The Wave of Real Digital Transformation – A Driven 2018 Recap

Last week I had the unique opportunity to attend BP3’s “Driven – Innovation in Digital Business Operations” conference right here in Austin.  My opportunity wasn’t unique because I was the only guy there, in fact, there were a couple of hundred attendees.  It was unique for me because I had just started in my new position with iGrafx a month prior, so I was seeing the event through a brand new lens.

Before iGrafx, I worked for a company you’ve likely heard of, IBM, where I was worldwide sales manager and SME for the entire process documentation and discovery SaaS portfolio.  My time at IBM taught me quite a bit about the breadth of the BPM space.  I learned about the value of simple, easy to use software, and I learned to navigate a monstrously large, multi-tentacled organization to get stuff done.  I also learned that it’s difficult (impossible) for a company to really be “everything to everyone” and do a very good job.

At BP3’s Driven event I had the chance to see smaller, point solution providers acknowledging that they weren’t trying to be everything to everyone, but instead committing to being the best at what they focus on.  Whether it was RPA from Automation Anywhere, BPM suites from Pega, or low code/no code automation from Bizagi, it was clear that these vendors were all-in on what they do best.  It was refreshing.

Also refreshing was listening to Rob Koplowitz from Forrester deliver his keynote presentation and hearing him explain that customer journey mapping is far and away the biggest driver in process improvement initiatives.  This year it drove 57% of projects and is expected to grow moving into 2019.  This resonated with me, because it proves that enterprises are looking putting their money where their mouth is with digital transformation. 

Ultimately, I moved from Big Blue to significantly smaller iGrafx because I saw the writing on the wall.  I truly believe that the wave of “real” digital transformation is starting to grow, and I wanted to be at a place that is dedicated to delivering it.  It felt amazing to be part of the group of laser focused vendors at the Driven event, knowing that I have 400 years of process mapping, modeling, simulation, compliance and automation experience backing me up, and that we truly enable digital transformation better than anyone else in the industry.

I’d love the opportunity to talk more with you about the Driven event, or why I moved to iGrafx, so feel free to comment or connect!