Innovation is the primary reason for modernization
Companies face a challenging environment where innovative technology is key to staying competitive. A failure to innovate and transform could adversely affect their business’ long-term health. Companies are modernizing their applications to increase the reliability and scalability of their services. Rather than focus on cutting costs, companies are searching for ways to improve their products, services, and customer experience to keep up with the competition.
Organizations should rely on something other than their internal IT department to keep up with innovation by teaming with IT partners like CBTS to help modernize their applications. These partners jump into the trenches with you, they can handle the process entirely or help lead in-house staff, ensuring that businesses can leverage the expertise and experience of external partners to modernize their applications and achieve their goals.
A critical area businesses should target for modernization is their core back-end applications. Modernizing these systems improves efficiency, speed, and reliability, providing better customer service and increasing their bottom line. Doing so will streamline operations, reduce costs, and offer better products and services. By embracing innovative technology and evolving their business to become sustainable, they can stay competitive, ensuring long-term success.
Innovation vs. Modernization
Innovation isn’t just a buzzword, and when it comes to your IT, it’s important to distinguish between innovation and modernization.
They aren’t the same.
Modernization is an ongoing way of life for successful IT organizations. Without modernization, an organization’s IT infrastructure can quickly become outdated and no longer meet the needs of the business. All IT technologies are tightly interwoven. Any change in one can transform and alter every other technology that touches, which is why modernization is essential.
As organizations adopt vital new, innovative technology such as hybrid cloud and Kubernetes, they learn they need modern IT infrastructure to transform and innovate effectively. This requires a strategic approach that accounts for the organization’s current infrastructure and business needs.
Modernization is about more than just innovation. It’s also about increasing efficiency and reducing costs. By modernizing their IT infrastructure, organizations can streamline their processes and reduce the time required to perform tasks leading to innovation opportunities that were previously impossible due to outdated systems and processes.
To be clear, modernization is a journey, not a destination. Organizations must constantly evaluate their IT infrastructure and make necessary changes to keep up with technological changes. This requires a long-term commitment to modernization and a willingness to invest in new technologies and tools, increasing efficiency and providing more opportunities for innovation.
Innovative technology for all sectors
Innovation is not just about making minor changes or adding new elements to existing paradigms. It’s about creating something entirely new. It involves building or utilizing things in a way that has never been done before or applying new technologies to solve previously unknown problems.
For example, in the healthcare sector, innovation can mean providing clinical care and operational teams with new tools that can change how care is delivered. This is different from modernizing the mode of care delivery.
In retail, innovation can be cashless, contactless, and autonomous shopping and delivery. Consumers are demanding more streamlined and efficient ways to pay for products and services and how they get their hands on them. Convenience trends like BOPIS, BORIS, and BOPAC are becoming the norm. Artificial intelligence and advanced analytics make these possible by automating complex inventory management processes required.
In manufacturing, AI is emerging as one of the top trends to solve the problem of analyzing vast amounts of data and generating valuable insights quickly. AI can improve operations, including inventory management, supply chain visibility, warehousing cost reduction, and quality management. Predictive maintenance is another crucial application of AI that ensures manufacturing companies operate with minimal or zero unplanned shutdowns.
Innovation remains essential in all sectors to stay competitive and meet consumer demands. It’s about creating something entirely new that solves problems in ways that were previously unknown. However, it is crucial to ensure that innovation is not just modernization but something that breaks ground or provides a unique approach to problem-solving, delivering real value to businesses and consumers alike.
Hiring an innovative team
Finding the right partner with the right mix of innovators is essential for pushing digital transformation forward. Organizations must look deeper into cultivating critical innovation roles representing all business functions and how they work together to push digital transformation forward.
A successful innovation team includes a mix of innovators, including generators who find new problems, conceptualizers who define problems, optimizers who evaluate ideas, and implementers who implement solutions.
Data analysts play a crucial role in innovation, analyzing data and architecting large databases to offer data-oriented solutions for business problems.
AI designers and developers work together to ensure AI systems meet the needs of actual humans. A Chief AI Officer is an exciting new role that leads decision-making on all AI initiatives and ensures AI efforts map to business goals and objectives.
Customer experience teams are becoming more critical than ever as they are on the frontline of innovation. These teams create new products based on the evolving needs of their customers, making them a core department in any data-driven, customer-centric company.
Today, businesses have to innovate almost continuously without taking a breath, and having a business partner who can help develop a strategy that includes continuous innovation is essential. Let CBTS be your partner in innovative technology and help guide you through an ever-changing future.
Brian Brickner is the Senior Vice President of U.S. Sales at CBTS. He’s had a storied career in technology—beginning with our parent company, altafiber—and he’s risen through the ranks of the sales department over the years after starting as an Account Executive.
He lends his wealth of more than 20 years of experience and strong support to sales operations and the Inside Sales and Renewals team. His goal is to provide exceptional and consistent service to our customers and partners.
