The majority of businesses are either thinking about or already doing, digital transformation – as it allows them to effectively adapt to a rapidly changing environment. And whilst this can have an abundance of benefits, it also presents several unique challenges. Now, if your organization has begun to invest in digital transformation, or is thinking of doing so, then it’s vital that you consider what these challenges are and how your IT teams can overcome them. And that’s exactly what we’ll be exploring in this article.
With this in mind, we asked our Certero experts to identify the top challenges that can arise when embarking on your digital transformation journey:
Roadblock 1: Organizational Resistance
Challenge
Digital transformation offers businesses the unique opportunity to improve their everyday strategies on a systemic level – from how the company operates to how the employees are cared for. As a result, your decision making will become more informed, agile and reliable. But perhaps most importantly, your business’ culture will change dramatically.
For some, change can be seen as a negative thing; it’s unfamiliar, untried and untested. And this viewpoint won’t park itself at the office doors and wait until closing time.
Solution
With this in mind it’s important that you frame the changes in a positive yet transparent light and offer the support they need to adapt quickly and effectively. Additionally, you should communicate why these changes are happening and how the business will benefit.
For example, your IT team will have developed vast knowledge and understanding of your operations and processes. And with individuals claiming responsibility for elements like business applications, infrastructure or security, there is often resistance to any change that could be viewed as relinquishing that understanding and control. This is where transforming your understanding of IT capability before anything else is critical to enabling further change in operations – because if IT teams are reliably informed, they can manage business changes with agility and confidence.
At Certero, we’ve designed our Unified Platform to be that helping hand, by providing a single-platform Cloud-based solution that centralizes all the information your IT team could need in to a single solution which means a single repository for IT asset intelligence – say goodbye to legacy data silos. This allows all departments in your organizations to work from the same solution when it comes to all IT Hardware and Software, and with everyone singing from the same hymn sheet you eliminate any miscommunications and discrepancies. For this to be effective we recommend bringing in multiple stakeholders into the tool selection process for your ITAM and SAM solution, this will allow you to fully understand your requirements against the solution’s capability and exactly and how it will benefit your organization.
Having the responsibility of spearheading digital transformation to the entire business’ IT estate alone would be a daunting task for anyone, so ensure you have the backing of key people in the business to make the process much easier.
Roadblock 2: Data Gaps and Silos
Challenge
A major issue that businesses face when undergoing a period of digital transformation is that they cannot truly see where all of their assets are and their data is trapped in disparate silos, making it tricky to get an holistic view of the IT estate. And, like anything, without having the full picture it’s impossible to make well-informed and reliable business decisions – so your organization could find itself in a rut before it even witnesses the benefits of digital transformation.
Solution
To ensure that this doesn’t become the case for your organization, it’s important that you have the right solutions in place to keep the puzzle together and allow you to gain complete visibility of your Hardware, Software, SaaS and Cloud estates in a single solution. For larger organizations with numerous moving parts, this is even more imperative.
At Certero, we’ve seen this issue time and time again which means we’ve become experts in dealing with it. Our tried and tested solutions are designed to deliver the data and information your IT teams need to their fingertips – from discovery and inventory to advanced reporting and analytics. And rather than waiting weeks or months for these answers, you can now directly access live IT intelligence 24/7. From this position, your business can undergo its transformation with accurate and reliable knowledge to guide you – meaning the threat of any costly mistakes is kept to a minimum.
This constant availability of real-time data additionally allows your business to track the progress of its digital transformation journey rather than waiting for a retrospective review. So, rather than making amendments and improvements for any future transformation plans, your IT teams can make them when they count.
Roadblock 3: Legacy IT Infrastructure
sChallenge
Digital transformation is all about looking towards digital innovation to optimize everyday business processes, but if your organization has found itself stuck and weighed-down by legacy technical debt and infrastructure that isn’t conducive to transformation, you could find yourself with a problem. This isn’t particularly difficult to understand; if your present technology is notably outdated and cannot withstand the level of transformation that you’re hoping to achieve, you’ll find yourself at an impasse.
Solution
Moving away from legacy systems to new platforms can seem like a daunting step due to the vast amounts of data that they contain and historically, the painful process of implementation and configuration. Pushback from end users may also be a concern, as experienced users are required to learn new systems and processes.
So what are some of the challenges with legacy systems?
- Support and Maintenance: Older systems are less likely to have frequent updates and often have lower levels of support
- Integration: Legacy systems are often unable to integrate with the modern systems that your organization is implementing through the process of digital transformation. Limiting the number of vendors you are able to choose from.
- Data Silos: As mentioned above legacy systems are prone for creating data silos making a holistic view of your IT estate impossible
- Security: As mentioned above updates are much less frequent with legacy systems making them a prime target for cyber criminals.
- Lack of control over modern, hybrid on-premises / Cloud & SaaS environments.
However, it’s not all bad news. If your technologies are Cloud-based, the transition can be much simpler than that of on-premises technologies. Ironically, it’s moving away from the burden of that legacy debt that is the benefit of modernizing and particularly as the new generation of ITAM/SAM solutions like Certero can be provisioned for you easily as SaaS, there really isn’t the overhead that there once was to transitioning to a modern platform.
What’s more, there is a benefit to users’ knowledge when unifying tasks once performed via multiple old toolsets onto a single platform solution, as there’s only one UI to learn and users’ access to information is dramatically increased. That makes operations easier and your staff more versatile and flexible because they can potentially access the tools and information they require with greater autonomy and confidence.
