Digital transformation is not a technology project per se. It is to me nothing less than a business transformation.
How my view of technology changed
I have been around technology for a long time.
Back home in France, when the moment came to choose what to study at university, I chose information technology — and more specifically network administration and security — because something about the industry made immediate sense to me.
I remember thinking that technology was limitless. IT is like the universe: full of endless possibilities. That was the attraction, and I still believe it.
What has changed is not my belief in those possibilities, but my understanding of what they are actually worth to a business.
Technology can do almost anything. That does not mean a business should do everything technology makes possible. And that distinction sits at the heart of how I think about digital transformation.
We have made digital transformation too complicated
Digital transformation has become one of those expressions that can mean almost anything:
- Cloud migration
- Artificial intelligence
- Automation
- Cybersecurity
- Data analytics
- ERP
- Software development
- Systems integration
- Digital customer experiences
All of these matter, and all can contribute to transformation. But I do not believe that buying or implementing any one of them automatically means a business has transformed. Not even close.
A company can migrate to the cloud and still have inefficient processes; I have seen it countless times. It can introduce AI and still make poor decisions. It can invest heavily in cybersecurity and still be operationally exposed. It can have dashboards full of data and still not know what is actually happening in the business. It can automate a process that should have been redesigned before it was automated.
Technology can make a good business better. It can also make a bad process faster.
That is why we need a much simpler starting point. Before discussing technology, my first question has always been what the business is actually trying to achieve.
Start with the problem, not the technology
“What problem are we solving?” is one of the simplest questions in technology. It is also the one I believe we should ask most often.
Who is experiencing that problem? Why does it matter? What happens if we do not solve it? What will improve if we do? And how will we know that it improved? Only after answering those questions should we discuss platforms, architectures, vendors and products.
Years on the business side of technology — working with customers, prospects, vendors, distributors and partners — taught me something important. The technology conversation and the business conversation are not two separate conversations. They are supposed to be the same conversation.
A customer does not wake up in the morning thinking, “I think I need another technology solution.” They are thinking about their business. They want to grow, reduce cost, gain better visibility, protect their operations, make their employees more productive and serve their customers better. Technology becomes relevant only because it can help them achieve those things.
That is where the conversation should begin.
Technology theatre is not transformation
Perhaps it is my background, but I have never been particularly impressed by technology for the sake of technology. I can be genuinely excited about something new — I love the possibilities of this industry and always will. But excitement is not the same thing as business value.
There is a real difference between saying “this technology is impressive” and saying “this technology makes total sense for this organization.” A new technology can be excellent and still be the wrong investment for a particular business at a particular moment.
The most expensive technology decision is not necessarily the one with the highest price tag. Sometimes it is implementing something the organization is not ready to use. Sometimes it is buying capabilities that nobody owns internally. Sometimes it is adding another disconnected platform to an already fragmented environment. Sometimes it is solving a problem that is not actually a priority.
And sometimes the best advice a technology partner can give a customer is: “Not yet.”
That, to me, is part of what trust means in this industry. If the only answer a customer ever receives is a recommendation to buy something, the relationship eventually becomes transactional — and digital transformation is more than a transaction. It is a journey.
People, processes and technology move together
Here is another reason I do not see digital transformation as a technology project. Businesses are not made of technology. They are made of people, processes and technology. Change one of those elements and the others are affected.
Implement a new system without changing the process, and employees may simply find workarounds. Change the process without considering the people using it, and adoption may suffer. Introduce sophisticated technology without the right governance, skills or operating model, and the investment may never deliver its potential.
This is particularly relevant for organizations that are growing quickly. A company may have reached the point where spreadsheets, manual processes, disconnected applications and informal workflows are no longer enough. That does not mean it needs the biggest or most sophisticated technology stack available. It means it needs to understand where the business is going, and which technology foundation will allow it to get there. That is a very different exercise.
What digital transformation means in Qatar
Having lived and worked in Qatar for around a decade, I have watched the technology environment here evolve quickly and significantly. Those of you who were here at World Cup time in 2022 will understand exactly what I mean.
Qatar is not simply adopting technology because technology is available. Not at all. There is a broader transformation happening across the country, with organizations becoming increasingly conscious of digital capability, cybersecurity, cloud, data, AI and operational efficiency.
But with everything interesting in life come challenges. The Qatar market contains organizations at very different stages of digital maturity. There are large enterprises and government entities with sophisticated technology environments. There are also ambitious SMEs, growing quickly, that need to modernize without creating unnecessary complexity or cost. Their transformation journeys cannot all look the same.
Let us be honest: an SME does not need to replicate the technology architecture of a multinational corporation. It needs an architecture appropriate to its own business, its own risk profile, its own resources and its own ambitions.
This is where I believe local understanding matters. Technology recommendations need to make sense not only technically, but commercially and operationally within the market in which the organization operates.
The better question
Technology can do an extraordinary amount. So the question is not “what can technology do?” but “what should technology do for this business?”
That is the question I ask myself before walking into a boardroom, and it always forces me to think differently. It moves the discussion away from products and toward outcomes, and toward the people who will use the technology. It makes me think about integration rather than isolated deployments. It makes cybersecurity part of the architecture rather than something added later, and data useful rather than simply abundant.
And it forces me to think about what happens after implementation — because implementation is not the finish line. Far from it. It is where the real work starts.
The role of the technology partner is changing
This is also changing what customers should expect from their technology partners. The traditional model was relatively straightforward: identify a product, sell it, implement it and move on to the next opportunity. That model has its place.
But increasingly complex technology environments require something more. Customers need partners who can understand the business context, navigate the technology landscape, work across multiple vendors, integrate different environments and remain engaged beyond the initial transaction.
This is where EL ABB Technology’s technology advisory mindset becomes important. Not advisory as a presentation exercise. Not another document that sits in a drawer. Real advisory means understanding where the organization is today, where it wants to go, what stands in the way, and which technology decisions can realistically close that gap.
It also means being willing to challenge the customer, because sometimes the right answer is not the easiest one to sell.
Transformation has to create measurable value
Ultimately, I come back to one question after deployment: what has changed for the business?
- Did the organization become more efficient?
- Did employees gain time?
- Did customers receive a better experience?
- Did management gain better visibility?
- Did the company reduce risk?
- Did it become easier to scale?
- Did it enter a new market?
- Did the investment create measurable value?
Mark my words: if we cannot answer those questions, we need to ask honestly whether we are talking about transformation or simply about technology implementation. There is nothing wrong with implementing technology. It is necessary.
Implementation is an activity. Transformation is an outcome.
That difference matters.
The possibilities remain limitless
I still believe what I believed when I first chose information technology. This industry is limitless, and the possibilities continue to expand.
Cloud changed the way we think about infrastructure. Data changed the way organizations think about information. Artificial intelligence is changing, right this second, the way we think about knowledge and decision-making. Cybersecurity is changing the way businesses think about resilience and risk. And there are technologies being developed that we have not even begun to imagine.
That is precisely why businesses need to be more disciplined about how they adopt technology, not less. When the possibilities are almost endless, knowing what not to do becomes just as important as knowing what to do.
For me, that is the real conversation around digital transformation. It is not about having the most technology. It is not about following the latest trend, which I see far too often. It is not about implementing a platform simply because everyone else is implementing it. It is about using technology deliberately, to create value.
My take on digital transformation:
Start with the business.
Understand the problem.
Define the outcome.
Then choose the technology.
The possibilities may be limitless. The priorities should not be.