the way those devices
access your core infrastructure;
access, duplicate, edit, or extract your information; or
implement workflow tasks.
Deploying identity management (for example, multifactor authentication) and monitoring who is creating, accessing, changing, and operating from what device will serve you well.
Alexander: Threats are changing. How do we have to adapt?
Edna: There are three key points that we need to consider when we want to adapt to new threats:
Slow down: You are at risk of making a mistake when you are in a rush.
Be vigilant: Stay aware of the changing threat landscape and attack vectors and leverage a revisit of your security practices as you learn.
Conduct pre-deployment testing: Running in sandboxes prior to full operational deployment supports a diligence process based on staged implementation. Only when verification is achieved should a full deployment proceed.
Alexander: What will happen to companies that don't level up in digital maturity and organizational readiness?
Edna: They won't be in business. Leveling up in digital maturity and organizational readiness is not optional — it is an intrinsic necessity in today's digital age.
Alexander: Do you see a chance in low-code environments for employees to design business processes without software development skills?
Edna: I think that employees can design business processes at any point in time without software development skills. However, processes need to be implemented. Doing so in a digital age may not require software development skills if the implementation plan was designed with developers at the table who could ensure that process users can implement digitally. At some point someone who knows how to code needs to have been part of the team — period!
Alexander: Ten years from now, how do you think our workplace will look?
Edna: People will be wherever they want to be. Ten years from now, there will still be meetings at headquarters because people are creatures who require being with one another and developing rapport. We will never stop shaking hands, hugging, and understanding the feedback we get from being physically with one another.
I also believe that efficiencies will be added by the use of digitally controlled machinery and vehicles. These are adding more to our human capabilities every day.
Alexander: Thank you, Edna. What quick-win advice would you give that is easy for many companies to apply within their digital strategies?
Edna:
Deploy a flexible enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
Lock down identity management deployed in conjunction with a role-based access plan.
As for your data: segment, segment, and segment.
Alexander: Do you have a smart productivity hack or work-related shortcut?
Edna: Pick up the phone and talk to someone.
Alexander: What is the best advice you have ever received?
Edna: The best advice I ever received was from my mother: never judge a book by its cover. This advice is even more relevant in today's digital world.
Key Takeaways
Going digital demands that you assess what should be automated, not just what can be automated.
To build and retain trust, focus on two key digital capabilities: security and resilience.
In 10 years, people will be wherever they want to be, but we will never stop shaking hands, hugging, and seeking the feedback we can only gain from being physically together.
Endnotes
1 1 XaaS (X as a Service) refers to something being presented to a customer as a service, typically in the context of cloud computing. XaaS provides endpoints for customers that are usually API driven but can also be controlled via a web browser or within applications. Typical examples are software as a service (SaaS) such as Office 365, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) such as Hyper-V, and platform as a service (PaaS) such as Azure.
2 2 “2020 Global IoT/ICS Risk Report,” CyberX, https://cyberx-labs.com/resources/risk-report-2020.
Chapter 5 Florian Ramseger: The Future of the Digital Society
Florian Ramseger, economist, data scientist, and futurist
Source: Florian Ramseger
Florian is an economist turned data scientist with wide-ranging work experience in different countries and in different fields — the private sector, the public sector, and NGOs and international organizations. In his current role as senior product specialist he helps Salesforce customers from different industries implement their data projects. Prior to Salesforce, he was with the International Red Cross, the World Economic Forum, and the WU Vienna business school. Florian has a BSc in economics and geography from University College London and an MSc in economics and economic history from the London School of Economics. Currently based in Frankfurt, Germany, he has spoken and written about how the digital transformation affects organizations and societies, based on his experience with implementing IT projects of various shapes and sizes and drawing on his background as a trained economist.
Alexander: We have talked about the digital transformation of society on several occasions; how do you think about digitalization and how does it change our lives?
Florian: The digital transformation over the last few decades can be broken down into three stages, and each stage comes with its own benefits. When a process has become “digitalized” we notice it, either because the input form is now digital or because the end product is presented in a digital format. Capturing and presenting information in digital form started some 40 years ago with the widespread adoption of the personal computer.
The decreasing costs of all sorts of sensors and the rise of the Internet of Things, as well as advances in machine vision, voice recognition, and natural language processing, mean that we digitize increasingly more analog content. The value associated with this first stage of the digital transformation, sometimes referred to as digitization, was traditionally seen in the savings in
