The customer-driven, technology empowered business transformation we call digital transformation impacts every corner of the enterprise. Every process, every organizational unit, every piece of technology is subject to disruption.
You might jump to the conclusion, therefore, that digital transformation has to be expensive.
I have some good news for you: digital transformation doesn’t have to cost you a dime. In fact, it could actually save you money. Here’s a story that proves the point.
Westpac New Zealand’s Remarkable Transformation Story
At this week’s ChefConf, Chef Software’s annual customer conference and ground zero for the DevOps movement, I spoke with Dave Corlett, Head of Application Lifecycle Management at Westpac New Zealand Limited, about his bank’s digital transformation.
Westpac’s results were remarkable. “We didn’t need to spend money on transformation,” Corlett said. “It was based upon improved efficiency.”
Even more remarkable: unlike the similar story at DBS Bank in Singapore whose transformation efforts originated with the CEO, Westpac New Zealand’s efforts arose from the software development organization.
In other words, DevOps drove digital transformation for the bank as a whole. The starting point: changing the culture within IT. “We started with a ‘culture quest’,” explained Corlett. “It started with a question: ‘what would a great day at work feel like?’”
Reworking techie culture is a cornerstone of DevOps to be sure, but in Westpac’s case, this cultural shift had a laser focus on customer value. “Value only occurs in the heads of customers,” Corlett pointed out. “A measure of ‘structural efficiency’ is how much of every dollar invested goes to customer value.”
What about the rest of each dollar – the part that doesn’t go toward customer value? That portion represents waste – and eliminating waste was the key to the bank’s entire transformation.
Read the entire article at https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonbloomberg/2017/05/25/devops-drives-no-cost-digital-transformation-at-westpac-new-zealand/.
Intellyx publishes the Agile Digital Transformation Roadmap poster, advises companies on their digital transformation initiatives, and helps vendors communicate their agility stories. As of the time of writing, Chef Software is an Intellyx customer. None of the other organizations mentioned in this article are Intellyx customers. Chef Software covered Jason Bloomberg’s expenses at ChefConf, a standard industry practice. Image credit: Scott Lewis.
