Greetings everybody!
Today, we will discuss a topic surrounding many business leaders and SI Consultants, evaluating critical components of an effective Digital Transformation, aka the Digital Twin model.
We will learn there is a real benefit to adopting this technology and its limitations.
Would you mind explaining Digital Twins in simple words?
Digital Twins is your full digital representation of your physical business. Digital Transformation focuses on expanding the capabilities of a business through new technology. By documenting all your business processes and data, you can create a real-time model of your business or process, which can then be used for simulations and business optimization.
Implementing this stage of Digital Transformation requires a good understanding of your “real” physical business. You need accurate, real-time business and process data to build a digital equivalent of your business.
– Sort of like a Digital alter ego?
– Right.
– Sounds great; what’s the catch?
There is no catch, only a couple of considerations.
Limitations of Digital Twin Models
1. What physical business do you want to use as a starting point?
Often, business leaders ask their functional leaders to quickly assess areas of improvement they would like to address in preparation for their Digital Journey, sort of like a Phase Zero.
That is a perfect approach, and we talked about some of these initiatives in Episode 06. Some of these will be front-end, customer-centric initiatives, and others will be back-end, process-centric ones.
2. Data Reconciliation and Clean-up
You may have heard the phrase “Garbage in, garbage out.”
Since Digital Twin models depend entirely on real-time data, it is important to keep in mind the data used in building these models. Poor data quality (that is noisy, low accuracy, or irrelevant) will result in garbage models incapable of providing business insights.
3. The Digital Twin is not an ending point but a starting one.
For example, when a baby crawls, the next step is to learn how to crawl faster until they find a way to stand up and walk: at that point, the old transportation model is dead, and a new one is in place.
The same happens when kids learn how to run or ride a bike.
In our case, it is of utmost importance to be ready to make dramatic changes in your digital twin model due to two external factors: Customer expectations or your competitor moves. In fact, once your business changes, it is very likely that your digital twin model will have to be updated as well!
Hm, you got me, Jose. What can I do to be ready to make these changes quickly?
Dealing with Digital Twin Model Limitations
Two comments on that
- It is essential to have an Enterprise IT and Business Architecture that includes what-if scenarios and trigger events. Don’t be afraid! There are several choices to develop this information internally or by working with your Trusted Advisor.
2. An effective Application Quality Management approach is of utmost importance.
Disregarding if your Digital Twin is comprised of home-grown applications, Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS), SaaS, or composable applications, you must be ready to test any of your IT assets regularly and in many ways. This journey is a multi-step approach, and the learning curve is based on trial and error.
If you want to know more about Application Quality Management, let me know, I am glad to assist.
Good enough?
As I said before, my goal in writing these episodes is to share a thought on areas of improvement and risks ahead among business leaders.
I think it makes sense in this Newsletter to talk about business challenges and technology components of digital transformation.
Are you in agreement? Please let me know by sending your comments or direct messaging.
They are greatly appreciated!
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Cheers,