The Essential Tools to Support Digital Transformation - Part 4

APMdigest asked experts from across the IT industry — from analysts and consultants to users and the top vendors — for their opinions on the essential tools to support digital transformation. Part 4 covers communication and collaboration.

Start with The Essential Tools to Support Digital Transformation - Part 1

Start with The Essential Tools to Support Digital Transformation - Part 2

Start with The Essential Tools to Support Digital Transformation - Part 3

DASHBOARD

The most important tool to support digital transformation is a customizable dashboard that renders multiple data feeds in terms of business context. The very essence of digital transformation implies that key business stakeholders can quickly take the pulse of their business to steer day to day decisions towards meeting business goals.
Mike Mallo
Offering Management Lead - Hybrid Cloud DevOps, IBM Cloud Unit, IBM Corporation

ALERTING AND NOTIFICATION

Exceptional application performance –— or, the ability to bring to market applications that are fast, reliable and delightful to users –— is a cornerstone of digital transformation. However, as continuous delivery becomes the norm, and development teams must work within dramatically condensed time frames, unexpected performance glitches can seem inevitable. This has led to the rise of the site reliability engineer (SRE), who straddles the roles of developer and operations and works as an arbiter between these two sides when a problem does occur. Not surprisingly, 90 percent of SREs responding in our recent survey noted they cannot live without alerting and notification tools. These enable them to identify conclusively where the source of a problem lies, thus avoiding time wasted finger-pointing and war-rooming.
Dawn Parzych
Director of Product and Solution Marketing, Catchpoint

COMMUNICATION TOOLS

Communication is at the heart of digital transformation, and the most important tool to support a successful transformation is a unified communications system. Recent research from IDC found that companies using unified and contextual cloud communications for both employee and customer connections increase speed-to-market, customer satisfaction and profitability by more than 30 percent. From the individual consumer to the enterprise team, the value of the technology we use to communicate now lies in the experiences it creates. No business transaction happens without communication and teams that communicate better drive more business for the enterprise than teams lacking cutting-edge strategies and tools.
Omar Javaid
Chief Product Officer, Vonage

The most important tool when it comes to transforming any large complex organization is anything you can use to communicate widely to everyone involved in the change. That might be a weekly meeting, it might be the ability to record and publish videos, it might be an internal blog or it might even be good old email lists. The first problem to overcome in many transformations is building momentum, and providing fast feedback on what's working and what needs to change is integral to that. Without constant communication from the center, it's too easy for the spirit of a transformation to be watered down, and everyone to go back to business as usual.
Gareth Rushgrove
Product Manager, Docker

COLLABORATION TOOLS

Digital transformation is fundamentally a cultural phenomenon in which the IT team's focus shifts from just keeping the systems running to playing a pivotal role in the company's adaptation on to a rapidly shifting world of digital threats and opportunities. At the same time, line-of-business managers need to be comfortable with the new tools and technologies at their disposal. As bureaucratic distinctions between IT and business roles decrease, the need for collaboration, communication and common purpose become vital. In this environment, the most important tool needed to support digital transformation is an effective, broadly-adopted and content-rich collaboration and communication platform that spans the organization.
Rich Petersen
President, JetStream Software

There are many reasons organizations can be more productive with a remote workforce, including saving time on commutes, eliminating office distractions and improving focus and creativity. Employees also increasingly appreciate the extra flexibility and work-life balance that remote work offers: 49 percent of employees 50 years or older often work away from traditional offices, along with 70 percent of millennials, and this number is growing. In fact, Gartner predicts that half of the future workforce will work outside the traditional office setting most of the time by 2020. Needless to say, organizations need to implement the necessary policies and collaboration technology to support this trend in order to capitalize on the productivity benefits and avoid losing key talent.
Matt Kaplan
Chief Product Officer, Collaboration Products, LogMeIn

MESSAGING INFRASTRUCTURE

Digital transformation embraces mobile apps, the cloud and the Internet of Things. You'll need a real-time messaging infrastructure to tie it all together: chat, mobile alerts, streams of sensor data and increasingly, AI at the edge.
Jonas Gray
Strategic Partnerships, PubNub

Business process management (BPM)

I always recommend companies choose tools that support both the technological and process changes needed for digital transformation. Business process management tools provide platforms that allow our customers to model the way they work and visualize the information required to execute that work, aiding them in the digital transformation journey. With this visibility, the alignment between people, processes and information becomes clear in a way that enables true transformation.
Jennifer Schwartz
Business Development Consultant, CTG

Read The Essential Tools to Support Digital Transformation - Part 5, all about data.

