Digital transformation canvas: supporting design thinking to shape IT-leveraged organisation transformations

Abstract

[Excerpt] Digital transformation is a fashionable expression that refers to a wide range of enterprise information technology-related interventions that lead to (considerable) change in an enter prise. The word transformation suggests that information technology (IT) will be used for more than just enhancing an enterprise’s existing features. It is expected that IT-enabled features will result from the intervention, and attaining those features demands some drastic change in one or more aspects of the enterprise (Cavalcante et al., 2022). In some situations, those changes address how the enterprise provides its goods or services to its customers or operates within its market segment. In either case, a reinforcement of the enterprise’s competitive position is expected (Skare et al., 2023). Such expectations are backed up by numerous examples of enterprises that used IT remarkably, developing competitive advantages through new ways of conducting their businesses or creating innovative products and services. Enterprises like Uber, Airbnb, or Amazon are commonly used to illustrate the business opportunities made possible through inventive ways of exploiting IT. They are presented as examples to be mimicked or used as inspiration with the hope of achieving similar results. Digital transformation is the proper setting for exploring emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, social media, mobile, cloud, internet of things (Struijk et al., 2023), virtual and augmented reality, blockchain, big data, social media wearables, or 3D printing. In fact, applications of those technologies are far from being exhausted. Digital transforma tion involves the pursuit of creating novel IT applications and platforms capable of providing benefits to their pioneers. [...]