Following on from my blog post outlining an A-Z of Digital, here is “O is for Organisation”.

The “As Code” economy is growing at a fast rate with computing services being consumed as code rather than physical entities (Cloud, As a Service , etc.) Infrastructure as Code looks at making hardware being able to be controlled at a code level, enabling Micro Services and the ability to consume capability quickly.

This is allowing organisations to grow without the need for real-estate or physical assets such as an office or IT system.  This is moving organisations to the next stage of “Organisation as Code”. Companies such as Airbnb and Uber provide a good example of an Organisation as Code, building services and the supporting organisation in the cloud allowing it to be consumed anywhere by users across the world.

Currently there is still a need for a physical presence, as an organisation grows, to meet laws and criteria for operating a business across the many countries they operate, however some of these criteria are starting to be challenged through automation of processes.  Other demands such as security create a need for staff to monitor, patch and maintain the levels of security required for the code and organisation, drive the need for staff and ultimately an HR person or department.

AI bots can be used to interface with the users of the system and employees, but ultimately there is a need for a human at the some point in the conversation.

It may be some time before we see a fully coded organisation, but we are moving that way in small and big steps over time.

Digital Transformation is after all a Business Transformation activity not just  Technical Transformation. One aspect of business change will always be organisational change.