Decentralized Systems Paving the Way for Innovation & Collaboration

Dolly, a results-driven Digital Transformation Leader with expertise in business intelligence, enterprise systems, cloud management, and ERP. Skilled in optimizing IT strategies, integrating cost-effective technologies, and fostering collaboration. Adept at aligning IT with business priorities, enhancing financial and HR systems, and navigating industry growth and downturns.

In a thought-provoking interaction with Global Woman Leader Magazine, Dolly shares her insights on the transformative impact of emerging technologies on traditional enterprise systems, particularly in the energy sector, and the need for leaders to rethink metrics to capture their true value in business and human capital.

With the rise of decentralized systems, how do you foresee these technologies challenging the foundation of traditional enterprise systems, especially in the energy sector?

With decentralized technologies like blockchain and edge computing, disruption in traditional enterprise systems will soon be seen in the energy sector. Digital leaders need to appreciate the value of decentralization: using blockchain to increase security and edge computing to decrease latency to speed up decisions. To keep ahead, leaders must collaborate with customers and apply these technologies toward innovative business models. A strong focus on data and analytics will be needed to empower these new models to unlock efficiencies, improve service offerings, and adjust to the fast-changing digital landscape in an increasingly interconnected world.

How do you propose redefining key performance indicators to better measure the true value of transformation in business outcomes and human capital?

One of the key measures of intangible benefits is the efficiency gains and time savings. Digital transformation is about redefining the end-to-end processes not just incremental improvements to existing processes. The new processes utilize the technology enablement with AI and other advanced capabilities to change the way organizations perform business functions to improve overall employee experience. To measure the success of the transformation efforts we have to measure the throughput. Improved efficiency provides employees time for more value added work and collaboration which leads to creative ideas.

As automation becomes a central focus in digital transformation, what ethical frameworks should leaders adopt to ensure equitable job distribution and mitigate workforce displacement?

As the center stage of digital transformation becomes about automation, leaders in the energy sector must align their ethical frameworks to appropriately distribute the jobs, addressing workforce displacement. Balancing cost-efficiency in implementing automation with its broader societal impact requires careful consideration of long-term implications. Upskilling and comprehensive training initiatives are indeed crucial for workforce adaptation within a rapidly changing environment. In addition to this, building organizational resilience must be supported through robust process and system documentation processes that facilitate both smoother and more rapid automation cycles, ensuring technologies and human capitals are aligned over time for effective growth and delivery.

As the energy industry moves towards a circular economy, how can IT systems adapt to measure and optimize resource cycles effectively?

The transition of the energy sector into a circular economy entails the adaptation of IT systems to measure and optimize resource cycles effectively. Business intelligence (BI), therefore, is the key to providing insights into new trends, which help companies ride through down-cycles while becoming ready for up-cycles. Companies can use BI to guide future decision-making, improve resource efficiency, and gain a competitive advantage, ensuring long-term sustainability and resilience amid changing market dynamics.

How do you design digital strategies that are flexible enough to pivot during crises, without compromising long-term goals? Are there any counterintuitive practices you’d recommend for such scenarios?

Making designs for flexible digital strategies requires visibility into interconnected processes to anticipate problems. Agility itself: The very ability of organizations to pivot in times of crisis is contingent on the prevailing culture. The companies that embrace change-with an appetite for calculated risk-are the resilient ones. Counter intuitively, some promote a culture of experimentation where controlled failure would lead to adaptive learning. Having real-time data analytics incorporated with scenario planning empowers organizations to respond fast without relinquishing the long-term view. Cross-departmental collaboration and working with external partners help to establish greater flexibility toward sustaining growth under worst-case scenarios of geopolitical conflict or disruption to the supply chain.

With the growing importance of integrations and cross-platform collaborations, do you see a future where companies form digital ecosystems rather than relying on isolated enterprise systems?

This shift from insular enterprise systems into digital ecosystems is hastening the development of cross-platform collaboration and decentralized cloud services. Although this facilitates innovation and business models across industries, it introduces complications concerning ownership and control of data and its security. In this regard, data-sharing creates the platform whereby innovation is developed, yet companies have to equally consider the proprietary aspects of their data. The complexity associated with domain spanning demands excellent governance arrangements. In this exchange, the success and evolution of business will depend on how well they traverse these challenges to maximize digital ecosystems while giving credence and compliance and maintaining a competitive edge.