- Organisations need to do is to build layers on top of the silos and different architectures and these layers will become the translators between the complexity and the simplicity to achieve agility.
- Where a truly connected enterprise succeeds with an integration layer is to allow free flow of data between applications – on-prem, private, public or on the edge.
Software AG, Germany’s second-largest software provider after SAP, said that it is imperative to take risks when organisations embark on a digital transformation journey.
“Risk is new in the cutting edge of innovation, so you [organisations] need to create cultures that accept failures. Adopting a connected culture is working towards becoming more digital and a journey of change. There has to be a lot of change in the management involved. There has to be a lot of incentives and disincentives,” Rami Kichli, Senior Vice-President for Middle East and Turkey at Software AG, told TechChannel News.
But he thinks that the main success criteria towards really driving the change have to come from the top.
“That is why I believe the region here is successful is due to the vision from the top and this vision has an execution pillar with measurable outcomes and measurable objectives during the journey. What organisations need to do is to build layers on top of the silos and different architectures. Then, these layers will become the translators between the complexity and the simplicity to achieve agility,” he said.
Eliminating the complexities
Smart Dubai and Abu Dhabi Digital Authority are some examples, he said, of truly digital entities in the UAE using smart technologies to connect all the silos and abstract all the technical complexities.
Every organisation, he said whether it is a government or a private entity or a city or a bank, has technology assets that they use to operate, processes and services.
“The combination of these three things results in products and services. But this has created a lot of complexities for organisations for the past couple of years. This complexity has been a deterrent towards becoming a truly digital enterprise.
“What we do is, we do not eliminate the complexities but we help organisations and players play on top of the complexities so that they can be simple and which results in them being agile, offering better customer experience and helping them to react fast to the changing world,” he said.
Extraction of the complexity means, he said, acquiring capabilities, allowing organisations to manage data silos and application silos.
Digital hybrid integration hub
“We call that digital hybrid integration hub which also means acquiring capabilities to design in real time the services and products of the future,” Kichli said.
In a bid to simplify the connected world, Software AG helps prepare governments and enterprises to simplify the complex world by bringing consolidated, conformed hybrid integration and data integration capabilities through its cloud-native solutions to build digital backbones – the central pillar of control, consolidation and flexibility in an organisation.
Kichli said that simplifying the complex world enables its customers to connect disparate systems and applications and draw data insights from every part of the organisation.
“We offer a smart unified platform for managing data (wherever it resides), and managing application integration (whether it is a legacy, old or modern). We expose the data as we sell using smart API management. Then, we go a little further by orchestrating the data so that services and processes can run on top of the integration that we have built.,” he said.
Simplifying the connected world
However, he said that there are companies that offer a unified platform but “I think we are unique in terms of the depth and breadth of the offerings we provide. “
“Not all the companies focus is on ‘simplifying the connected world’. Many companies are talking about digital transformation in a way and somehow. If you go a little bit deeper into what transformation is, everybody is not doing the same.
“Businesses today are realising the significance and relevance of cloud technologies for a real hybrid working model. This is where a truly connected enterprise succeeds with an integration layer allowing free flow of data between applications – on-prem, private, public or on the edge,” he said.
However, he said the challenge is that the rapidly expanding ‘connected world’ is complex and many organisations are unsure where to start.
“We’re here to simplify that challenge for companies across the region. We set constant innovation and from a high-level statement that may seem deceptively similar to what others are saying but the minute you look under the hood, we are quite different from others,” Kichli said.
APIs have become a physical part of the digital transformation and are used more frequently this year than last year to connect beyond the boundaries of their organisation, he said and added that this world is all about establishing connections and sharing data.