With all the technology products aimed at digital transformation, companies may feel spoilt for choice. Some IT managers may believe if they just find the right software, they can sit back and wait for profits to roll in. But according to one consultant, the technology alone cannot hack it without human team members becoming more agile themselves.

Bob Ellis, founder and chief consultant from Analyze Innovate Transform Inc., says that in his work with clients, the discussion is really about enterprise agility, which he says is the goal of much innovation today.

“There’s a third leg of innovation,” Ellis said, explaining that technological innovation and product innovation are both chugging along amazingly well and making companies more agile. “I will claim that the third frontier of management in our industry and sustainability of larger corporation is really management innovation.”

Ellis recently spoke to Stu Miniman (@stu), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, during a special theCUBE segment.

Workflow is value flow

Ellis said that the work that relies on humans can get choked by inefficient management. “The workflow is really the value flow,” he said. “That really is what enterprise agility is about — understanding what that system is, innovating in that space and accelerating that value flow throughout the system so those companies can remain competitive,” he said.

He added that companies need to optimize DevOps, CICD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery), feedback cycles and impediment detection to become more agile. He also said that his consultancy utilizes Scrum-like techniques to achieve this.

The agility achieved pays off not only in greater market share or profits, Ellis said; companies save money right away.

“If you think about concept-to-cash, ultimately, as your value stream, if you can get your concept-to-cash on a faster cycle, you don’t need as much investment to get there,” he concluded.

Watch the full interview below:

Photo by SiliconANGLE