likely to be caused by a combination of rapid evolution to remote working and the ease with which data will be moved. As a result, threat defence and employee engagement should be prioritised, and organisations should keep in mind that trust is not a control.
Organisations must continue to adapt their approaches to security and invest in new business models in response to changing economic uncertainty, scattered workforces, and customer expectations. The only effective approach to security and business resilience for the continued remote working enterprise is a holistic, architectural approach – one that is manageable, adaptable, and responsive and developed with the right partner.
Working with strategic partner Microsoft’s product engineering teams to create an innovative solution for customers, LogiGuard – an AI enabled cloud-based security platform was developed. Covering an entire IT environment, from cloud applications to on-premise end-points – this solution is a blanket which automatically detects, responds and addresses security risks and issues before any human intervention is needed or possible. Truly leading-edge technology on a global setting.
Growing Importance to Build Strategic Partnerships
Strategic partnerships will be crucial in 2021 to be able to leverage extensive expertise across the full IT spectrum. As businesses look to create ever-more intelligent architectures and systems to drive business value, companies will look for providers who are strategic partners that deliver end-to-end solutions which map directly to C-Suite business priorities.
A key priority for customers in 2021, we are already bringing together our extensive technology and industry expertise to tailored solutions. Taking this a step further, we manage solutions as a service towards a targeted outcome with tangible business benefits.
The Power of Strategic Partnerships
At Logicalis, we truly believe in the power of strategic partnerships and have already seen real results from them for our customers. With a global network of partners, we have two that we are significantly investing in – Microsoft and Cisco.We are uniquely positioned with both and leading on a global stage for business performance and innovation.
With Microsoft, we are in the top 0.1% of partners, demonstrating leading edge Azure managed services capabilities as an Azure Expert Managed Service Provider. We are one of only 64 companies worldwide considered globally strategic in the area of Data and IoT (Internet of Things). The opportunity we have to create innovative technology solutions and jointly deliver these for our customers is huge and will come to fruition in 2021.
Additionally, we are one of only five Cisco Global Gold partners. Partnering with Cisco we have helped our clients leverage DevNet and Meraki as on-premise and cloud infrastructures converge to build a hybrid future.
Together, Logicalis, Cisco and Microsoft make an incredibly powerful team as we enter 2021.
Moving into 2021
Over the course of 2020, mindsets and norms have shifted. It has become abundantly clear that digital-first companies have a winning edge and that organisations can move at pace with large scale transformation.
Moving into 2021 there is a tremendous opportunity for our industry, with innovation and digital transformation rapidly rising and set to continue. As businesses seek to unlock data to stay relevant in an ever-changing market and secure working practices they will look to the expertise and understanding of their suppliers and partners.
Technology providers will consolidate to offer end to end solutions that can draw a straight line from business opportunity, through technology deployment, and increasingly manage solutions as a service to deliver on that opportunity. Companies will increasingly look to differentiated and accredited providers who can deliver on this end-to-end need and draw on strategic partnerships to create customised, innovative solutions. We have already
invested upfront and can wear the many badges proudly as Architects of Change and Digital Transformation Enablers.