Digital Transformation: Why Strategy Comes Before Technology

By Peter Kraft, Senior Practice Lead and Solution Architect, Xylem

In the face of mounting climate challenges, more stringent regulatory requirements and aging infrastructure, water and wastewater utilities are under increasing pressure to adopt advanced technologies that can modernize critical infrastructure. Struggling under tight budgets and a low tolerance for risk, many are understandably hesitant to undergo a digital transformation. Without a prescribed path forward, the idea of digital transformation may be intimidating, but it need not be a burden.

Technology is a means to an end, not the end itself. Thus, an effective digital transformation must be rooted in a well-thought-out strategy designed to address a key need. Often the best application of technology builds upon an existing idea or approach to addressing a real-world problem, then working to expand the solution in breadth, efficiency, performance, etc. To begin with strategy, therefore, means finding these opportunities. This requires understanding both the people and the process in place.