By Brad Pulford, Director of Infrastructure Solutions, Dell EMC

There is no question that companies need to transform their technology stacks, both to improve their competitiveness and to remain relevant in the market. Studies confirm that digitally transformed companies are able to bring new products to market 44 times faster and run business critical applications three times faster.

But getting there is not a simple task. Many great organisations have become stuck between realisation and execution. It’s not that they lack the will to make changes, but that these are very daunting and major shifts to adapt to.

Hosting a discussion show on the sidelines of the recent Dell EMC Forum held in Sandton, Johannesburg, renowned speaker and presenter Michael Jackson spoke to Brad Pulford, Director of Infrastructure Solutions at Dell EMC, about this impasse. Pulford noted that many organisations wrestle with digital transformation for elementary reasons:

“One of the things you need to do, when you are defining any customer’s outcome, is having an endpoint. This is one of the most difficult things for customers out there: they see a lot of stuff going on, a lot of the things we’re talking about. But how do you adopt those things and make them relevant for your organisation? It starts with actually understanding what journey you want to embrace today.”

First steps

It’s key to bring the right foundations into play, putting platforms in place that can show the effect of new technology and business concepts. Once these basic blocks are available, a company can begin to understand their environment. This makes it possible to start defining the way forward.

For example, what elements are present or missing in a company’s datacentre environment? Would it help to consider a hyper converged infrastructure approach or to adopt all-flash arrays? What would the impact be on the organisation and its ambitions?

As soon as you put some of those tangible ideas on the table, customers become familiar with what is required to inspire change among their people and processes:

“What we’re seeing at the moment is one of the key disruptors is taking your people on that journey, ensuring they are enabled and empowered, and au fait with what is going around the key tenets of what’s creating this revolution and change in the industry.”

Staying afloat

Dell EMC’s family of companies are specifically geared towards bringing those possibilities to life. From redefining existing data centres to connecting users on cutting edge devices to next-generation application development using platforms such as Pivotal, the very essence of the Dell EMC experience is to help its customers define the transformation journey.

If an organisation is treading digital water, it will soon start to sink. This is a frightening prospect for many. But it doesn’t need to be - and once an organisation knows where it is and where it needs to be, things become a lot clearer.

“It’s about having a starting point and a destination in mind,” said Pulford. “If you understand the elements of IT transformation and you understand what digital can do for your organisation, there’s no doubt you’ll embrace what is required to make a success of that journey.”

For more of the Dell Forum 2018, and the insights shared therein, as well as the two part interview with Pulford, be sure to visit the links below

Dell Forum 2018 Part 1: The Digital Transformation Opportunity

Dell Forum 2018 Part 2: Workplace Transformation revisited

Dell Forum 2018 Part 3: Embarking on the Digital Transformation journey (Brad Pulford interview part 1)

Dell Forum 2018 Part 4: A world of new possibility (Brad Pulford interview part 2)