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Digital Transformation and IT Transformation: The Questions Behind the Conundrum

Dennis Drogseth

EMA has just completed some new research on "Digital" and "IT Transformation." Our goal was to discover what the truth really is surrounding these critical (and sometimes overused) terms. In order to optimize the depth and value of this unique research, for the first time ever EMA partnered with the IT Transformation Institute.

We will be delivering a webinar sharing some of the highlights of this research on September 30.

We embedded a simple definition within our questionnaire, just to make sure our respondents were on the same "proverbial" page. So we defined "digital transformation" as directed at optimizing business or organizational effectiveness via digital and IT services. And "IT transformation" as an initiative focused on optimizing IT performance for business or organizational needs and outcomes. While the two terms do seem like hand-and-glove fits (and should be), the recent buzz around digital transformation has set it apart in the minds of many.

We looked globally across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific (APAC) with more than 300 respondents, about 30% of whom were business leaders and the rest largely came from the IT executive community. We wanted to investigate how digital and IT transformation complemented each other (or didn't), how business leaders and IT leaders viewed this critical arena — where were the views similar and where did they differ? And we wanted to investigate geographic differences, as well.

In turn, we wanted to project this "transformational heat map" on what we believed to be a number of transformational prerequisites. These included:

■ Organization and politics: Who's leading the charge in digital transformation? In IT transformation? We asked both in terms of role and organizational association, and in terms of both drivers and ongoing oversight.

■ Technologies: Were technology investments drivers, supporting players, or non-central to transformation? We examined this question in detail from operations to ITSM; from analytics to automation to service mapping; from customer experience, to security, to financial and IT governance; from revenue generation and brand awareness to business process impacts.

■ Metrics: How did both IT and digital transformation efforts measure success? What were the predominant preferred metrics in terms of operational performance, financial optimization and business outcomes?

■ Cloud and DevOps: How are these ground-shaping foundations of the digital age affecting digital and IT transformation? How and where are they integrated into transformational efforts?

■ Processes and Best Practices: To what degree do industry best practices apply to transformational efforts? And what are the preferred best practices for digital transformation in particular?

■ Transformational Partners: Where are transformational leaders seeking to partner and how successful are those partnerships, whether from IT management software vendors, systems integrators, business consultants, or transformational specialists?

■ Success Factors: What is the magic formula (in terms of all of the above and more) for transformational success? Is it the same for IT and for digital transformation? And how do business stakeholders and IT stakeholders view success rates, obstacles, and priorities for going forward?

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

Digital Transformation and IT Transformation: The Questions Behind the Conundrum

Dennis Drogseth

EMA has just completed some new research on "Digital" and "IT Transformation." Our goal was to discover what the truth really is surrounding these critical (and sometimes overused) terms. In order to optimize the depth and value of this unique research, for the first time ever EMA partnered with the IT Transformation Institute.

We will be delivering a webinar sharing some of the highlights of this research on September 30.

We embedded a simple definition within our questionnaire, just to make sure our respondents were on the same "proverbial" page. So we defined "digital transformation" as directed at optimizing business or organizational effectiveness via digital and IT services. And "IT transformation" as an initiative focused on optimizing IT performance for business or organizational needs and outcomes. While the two terms do seem like hand-and-glove fits (and should be), the recent buzz around digital transformation has set it apart in the minds of many.

We looked globally across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific (APAC) with more than 300 respondents, about 30% of whom were business leaders and the rest largely came from the IT executive community. We wanted to investigate how digital and IT transformation complemented each other (or didn't), how business leaders and IT leaders viewed this critical arena — where were the views similar and where did they differ? And we wanted to investigate geographic differences, as well.

In turn, we wanted to project this "transformational heat map" on what we believed to be a number of transformational prerequisites. These included:

■ Organization and politics: Who's leading the charge in digital transformation? In IT transformation? We asked both in terms of role and organizational association, and in terms of both drivers and ongoing oversight.

■ Technologies: Were technology investments drivers, supporting players, or non-central to transformation? We examined this question in detail from operations to ITSM; from analytics to automation to service mapping; from customer experience, to security, to financial and IT governance; from revenue generation and brand awareness to business process impacts.

■ Metrics: How did both IT and digital transformation efforts measure success? What were the predominant preferred metrics in terms of operational performance, financial optimization and business outcomes?

■ Cloud and DevOps: How are these ground-shaping foundations of the digital age affecting digital and IT transformation? How and where are they integrated into transformational efforts?

■ Processes and Best Practices: To what degree do industry best practices apply to transformational efforts? And what are the preferred best practices for digital transformation in particular?

■ Transformational Partners: Where are transformational leaders seeking to partner and how successful are those partnerships, whether from IT management software vendors, systems integrators, business consultants, or transformational specialists?

■ Success Factors: What is the magic formula (in terms of all of the above and more) for transformational success? Is it the same for IT and for digital transformation? And how do business stakeholders and IT stakeholders view success rates, obstacles, and priorities for going forward?

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...