In today’s fast-evolving tech landscape, staying ahead requires more than just adopting the latest tools—it demands rethinking how companies innovate, collaborate, and secure their data. David Boast, MENA general manager at Endava, shares insights into businesses’ digital transformation journey challenges. From cloud migration to harnessing AI and blockchain, Boast offers strategies to turn friction into opportunity.
What are the biggest challenges businesses face in migrating to cloud platforms, and how can the industry address these obstacles?
Challenges vary depending on factors such as regulatory requirements, market maturity, and the complexity of legacy IT systems. Highly regulated organizations must address concerns about operational resilience, security, and stability. Market maturity determines how many processes need migration and what considerations arise around innovation and ambition. Meanwhile, extensive legacy systems complicate transitions, increase employee resistance, and necessitate upskilling.
What are three key strategies for accelerating digital products and services?
- Understand your customers deeply: Leverage tools that provide unparalleled insights into customer behavior. AI-driven, omnichannel experiences are now essential, but differentiation comes from building genuine relationships, not just transactional ones.
- Adaptability in strategy: Businesses must stay agile in the face of rapid technological and behavioral change. Some companies are even exploring the use of AI as a “board member” to gain unique perspectives and enhance decision-making alongside human insights.
- Emphasize differentiation and risk mitigation: Continuously scan the horizon for emerging technologies while prioritizing outcome-driven implementations. While innovation is critical, investing in new technologies also serves as a form of risk management.
What commonly goes wrong in digital transformation strategies?
Digital transformations often fail due to poor execution. According to Endava research, 54 percent of organizations in the Middle East reported wasted investments in digital transformation projects last year. Key issues include:
- Lack of employee buy-in (39 percent) highlights the need for cultural shifts to foster engagement.
- Conflicting leadership opinions (36 percent) and poor internal collaboration (33 percent) hinder organizational alignment.
Over half of respondents acknowledged that investments would have been better spent on people-centric initiatives, such as upskilling staff (55 percent) and improving communication between IT and business teams (50 percent).
Is rapid digital innovation compromising security?
It depends on the organization and the importance of security to them. Generally, I would say no, but technology is evolving at an ever-accelerating pace. The bad guys are innovating, using all the same tools as the good guys—plus new ones from the dark web—and deploying them to substantial effect.
Whether it’s automation, generative AI, or the speed and targeted nature of attacks, it feels like a minefield out there. The bottom line is that data breaches are constantly being announced. What used to be a major, isolated event now feels like business as usual for hackers, leaving everyday people like us almost desensitized.
The key lies in returning to fundamental security principles. First, understand your risk appetite and allocate the right amount of money to mitigate those risks. Second, be prepared for what happens if you are compromised. How ‘match-fit’ is your organization? Ensure you have well-rehearsed runbooks for likely scenarios and involve everyone in the organization who would play a role in those responses.
How can blockchain enhance security and efficiency for B2B and P2P networks?
Blockchain is designed to enhance security and resilience while ensuring data integrity. This is crucial for end-to-end transactions where data certainly is paramount.
The decentralized storage of the ledger across a vast network makes it nearly impossible to alter transactional data. This scalability extends to supply chains, where tracking the journey of products is essential, reducing fraud and ensuring authenticity.
In payments and banking, blockchain fosters trust and certainty, which are the cornerstones of transactions. Additionally, blockchain eliminates the need for intermediaries, reducing reliance on single parties and lowering transaction costs.
What advice do tech consultancies give on leveraging big data analytics from IoT and IoB?
The first step is integration, bringing together data from all these sources to build a cohesive, 360-degree view of consumer behavior. But integration alone isn’t enough; you need the tools to make sense of it. That’s where advanced analytics and machine learning come in.
They help uncover the patterns and insights hidden in the noise, enabling businesses to make smarter, data-driven decisions.
Real-time processing is another game-changer. With IoT and IoB (Internet of Behaviors), consumer behaviors shift constantly, so being able to analyze and act on data as it flows in gives businesses a competitive edge. Of course, none of this works without trust. Implementing robust protections and adhering to regulations builds consumer confidence, which is key to long-term success.
Finally, scalability is critical. The volume of data is only growing, so businesses need flexible, cloud-based infrastructures that can scale seamlessly.
