10 Steps to a Digital Practice in the Cloud, 2nd Edition

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The 10 Steps to a Digital Practice

This chapter introduces what we believe are the 10 key steps to becoming a truly digital practice and gaining all the benefits of this model. We put them in the order we think is most practical because they will need to be completed over an extended period of time. However, your situation is unique to your practice and, therefore, you may have different priorities. This is another reason why it is important to have a plan.

Strategic View of IT Model

When we discuss the topic of IT or information systems, we are talking about a pretty broad scope of territory. Today, there are so many different facets to an information system that it requires further clarification about what aspect is being addressed at any given point in time.

Before we introduce the 10 key steps to a digital practice, we think it is important to define the basic elements and hierarchy of an IT system. In order to provide a framework for our discussion of the steps that you need to take to go digital, figure 2-1 illustrates a strategic view of the IT model, with the objectives for each component in parentheses. Each component plays an important role and requires a different approach to properly address it. Also, every firm is in a different place in terms of where the current priorities should be assigned. Where you focus your time and money first maybe the biggest challenge ...