数字化方案：Zebra的IT助燃业务转型之旅

Zebra Technologies

Deepak Kaul于2007年首次加入Zebra Technologies，担任变更管理和流程改进总监，之后于2016年成为这家市值55亿美金的工作流数字化和自动化解决方案公司的首席信息官。如今，Kaul本人和Zebra公司都处于转型之中，而且其范围远远超出数字化：是对他们的市场产品和商业模式的转型。最近Kaul在交流中解释了Zebra当前转型的一些主要内容。

一、Zebra Technologies目前正在进行什么样的业务转型？

Zebra正在快速增长，无论是有机增长还是通过收购实现增长，而且 Zebra 将继续在硬件产品组合中添加软件和解决方案，对各种平台实时数字化、重新设计端到端工作流程并创造分析洞察。我们通过收购实现的增长，也让我们能够提供“即服务”的业务模式。同时，我们很注重在变革者、创新者和实干家社区方面的投入，帮助我们的人才构建充实的职业生涯，对他们的社区产生积极的影响。

二、在这一转型过程中IT扮演什么角色？

Zebra的IT团队正在负责引领三大项目。首先，Zebra 正在实施一个全新的、基于云的ERP系统，以支持新的数字工作流程。

其次，Zebra 正在将基础设施迁移到云端，这将缩短企业进入市场的时间，提高交付速度，创造更强大的安全性和弹性，实现在可利用性方面更高的灵活性，并最终实现更快速的创新。

第三，是利用机器学习(ML)平台构建企业内的Delta Lake，该平台将提供单一事实来源，并赋予各种业务功能将数据与外部来源混合从而进行试验和验证假设的能力。

三、请您更详细地谈谈基于云的ERP实施？

ERP是Zebra 公司的中枢神经系统，涉及到所有的客户、供应商和员工，借助这个基于云的新平台，将些手动工作流程进行了数字化，同时提供更好的用户体验和实时分析。

值得注意的是，我们并未将其视为一项技术计划，我们不会一股脑地将现有流程全部搬到云上，而这就像将旧酒倒入新瓶里一样。

相反，我们的战略是让每位职能领导者都成为统一转型路线图中的一个组成部分，而这个路线图是要在整个公司内对端到端的流程进行重塑。因此，ERP实施变成了一个转型机会，而不是一个技术项目。

四、您是如何让业务部门也能掌控ERP的？

我们任命了一名业务加速主管，他正在与一个跨职能的领导团队展开合作，制定我们的IT转型路线图。他与每个业务部门的代表一起进行头脑风暴和战略研讨，共同确定了40多个流程创新的机会，让我们拥有了从产品生命周期管理和智能定价指南，一直到供应链弹性的各种转型用例，这将最终为我们升级的即服务业务模式提供更好的支持。华东CIO大会、华东CIO联盟、CDLC中国数字化灯塔大会、CXO数字化研学之旅、数字化江湖-讲武堂，数字化江湖-大侠传、数字化江湖-论剑、CXO系列管理论坛（陆家嘴CXO管理论坛、宁波东钱湖CXO管理论坛等）、数字化转型网，走进灯塔工厂系列、ECIO大会等

五、关于第二大转型领域——把基础设施迁移到云端，您有哪些可以分享的见解？

我们认为，关键资产迁移到云端，将削弱我们两个大型数据中心对于业务的作用。在打造劳动力方面，我们认为将资产转移到云基础设施即服务(IaaS)的模式是符合我们最大利益的。利用云可以帮助团队将更多时间花在更有意义的工作上，而不是花在管理上。我们的云战略对团队意味着，“Zebra是学习未来技能的地方”。

六、让我们谈谈您的第三大转型领域：数据。

虽然Zebra已经拥有很多数据丰富的平台，但我们依然有机会创造更为出色的洞察。在IT领域，我们通常是专注于保护单一的事实来源。同时，业务部门希望针对广泛的业务需求对数据进行试验，而且希望能自主地产生洞察力。因此，我们打造了一个中心辐射模型，其中心是数据工程，辐射的是业务功能。这些职能部门拥有机器学习方面的专家，他们尝试使用IT的“单一事实来源”来产生相关洞察。

我们保留了数据仓库，但通过基于云的企业Delta Lake和机器学习平台对其进行了扩充。例如，核心客户数据在数据仓库中必须是原始数据，这样才能作为单一事实来源。不过，一旦这些数据进入数据湖中，业务团队就可以对其进行试验，例如他们可以将客户数据与Dun & Bradstreet数据进行合并，在不影响核心数据的情况下将其划分为大小帐户，这就让职能团队能够以新的方式产生洞察力。

这种中心辐射模型有多个经过真实实验的版本，弥补了我们职能领导者的单一真实数据能力，让我们能够从数据防御（控制）模式转为数据进攻（灵活）模式。

七、业务职能团队是如何学会做这种实验的？

我们的职能领导参加了由专家顾问发起的跨职能热图练习，以发现使用场景并学会如何使用机器学习。接下来，我们把相关场景列入候选名单，例如预测、退货、下一步最佳行动、合作伙伴警报和合同续签等等，这些都让职能团队看到了机器学习实验能够带来什么价值。

