Embrace & Extend: Practical Digital Transformation Using Existing Systems

Four of our top digital transformation experts recently sat down to discuss a promising, practical approach to digital transformation. Here’s the video.

Desmond Tutu once quipped that the “only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.” The idea is that the best way to accomplish a huge task which seems daunting, or even overwhelming, is to tackle it incrementally, one step after the other.

Tackling digital transformation can seem like eating an elephant. It’s a trend that’s been in the works for years, but efforts have been accelerated by the pandemic. Managing business processes using manual steps and paper is awkward enough when most employees are in the office. It’s all but impossible when most professionals are working from home—and are likely to continue doing so for several more months at least.

One approach to digital transformation is through a big bang effort where major enterprise-wide platforms such as ERP or ITSM systems are ripped out and replaced with new ones. Such projects promise a big payoff, but are risky and often fail to meet expectations…like trying to eat the elephant in one huge gulp.

Four of our top digital transformation experts—Kinetic Data founder John Sundberg, customer services director Matt Howe, COO James Davies, and product director Ben Christenson—recently sat down to discuss a more practical approach to digital transformation. Taking an “embrace and extend” approach is more like eating the elephant one bite at a time.

This approach generally involves modest new technology investments that integrate with and extend the value of the systems and platforms you already have in place. You can read more about the difference between a rip & replace strategy and the embrace & extend approach here.