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The Essential Tools to Support Digital Transformation - Part 4

APMdigest asked experts from across the IT industry — from analysts and consultants to users and the top vendors — for their opinions on the essential tools to support digital transformation. Part 4 covers communication and collaboration.

Start with The Essential Tools to Support Digital Transformation - Part 1

Start with The Essential Tools to Support Digital Transformation - Part 2

Start with The Essential Tools to Support Digital Transformation - Part 3

DASHBOARD

The most important tool to support digital transformation is a customizable dashboard that renders multiple data feeds in terms of business context. The very essence of digital transformation implies that key business stakeholders can quickly take the pulse of their business to steer day to day decisions towards meeting business goals.
Mike Mallo
Offering Management Lead - Hybrid Cloud DevOps, IBM Cloud Unit, IBM Corporation

ALERTING AND NOTIFICATION

Exceptional application performance –— or, the ability to bring to market applications that are fast, reliable and delightful to users –— is a cornerstone of digital transformation. However, as continuous delivery becomes the norm, and development teams must work within dramatically condensed time frames, unexpected performance glitches can seem inevitable. This has led to the rise of the site reliability engineer (SRE), who straddles the roles of developer and operations and works as an arbiter between these two sides when a problem does occur. Not surprisingly, 90 percent of SREs responding in our recent survey noted they cannot live without alerting and notification tools. These enable them to identify conclusively where the source of a problem lies, thus avoiding time wasted finger-pointing and war-rooming.
Dawn Parzych
Director of Product and Solution Marketing, Catchpoint

COMMUNICATION TOOLS

Communication is at the heart of digital transformation, and the most important tool to support a successful transformation is a unified communications system. Recent research from IDC found that companies using unified and contextual cloud communications for both employee and customer connections increase speed-to-market, customer satisfaction and profitability by more than 30 percent. From the individual consumer to the enterprise team, the value of the technology we use to communicate now lies in the experiences it creates. No business transaction happens without communication and teams that communicate better drive more business for the enterprise than teams lacking cutting-edge strategies and tools.
Omar Javaid
Chief Product Officer, Vonage

The most important tool when it comes to transforming any large complex organization is anything you can use to communicate widely to everyone involved in the change. That might be a weekly meeting, it might be the ability to record and publish videos, it might be an internal blog or it might even be good old email lists. The first problem to overcome in many transformations is building momentum, and providing fast feedback on what's working and what needs to change is integral to that. Without constant communication from the center, it's too easy for the spirit of a transformation to be watered down, and everyone to go back to business as usual.
Gareth Rushgrove
Product Manager, Docker

COLLABORATION TOOLS

Digital transformation is fundamentally a cultural phenomenon in which the IT team's focus shifts from just keeping the systems running to playing a pivotal role in the company's adaptation on to a rapidly shifting world of digital threats and opportunities. At the same time, line-of-business managers need to be comfortable with the new tools and technologies at their disposal. As bureaucratic distinctions between IT and business roles decrease, the need for collaboration, communication and common purpose become vital. In this environment, the most important tool needed to support digital transformation is an effective, broadly-adopted and content-rich collaboration and communication platform that spans the organization.
Rich Petersen
President, JetStream Software

There are many reasons organizations can be more productive with a remote workforce, including saving time on commutes, eliminating office distractions and improving focus and creativity. Employees also increasingly appreciate the extra flexibility and work-life balance that remote work offers: 49 percent of employees 50 years or older often work away from traditional offices, along with 70 percent of millennials, and this number is growing. In fact, Gartner predicts that half of the future workforce will work outside the traditional office setting most of the time by 2020. Needless to say, organizations need to implement the necessary policies and collaboration technology to support this trend in order to capitalize on the productivity benefits and avoid losing key talent.
Matt Kaplan
Chief Product Officer, Collaboration Products, LogMeIn

MESSAGING INFRASTRUCTURE

Digital transformation embraces mobile apps, the cloud and the Internet of Things. You'll need a real-time messaging infrastructure to tie it all together: chat, mobile alerts, streams of sensor data and increasingly, AI at the edge.
Jonas Gray
Strategic Partnerships, PubNub

Business process management (BPM)

I always recommend companies choose tools that support both the technological and process changes needed for digital transformation. Business process management tools provide platforms that allow our customers to model the way they work and visualize the information required to execute that work, aiding them in the digital transformation journey. With this visibility, the alignment between people, processes and information becomes clear in a way that enables true transformation.
Jennifer Schwartz
Business Development Consultant, CTG

Read The Essential Tools to Support Digital Transformation - Part 5, all about data.

