Who Can Be a Digital Transformation Expert?

In a digitized economy, every business activity must be designed to set new expectations, meet new competitors, create new channels, and identify potential threats and opportunities. Customers’ requirements are predominantly driving change and the technology ecosystem is constantly evolving. The leaders of today must proactively lead their organizations to the digital era because technology has now come of age.

Many individuals are unaware of what is digital transformation (DT). They must know that DT is not an overnight procedure. It involves a full-proof strategy, professionally qualified and digitally ready experts, adoption of state-of-the-art technologies, and a change in the operational procedure. Needless to say, availability of and access to digitally qualified experts is a demanding challenge. The market for fresh minds and qualified professionals is booming. This is where digital transformation courses have a big role to play. Several training organizations and top business schools have introduced niche digital courses on short and long-term basis to cover the manpower supply gap and contribute to the growing requirements of a digitized economy.

A meticulous digital transformation strategy revolves around multiple new technologies, the notable ones including big data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT). A holistic understanding of these subjects as well as of others like robotics, cloud computing and machine learning makes individuals experts in the field. This makes the hiring organizations a major differentiator in the highly competitive marketplace.

Digital transformation courses

Organizations have already begun investing in a pool of digital experts as their need for such professionals is expected to double by 2018 according to top research reports. This resource pool includes a diverse framework of leaders, marketers, and technologists. The learning programs today are available in the form of customized workshops, end-to-end classroom training sessions, senior leadership programs, digital transformation workshops, playbooks, webinars, and e-learning platforms.

This core group of experts is expected to be adept in product engineering, business analytics, cloud technology and architecture, mobile app development, Internet of Things, AI, and machine learning. Java Enterprise Apps with DevOps, MEAN Stack, and Data Sciences are some of the most popular courses in this genre, closely followed by others like cloud stack, virtual reality and robotics using Raspberry Pi. The DT courses focus on these subjects of learning to enable individuals to be ready for the digital economy.

Scope, eligibility, and duration of DT courses

Graduates and undergraduates from science, technology, engineering, and math streams are eligible to apply for these courses. Prior knowledge of any OOPS language such as Java or C++ is necessary because these are advanced courses. The DT courses usually span from one month to six months depending on the subjects of focus. Courses undertaken by top skills and talent development companies guarantee 100 percent placement in related fields on the successful completion of DT courses. The course is a blend of project work and course work with majority time allocated to the former. Besides such short and long term courses, there are also professional diploma courses available on specific subjects of interest related to digital transformation.

The digital economy-ready professional

What differentiates an average IT professional from a digital professional is that the latter takes home more than 50 to 60 percent higher remuneration. Moreover, a digital professional does not risk the contingency of getting obsolete. This is all the more pertinent because most traditional roles are getting replaced by digital roles in the global economy. Today, we have more digital leaders and managers and this number is only expected to grow by leaps and bounds.

Several institutions like NIIT, offer learning and development solutions. NIIT recently launched DigiNxt, a short duration program designed to cater to the demands of the digital era. Such programs particularly address the skill demands of the technological industry.

Digital transformation consulting and courses attempt to cover the demand and supply gap that the market will eventually witness. Market-ready executives and leaders will recognize and implement new digital technologies that would positively impact businesses and contribute to the creation of new avenues for the digital future.