From Looking Digital to Being Digital: The Impact of Technology on the Future of Work Chapter 1: The Deep Shift Many companies today “look” digital. Few actually are. Sure, they’ve learned to convert paper into electron streams. They make available, and even use, video chat, social media, and a host of online tools via an internal portal. But “being digital” requires much more. Reducing paper flows—that’s a useful but Consider what this means for the future of Further, organizations will have to ultimately superficial change. Companies work, and for work processes. To transform accelerate the empowerment of must dig well below the surface. Those that processes, organizations will have to employees—front-line staff, managers truly want to be digital need to engage in combine three things: rivers of data about and executives alike—by augmenting their a deep shift in the way they do business, transactions, searches, physical movements, abilities, with the help of technology, in which the primary goal is to transform price changes and a host of other so that people can do work that is both data into new revenue and new sources activities; intelligent tools like simulations, creative and flexible. Again, translating 1 of value. And that transformation is as models and advisory applications; and that into practice won’t be easy. much about culture and organization as local knowledge in the form of experience, it is about the wonders of technology. judgment and intuition. Expressed in a sentence, maybe that doesn’t sound too difficult. It is, and it will be. 9 | Accenture | Copyright 2014 Accenture. All rights reserved. ©