Related Links

Hot Topics

The Latest

When AI Becomes the Corporate OS

AI is becoming the operating system of the enterprise. It acts as an invisible coordination layer that understands intent, connects systems, and executes work across complex SaaS environments. Previously, employees had to click through multiple systems — CRM, ERP, support tools, collaboration platforms — to complete a single task. Now, instead of navigating each application manually, they can simply state what they need to accomplish ...

The $600 Billion Wake Up Call

In 2026, the cost of downtime or an outage is no longer just a technical inconvenience; it's a $600 billion wake up call for global businesses. As our digital ecosystems become  more interconnected, each touchpoint introduces new risks and multiplies the consequences when things go wrong. And the data is clear: aggregate downtime costs  for Global 2,000 companies have surged 50% since 2024, reaching a staggering $600 billion ...

Breaking Down Agentic AI Fragmentation and Complexity with Governance

Deloitte found that 74% of enterprises expect to deploy agentic AI solutions in the next 24 months. However, the rush to deployment is outpacing foundational work, though. Only 21% of enterprises have fully formed agent governance models in place. The result? AI agents deployed without guidance or governance begin to function as fragmented islands of complexity ...

Cloud Spend Is Rising and Cloud Optimization Is Key to Funding AI and Protecting Margins

Cloud spending is no longer viewed as a passthrough IT expense, but as a strategic financial lever that directly impacts innovation capacity, profitability and enterprise resilience, according to the CFO Cloud Cost Optimization Report from Azul ...

Building AI Agents That Build Trust

As AI moves from generating responses to performing actions, the need for trust increases exponentially. And as organizations enlist AI agents for increasingly sophisticated business processes, trust is going to be the single most important theme for spurring adoption. What can organizations do to build trustworthy AI agents? ...

Keys to Building a Partner Ecosystem That Scales

I've spent a lot of time in the channel, and one thing I keep coming back to is this: a partner program is only as good as what it looks like in the field. Many programs look great on paper, but when a partner is in front of a customer navigating a complex hybrid environment or trying to make the case for AI-powered observability, the gap between what a vendor promises and what it actually delivers becomes very clear, very fast ...

How AI Agents Are Reshaping DataOps for the Always-On Enterprise

Enterprises today operate in a real-time environment where uninterrupted access to trusted data has become a baseline expectation for users, applications and automated systems. Traditional DataOps models, built on manual effort and human triage, cannot keep pace with this always active demand. AI agents are emerging as the operational backbone, ensuring consistent data availability, reinforcing trustworthiness and enabling a level of scale that manual processes cannot achieve ...

AI Deepfakes: Rethinking Trust in the Workplace

For decades, trust in the digital workplace rested on familiar signals. We trusted faces on video calls, voices on the phone, and emails that appeared to come from people we knew. These cues felt human and intuitive. They anchored how decisions were made, approvals were granted, and access was authorized. AI-powered deepfakes have quietly broken that model ...

Nine in Ten Enterprises Plan Cloud Data Repatriation amid Rising Cloud Costs and Data Sovereignty Mandates

Cloud migration was supposed to be a one-way door. For most enterprises, it turns out it isn't. Cloud data repatriation is a real and growing trend. A new survey ... finds that 89% of organizations plan to expand their on-premises infrastructure footprint over the next two years — and 75% have already moved at least some workloads back from public cloud in the past 24 months. The findings point to a broad rethinking of where data belongs ...

Why ITOps Need Right-Sized AI, Not Bigger Models

Over the past few years, large language models (LLMs) have revolutionized the software industry. Given their ability to excel at multi-step reasoning, LLMs have helped enterprises streamline workflows and adapt to the unknown. However, employing such models comes with sky-high costs, latency issues, and limited flexibility. In the realm of IT operations, it is generally wiser to employ smaller, domain-specific models instead ...