A digitally designed company is one that has a holistic configuration of people (roles, accountabilities, structures, skills), processes (workflows, routines, procedures), and technology (infrastructure, applications). The people, process, and technology (PPT) framework has been around since the early 1960’s. Businesses have used it to improve operational efficiency, and its typically used for Information technology management. It is also used by successful digital companies to integrate people, processes, and technology to deliver new value propositions that take advantage of digital business capabilities.
People are the foundation, they are the surface and origin of knowledge management, processes are the elements that are carried out by people (who develop) with their knowledge and technology streamlines people and processes to develop and accomplish the desired output.
The correct design of these elements enables Digital Business Capabilities which is basically your Digital Business Design which in turn can address the rapidly changing new value propositions effectively. In other words, People, processes, and technology are the core elements that you need to work with and design to create the capabilities to be a digital business.
Due to the integration of people, processes, and technology in a successful digital business design, those who have control over these three elements must also, of necessity, be the ones who take responsibility for business design. It is certainly not an easy task for a company’s executives to take on digital business design, but only they have the authority and decision-making power required to make changes to a company’s people, processes, and technology.
Digital business design tends to be conflated with the design of technology and, by extension, IT architecture (the underlying information technology infrastructure in a business). While well-developed IT architecture is essential to a well-functioning modern business, technology is still only one leg of the people, processes, and technology trifecta that digital business design requires.
So, while IT leaders may have a deep understanding of the technological assets of a business, they are usually not positioned to take on the responsibility of digital business design in a silo. However, IT architecture should inform, and be informed by, a company’s overall digital business design. A good leadership team will thus still leverage the knowledge and skills of the IT unit in its digital transformation efforts