The opening keynote at CA World 2017 in Las Vegas was a celebration of digital transformation, with an acute focus on the value of data and the importance of leveraging it effectively.
Mike Gregoire, CEO, CA Technologies focused on these factors in the delivery of his keynote, while also promoting another popular 2017 tech trope – collaboration.
“This is the tip of the spear, the tip of the spear of transformation,” said Gregoire.
“We have long passed the point where enterprise software is merely used to drive efficiency. The focus now is clearly on accelerating business value, and that is our number one priority.”
“At CA we have plotted a path and have transformed our business into an agile DevSecOps environment, which helps drive maximum digital impact and this transformation is available to all of you.”
Security has found an important place in DevOps processes, rooted in the growing need for security to be delivered across organisations and at scale. The need to modernise security processes has also brought DevOps and security together, with old-fashioned processes getting in the way of business goals.
“We have to develop a new sense of digital intuition. We need to cultivate a deep understanding of where the data is coming from, what it means, and how to use it responsibly,” Gregoire told the audience.
However, according to Gregoire, the future does not solely belong to digital advancements and the theme of out with the old and in with the new. The CA Technologies CEO used the retail industry as a prime example;
“Every industry is trying to solve specific challenges, take retail, we all know that online shopping is affecting brick and mortar retailers, but the smart, traditional retailers are harnessing technology to bring the best of both worlds together.”
Here Gregoire used Home Depot as an example, a CA customer that leverages its enterprise software tools to enhance its brick and mortar offerings.
“There is still a future for brick and mortar retailing, and for further proof, Amazon is building retail stores. When the ultimate brick and mortar disrupter decides to get into brick and mortar, we know that it is going to be an omnichannel play to get customers to buy. Success is not a single lane, you need to compete across multiple dimensions,” said Gregoire.
Regardless of the combination of lanes taken for business progress, Gregoire makes it clear that harnessing the power of data is crucial and at the core of future progress.
“There is no substitute for mining the data, connecting the dots, and executing. Another great example of listening to the data and changing from within is Citi Fintech, essentially a full-blown tech company that lives within Citi. Citi Fintech pursues the ultimate user experience driven by data.”
Organisations are beginning to develop the capabilities that once would have been exclusively held by tech companies, taking the matter into their own hands in pursuit of optimum progress.
Mr Gregoire said: “At CA, we too have been on a deliberate journey of digital transformation for years. We have embraced open source, we serve public cloud, private cloud and hybrid data centres. We have adopted transparent pricing on our website, our sales professionals are not negotiators, but product consultants, we actually have developers that meet with customers.”
READ MORE: DevOps becomes key for IT transformation in the UK
The CA Technologies CEO made no bones about the influential role his company is planning to play in digital transformation generally, describing it as an architect of transformation solutions.
Concluding with an iconic example of digital transformation, and a customer experience model that must be aspired to, Gregoire reminded the audience of the meteoric rise of Netflix.
“We all know the Netflix story, they moved from mail to digital to content creation. Could they have even imagined ten years ago that Netflix would be chowing down a third of the internet’s bandwidth during prime time hours? What is the secret? It is the spooky, accurate recommendation engine that keeps you addicted, it is the most powerful part of the Netflix experience.”
