Digital transformation: towards a digitally oriented and data-driven organisation

Today, even innovation and transformation processes are highly subject to innovation and transformation. Uilke Duinstra, innovation strategist at the Utrecht campus of iO, is getting more and more questions from customers like: “We are a mobility company, but we also want to enter the energy market. How do we do that?” or “We are a B2B company, but how do we also become B2C?” More generally, it concerns questions such as “How can we develop relevant new services step by step, without immediately plunging into a multimillion-dollar project we’re not sure will work at all?” These kinds of issues, which show that domains and sectors are increasingly fading, require a new approach to innovation processes.

NFTs, blockchain, Web3, metaverse: it's easy to get lost when dealing with the latest technology trends. It seems like everyone is jumping on the boat of the metaverse — and those who stay behind seem to drown. But is that really the case? And how difficult is it to do anything in the metaverse? Fortunately, our experts know how to get things done.

The time for digitisation is now - not later, tomorrow, or next week. At iO we have been telling this same story for some time now, and it continues to be relevant. In recent years digitisation has proven itself to be, and continues to be essential, the user is still central, and the growth of digital consumers has - as was predicted - only accelerated.

Not every innovation leads directly to improvement. As a company, when approaching innovation, you have to start the process by identifying the most important issues before you can begin to determine the correct strategy. But how do you identify the problems that are worth solving? And how far into the future can you reasonably predict?

Earlier this year, we launched the Opportunity Report 2023: a collection of visions and insights from our experts to help you stay ahead in the new year. On 9 March, during our online event “Accelerating your business in 2023”, we brought these insights to life. One of the live sessions at this event was hosted by Uilke Duinstra (Service Line Director Strategy), who talked about ways to help businesses and organisations validate innovations faster and gain management’s support. In this article, we’ll share the key takeaways from Uilke’s session with you.

"Digitisation in Belgium is progressing rapidly, but not as fast as it could or I hoped it would," says Thierry Geerts, CEO Google Belgium. He wrote a book, Digitalis, about his vision on digitisation.

According to Peter Van Hoecke (CEO Van Hoecke), the client is always central, especially — in digital transformation. By automating, accelerating, and rationalising processes, you help your clients save time — our most finite and valuable resource.

Steven Van Belleghem (partner iO) talks about the three main advantages he sees in technology and digital transformation: faster than real-time service, hyper-personalisation, and the ultimate convenience.