Plus, there’s new hybrid environments to manage, with old ITAM solutions failing to move with the times and the growing use of SaaS and Cloud IaaS / PaaS. Fortunately, there’s solutions that can support this change. By enlisting the help of an experienced IT & software solutions provider, such as Certero, your business can be fully informed on all aspects of your cloud consumption, begin to refine and mature your cloud governance policies, measure, manage and optimize the utilization of these resources and their cost across the business.– and as a result, this can help to facilitate digital transformation.
Roadblock 4: The Talent / Skills Gap
Challenge
The final roadblock that your business should prepare for before starting its digital transformation journey is an absence of the necessary skills and talent. For your organization to successfully transform, you’ll need to onboard the right skills – whether this is through training existing staff, hiring additional staff or looking for external partners that can fill this skills gap. So you’ll need to weigh up the pros and cons, timescales and perhaps most importantly the costs, attached to each process and find a solution that best suits your business.
To put this into perspective, your business could digitally transform and embrace Cloud-based solutions that promise to streamline your everyday processes. In theory, that’s great. However, if you don’t have the right people on your team who are familiar and experienced with configuring and maintaining cloud environments – and additionally understand the financial processes and information security governance around allocating resources to departments across the business – then you could find yourself without anyone to actively manage the new processes. Cloud resources are notoriously easy to consume and its quick and easy to see these costs get out of control. This means you’ll have wasted time, money and effort.
Solution
You should assess the situation, understand you skills and ensure you have everything you need to make informed business decisions. For example in the arena of IT Hardware, Software, SaaS and Cloud Asset Management by partnering with a company such as Certero, you can ensure that you’re in an informed and agile position to navigate this new territory successfully and with confidence. At Certero we offer more than just a tool, with a in-house services business we are able to benchmark your companies position and our experts help you navigate this new territory and make informed decisions!
Follow us on Linkedin for more SAM
updates
Read more like this from
Certero
Ready to learn how Certero can securely support your business’ transformation?
Speak to our experts today!
Certero’s [software-as-a-service] Solution
Certero help organizations transform their outdated operations and technologies in days and weeks not years. All of Certero’s solutions can be delivered as SaaS with no loss of functionality.
Certero Unified Platform
Learn more about Certero’s truly unique ‘unified’ platform.
Digital Transformation Edition
Transform in days and weeks, not months and years, start your journey now.
Verified Oracle LMS/GLAS Solution
Verified LMS (License Management Services), now GLAS (Global Licensing & Advisory Services) solution.
Cloud Management
Manage Visibility, Cost and Governance of your Cloud Resources
Enterprise Standard Edition – ITAM / SAM for Wintel
Default solution to manage ITAM/SAM for a Wintel environment.
Enterprise Premium Edition – ITAM / SAM for Wintel
All you need in one place to manage your ITAM/SAM for a Wintel & Citrix environment.
Datacenter
Stand-a-lone or holistic solutions for IBM, SAP and Oracle.
Software License Compliance
One Stop Shop, products and services for any solution – all in one
Business Intelligence Solution
See how to turn DATA into INFORMATION then transform into KNOWLEDGE, all in a few clicks.
IT Asset Visibility
Find out: What do I own? Where is it located? Who is using it?
ITSM & CMDB Integration
Populating the CMDB with ‘Quality’ asset information is more critical than ever
SaaS Subscription Management
Discover, manage and optimize your SaaS investments.
Everything in One place, True Unification
Certero for Enterprise ITAM
Networks, printers, routers, Wintel, Mac, Linux, zLinux, Unix, all virtualizations and much more….
Certero for Enterprise SAM
Focused on Wintel software vendors, including automated solutions for Microsoft, Adobe and much more…
Certero App Centre
Enterprise ‘Application Portal’ for Self-Service application provisioning.
Certero for Mobile
Go beyond standard MDM and deliver full management and security for your mobile workforce.
Certero SRDB (Software Recognition)
Transform raw software inventory data into actionable intelligence about application usage and licensing.
Certero for Oracle
Optimize your Oracle Database, Middleware and E-Business Suite applications.
Certero for IBM
Discover and manage all IBM software & entitlements across the network. Dual Inventory, ILMT and Certero.
Certero for SAP Applications
Managing and automating the analysis of complex SAP named user and engine licenses across your estate.
Passworks
An intuitive self-service password reset solution that can reduce service desk calls by 30%.
PowerStudio
PC Power Management solution. Save money and reduce your carbon footprint.
See, Manage and Eliminate Over-Spending with your SaaS Subscriptions.
Certero
Technology Led
Services
Strategic Services
Tactical Services
Certero Channel Partner Program
Our Partner Program opens up Certero solutions to a global network of partners – enabling customers to work with the trusted solution and service providers that know them best.
Join the Partner Program
Information on tiers and ease of doing business.
Deal Registrations
Submit your deal-registrations.
Launching the Program
Highest-rated major SAM vendor on Gartner Peer Insights, launch global Partner Program.
Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice
Rated #1 for SAM Customer Satisfaction year after year, after year
Blog
For the latest in ITAM, SAM, Cloud and SaaS Asset Management
White Papers and eBooks
Download the latest white papers and eBooks for key insights and guides.
News
Read the latest news from Certero and the industry.
Events and Webinars
Keep up to date with Certero’s latest webinars and events.
Videos
View our range of product videos, webinars and customer case studies.
Data Sheets
Download our datasheets which highlight the key benefits and features of our world class products and services.
Case Studies
See how organization around the globe change they way they [Do IT].
We think [and do] IT Differently
About Us
Get to know us more
Our Story
See how our approach is different
Our Journey
A timeline of events
Our Vision, Mission and Purpose
Mission, Purpose and Values
Careers
Browse our current roles
Locations
Find our nearest location