我们成立了一个跨职能分析委员会，每个月都会分享我们的学习成果、人才需求和角色概况、成熟度模型和培训资产。这个小组有一名企业高管，他担任数据图书馆员，对数据集进行编目，确保我们有标准来定义这些数据。

八、实现真正的数据民主化有哪些挑战？

首先是人才，因为数据工程师和数据科学家市场的竞争非常激烈，你必须招募这些人才并确保他们有明确的职业道路。第二是预期管理。人们了解了预测分析，他们希望马上就能实现，然而提供这些工具并学习如何使用这些工具是需要时间和耐心的。第三个挑战是质量——我们必须具有清理数据和管理数据的能力，使其成为有价值洞察的来源。

九、您是如何吸引和培养推动转型所需的IT人才的？

我们的企业文化在吸引人才过程中发挥着重要作用。成为Zebra的一员，意味着加入了一个有助于塑造工作未来的、具有包容性和多元化的社区。我们重视诚信、团队合作、创新、责任感和敏捷性，因为我们努力让员工在工作场所内外也能取得成功。因此，我们连续三年被Computerworld评为最佳IT工作场所之一。

我们还大力投入在专业技术培训上，包括对整个IT部门进行敏捷方法的培训。到下个月，我们98%的员工将完成全面的敏捷培训。培训完成后，我们会把员工和导师进行组合，以确保新的敏捷方法得以贯彻。华东CIO大会、华东CIO联盟、CDLC中国数字化灯塔大会、CXO数字化研学之旅、数字化江湖-讲武堂，数字化江湖-大侠传、数字化江湖-论剑、CXO系列管理论坛（陆家嘴CXO管理论坛、宁波东钱湖CXO管理论坛等）、数字化转型网，走进灯塔工厂系列、ECIO大会等

我们还邀请Zebra各级员工参与领导力项目，并与大学合作提供实习机会。去年，我们通过大学实习计划招募到了我们团队的五名全职成员，这使我们能够引入具有下一代思维方式并能够以多种方式处理情况的人才。

最后，我们正在推出针对新员工的轮岗计划，以便我们可以让他们接触不同的IT领域。我们的计划是每18个月轮岗一次。

十、随着数据的民主化，CIO角色发生了哪些变化？

未来几年我相信CIO将专注于三个领域：数据、端到端用户体验、数字工作流支持。

数据面临的挑战是如何确保其安全、可访问、有意义且对业务有价值。用户体验也将是首要的考虑因素，可确保为客户提供积极的、直观的和品牌提升的旅程。在整个业务职能中，数字工作流将通过链接端到端流程、增强协作和实时任务可见性来提高生产力。数字化转型不是一次性的事件，我们只实施一波。当完成时，就会出现新的浪潮，而CIO必须保持领先于新的趋势。

原文：

Deepak Kaul first joined Zebra Technologies in 2007 as director of change management and process improvement, and he became CIO of the $5.5 billion workflow digitization and automation solutions company in 2016. Today, Kaul and Zebra are in the midst of a company-wide transformation that goes far beyond digitization: it is a transformation of their marketplace offering and their very business model. I recently asked Kaul to explain the major components of Zebra’s transformation. What follows is an edited version of our interview.

What is the business transformation currently underway at Zebra Technologies?

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Zebra is growing rapidly—both organically and through acquisition activity where we continue to add software and solutions to our hardware portfolio. This expansion is enabling us to reimagine our operations, digitize platforms, redesign end-to-end workflows, and generate analytical insights. Our acquisition growth is also enabling us to offer as-a-service business models. At the same time, we are mindful of investing in our community of changemakers, innovators, and doers, helping our talent build fulfilling careers while making a positive impact on their communities.

What is IT doing to drive this transformation?

Zebra IT is leading three major initiatives. First, we’re implementing a completely new cloud-based ERP system to power new digital workflows.

Second, we are migrating our infrastructure journey to the cloud. This will shorten our time to market, increase our speed of delivery, create even more robust security and resiliency, allow more flexibility in utilization, and ultimately enable more rapid innovation.

The third initiative is building an enterprise-wide Delta Lake using a machine learning (ML) platform. This platform will provide a single source of truth and give various business functions the capability to intermix data with external sources to experiment and validate hypotheses.

Let’s talk more about your cloud-based ERP implementation.

ERP is the central nervous system of our company; it touches all our customers, suppliers, and employees. Previously, we patched exception-based workflows with robotic process automation and other tools. With this new cloud-based platform, we will digitize manual workflows while providing a better user experience and real-time analytics.

It is noteworthy that we are not approaching it as a technology initiative. We aren’t lifting and shifting our existing process into the cloud, which would be like pouring old wine into a new bottle.

