By Jorge Lopez
Gartner, Inc.
Today, booking an appointment for car maintenance entails calling the dealership and speaking with a person who uses scheduling software and checks a database for the necessary parts. This scenario hasn’t changed much since the “analog” business model. And it’s dramatically different than the future of digital business or “autonomous” business, where smart machines and things create value in business models that span industries. In the Digital Business era, your car acts as a semi-autonomous agent on your behalf; alerting you and the dealer to the need for maintenance, scheduling the appointment, and ordering the necessary parts. It may even drive itself to the shop.
Explore Gartner’s Digital Business Development Path
The Digital Business Development Path (see Figure 1) examines six different business era models from before the Web to after the Nexus of Forces (social, mobile, cloud, information) to help organizations understand their current state and assist CIOs in making the case for digital business.
Figure 1. Gartner's Digital Business Development Path
Gartner predicts that by 2020, 75% of business will be digital businesses or preparing to become one. However, a Gartner digital business survey showed that only 22% of respondents defined themselves as already being a digital business. Most organizations, or 41%, see themselves as a digital marketing business, and 22% of companies remain Web businesses.
Where is your organization today and where do you want it to be before your competitors?
Jorge Lopez is a vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, where he focuses on issues of concern to business executives, especially the CEO, and their relationship to IT and the CIO.
