At the Reimagining the Enterprise Summit, held recently in Johannesburg, South Africa, representatives from several businesses within the ICT industry spoke of the increasing need for decision makers to focus on transforming operations and go digital.

Some of the learnings shared during the conference detailed how companies can empower their workers to achieve more, but collaborate more closely with their peers anytime, anywhere and on any device.

Innovative products and services have enabled businesses to engage and interact with their customers in new ways, with the end result that virtually every enterprise is now transforming into a digital business, with the customer at the centre.

"For business leaders everywhere, the next three years will be devoted to quickening their organisations' pace in the race to go digital. Those who take control and move to become disrupters in their markets will emerge as the true digital world leaders," asserts Lee Naik, Managing Director of Digital and Technology Strategy at Accenture South Africa.

Enterprises need to challenge their current partnering strategies to navigate this brave new business world. This will allow them to quickly respond to customer needs through the use of comprehensive, integrated solutions and services that are designed to work together and produce phenomenal customer experiences.

Power to the consumer

Companies need to focus on their unique business goals and apply a people-centred design approach to achieve them. "Optimal impact happens when business goals are aligned to compelling solutions that can deliver value and have been enabled through technology," says Angela Gahagan, Enterprise and Partner Group Lead at Microsoft South Africa.

Technology now plays a major role as a competitive differentiator for companies, because choosing the right technological platform for boosting organisational productivity will result in greater business agility, she adds.

Laurent Leclercq, Chief Information Officer at Dimension Data Middle East & Africa, echoed Gahagan's sentiments, adding: "Technology has gone through a seismic shift. For enterprises to adapt and, more importantly, adopt this technology shift, the underlying success is dependent on how we enable people and their experience."

Today's customers are smarter thanks to them being ubiquitously connected to the web and social networks. This allows them to easily and quickly research offerings, receive recommendations from trusted sources, and share their sentiment about products and services over social networks by using their notebooks, tablets and smartphones.

"In this world where buying decisions are made even before sales teams can engage with customers, enterprises have to adapt," says Lourens Swanepoel, Senior Director: CTO and Innovation Lead at Avanade South Africa. "The easiest way to achieve this is to use solutions that boost the productivity of sales teams, allow them to collaborate with one another, and find the right information at the right time, no matter where they are to engage customers in meaningful ways."

Working like a network in a secure environment

While the customer-centric focus might do wonders for sales and client relationship management, employee productivity will get a similar boost from working like a network in the modern workplace, says Uriel Rootshtain, Office Business Group Lead Microsoft South Africa.

"In a sense, the world has become a giant network. People expect more from businesses, including quicker responses, better experiences and more personalised engagement. Information moves rapidly and people are more connected than ever before, so using the power of social networks at home and at work enables people to get more done faster," he says.

This level of connectivity does present some additional challenges around security for enterprises, though. Employees now need to protect their business data, whether this is on mobile devices, servers or in the cloud, and be prepared to minimise the disruptions caused by unexpected events.

"Digital security is one of the biggest risks to business today and deserves a place on the agenda of any board. The nature of digital security has also changed. No longer are we dealing with x-generation hackers trying to differentiate themselves," says Steven Yates, Director of Strategy and Consulting, and Head of Pre-Sales Sub-Saharan Africa at BT Global Services.

"Cybercrime is organised, whether in the form of hactivism, organised crime or terrorism. If enterprises do not recognise the need to combat this threat at the highest level, their customers and their brands will be irrevocably compromised to the point of possible closure," he says.