Digital gene identified?

In a recent in-depth study, consulting firm Sopra Steria looked into the phenomenon of data-driven agility.

The study shows how companies can react highly flexibly to volatile conditions and at the same time provide customized services virtually in real time.
In particular, this shows that customer-centric service models from natively digital companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook & Co. have permanently changed customer expectations in other industries as well.

The market success of these digital giants, like that of many smaller startups, correlates with new ways of working that are fundamentally different from those of traditional companies and, taken together, constitute the excellence characteristic of data-driven agility. According to the study conducted by the consultancy in cooperation with researchers from the University of Hamburg and Leuphana University, the thrust of these novel ways of working is essentially fed by five sources: agile product and service development, extensive use of Big Data analytics, predominantly digital interaction both within the workforce and with customers, an innovation-friendly organizational and leadership model, and a largely automated architecture and process landscape.

Agile development methods shorten innovation cycles so that new solutions reach market maturity more quickly.

Basic condition: Digital Mindset

With advanced analytics technologies that incorporate data from a wide variety of provenances, digitally excellent companies are becoming increasingly successful in personalizing their services and tailoring them to the individual needs of each customer according to the situation.

New insights into the behavior and needs of customers can be gained from their interaction with digital services via mobile devices, which can be used directly to improve the offering. However, a basic condition for this is end-to-end digital customer interaction, which - like the use of agile development methods - requires organizational changes and a digital mindset at the management level.

Last but not least, data-driven agility requires a correspondingly agile IT environment as well as largely standardized and automated business processes.

"Data-driven agility is no longer a monopoly of digital titans from Silicon Valley or young start-ups. In our study, we found that there appears to be no patent recipe for data-driven agility," comments Urs M. Krämer, Managing Director of Sopra Steria Consulting. Prof. Tilo Böhmann, head of the IT Management and Consulting research group at the University of Hamburg, adds, "The paths to data-driven agility are as diverse as the business activities of the companies considered." Prof. Paul Drews from Leuphana University of Lüneburg adds: "Each company must individually weight the five fields of action for itself and find an optimal combination to meet the requirements in its own market segment."