Want C-suite buy in? Simplify your metrics

Digital transformation is on everyone's to-do list but not everyone is clued into the steps required.

Instead of expecting overnight mastery of the seven to 10 aspects of digital transformation, a panel at AWS Summit Singapore concluded that advertisers and agencies need to simplify the metrics.

"I've sat in my share of budget meetings where I pitch the CEO who sort of says 'I'm spending this amount of money, give me this return now' kind of thing," said Sandra Stonham, managing director of technology and operations at DBS Bank. "You really have to think about this and how do you educate people that this doesn't happen immediately."

In hindsight, she said, honing in on measurements would have sped up the approval process.

"If we can actually really communicate to people what the journey is and how we are progressing through that journey, they can buy into it with us," she said.

Looking to create a galvanising roadmap, Stonham's team created a new GANDALF acronym involving Google, Amazon, Netflix, Apple, LinkedIn, and Facebook (with DBS Bank as the "D") to symbolise the digital transformation push at DBS. 

According to Kyle McNamara, EGM of the program management office at National Australia Bank, when making the business case for IT-based digital transformation, three outcomes should occur.

"One is, your infrastructure costs should go down," said McNamara. "Second point is you should hopefully be moving to open source so your license fees should be going down."

The third point, which varies in interpretation exponentially across verticals, relates to developer productivity, which McNamara states should go up.

"Maximising, optimising their productivity is really the key element for the business case from my perspective," he added.

The panel agreed that all financial institutions would be defined by data, with winners and losers determined by the player with the smartest data strategy.

"We saw many examples...how accessible [machine learning] and analytics is becoming," said McNamara. "That is a game changer and we're just on the cusp."

The panel noted that all the banks are undergoing a wave of simplification with regards to processes, architectures, and customer experience, which result in personalisation powered by data and analytics.