Instead, our strategy involves each functional leader owning a piece of the unified transformation roadmap that reinvents end-to-end processes across the company. As a result, the ERP implementation becomes a transformation opportunity rather than a technology project.

How did you generate business ownership over the ERP?

To orchestrate this transformation, we have appointed a business acceleration executive, who is working with a cross-functional team of leaders to create our IT transformation roadmap. This leader hosts brainstorming and strategic workshops with representatives of each business unit. Together, they have identified more than 40 opportunities for process innovation. We now have transformation use cases ranging from product lifecycle management and intelligent pricing guides to supply chain resiliency. These efforts will culminate in better support for our newer as-a-service business models.

What insights can you share about your second big area of transformation, moving infrastructure to the cloud?

Our belief is that critical assets are moving to the cloud, which dilutes the business case for two large data centers. In building a workforce of the future, we believe it is in our best interest to move our assets to cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Utilizing the cloud helps teams spend more of their time on more meaningful work and less on administration. Our cloud strategy says to the team, “Zebra is the place to learn the skills of the future.”

Let’s talk about your third big area of transformation: data.

While we already have data-rich platforms at Zebra, we still have an opportunity to generate even greater insights. In IT, we have traditionally focused on protecting the single source of truth. At the same time, business functions want to experiment with data for a wide range of business needs and they desire autonomy for insight generation. So, we have created a hub-and-spoke model, where the hub is data engineering and the spokes are the business functions. The functions have ML experts who experiment with IT’s “single source of truth” to create relevant insights.

We kept the data warehouse but have augmented it with a cloud-based enterprise Delta Lake and an ML platform. The core customer data, for example, must be pristine in the data warehouse to serve as a single source of truth. Once that data goes into the lake though, the business functions can experiment. They can merge customer data with Dun & Bradstreet data, for example, to segment it into large and small accounts without impacting the core. This enables functions to generate insights in new ways.

The hub-and-spoke model supplements our functional leaders’ capability of single source of truth data rigidity with multiple versions of truth experimental capability. We are pivoting from a data defensive (controlled) to a data offensive (flexible) position.

How did the business functions learn to do this experimentation?

Our functional leaders participated in a cross-functional heat mapping exercise led by expert consultants to identify use cases and learn how to use machine learning. Next, we shortlisted relevant use cases like forecasting, returns, next best move, alerts to partner, and contract renewals, which enabled the functions to see the capabilities of machine learning experimentation.

We have formed a cross-functional analytics council to ensure we are sharing our learnings, talent needs and role profiles, maturity models, and training assets on a monthly basis. This group includes a senior enterprise leader who acts as a data librarian, cataloging data sets and ensuring there are standards in how we define the data.

What are the challenges in achieving true democratization of data?

The first challenge is talent because the market for data engineers and data scientists is very competitive. You must recruit them and ensure they have a defined career path. The second is expectations management. People read about predictive analytics, and they want it done yesterday. However, delivering those tools and learning how to use them takes time and patience. The third challenge is quality — we must maintain the ability to clean and curate data so that it remains a meaningful source of insights.

How do you attract and develop the IT talent you need to drive the transformation?

Our culture plays a major part in our ability to attract talent. Being a part of Zebra means being a part of an inclusive and perse community that helps shape the future of work. We value integrity, teamwork, innovation, accountability, and agility as we strive to empower employees to be successful within and outside of the workplace. As a result, we’ve been named by Computerworld as one of the best places to work in IT for three years.

We also invest heavily in professional and technical training, including Agile methodology training for the entire IT department. By next month, 98 percent of our staff will be fully trained in Agile. Once training is completed, we pair employees with a coach to ensure the new Agile methods stick.

We also invite Zebra employees at all levels to participate in leadership programs and collaborate with colleges for internships. Last year, we hired five full-time members of our team through college intern programs. This allows us to bring in people who have a next-gen mindset and approach situations in perse ways.

Finally, we are in the process of rolling out a rotation program for new hires so that we can expose them to different areas of IT. Our plan is to move them every 18 months.

With the democratization of data, what is the evolution of the CIO role?

For the next several years, I believe CIOs will be focused in three areas: data, end-to-end user experiences, and digital workflow enablement.

The challenge with data is how to keep it secure, accessible, meaningful, and valuable to the business. User experience will also be top of mind to ensure a positive, intuitive, and brand-enhancing journey for our customers. Across business functions, digital workflows will increase productivity by linking end-to-end processes, enhanced collaboration, and real time task visibility. Digital transformation is not a one-time event; we are implementing just one wave. By the time we are finished, there will be a new wave, and CIOs must stay ahead of the trends. We will evolve from a technologist and strategist role to that of a catalyst. Future CIOs will be evangelists of digital dexterity.

本文主要内容转载（或原作者）出自Martha Heller，仅供广大读者参考，如有侵犯您的知识产权或者权益，请联系我提供证据，我会予以删除。

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