Concept and essence of digitalization and digital transformation based on fundamental and applied aspects of the systems-cybernetic theory

Abstract

Digitalization, a phenomenon that continues to actively develop in the world, is faced with the lack of a clear, methodologically consolidated definition in literary sources. Despite its long development path, the concept of digitalization and the closely related term “digital transformation” currently do not have a single scientific and applied definition. One of the articles provides the following definition of digitalization: “Digitalization is about the systems of interaction and the systems of understanding digitized data”. In this context, Gartner’s interpretation is also mentioned, where digitalization refers to the impact on the company’s business model and its effectiveness. The authors of the article propose a more complete definition of the concepts of “digitalization” and “digital transformation” (which are inextricably linked to each other), based on the basic concepts of systems-cybernetic theory and the general methodology of enterprise architecture. The lack of a clear definition of digitalization does not hinder its development, since the concept is intuitively understandable, and specialists find a common language. Nevertheless, the lack of a logically structured approach to the definition of this concept and related terms is an obstacle to the development of methodology, taxonomies and communication between specialists. This affects the speed, efficiency and security of the development of digitalization and related areas in science and engineering. Solving this problem will be a key factor for a more successful and sustainable development of digitalization in the future. The reader is offered an approach based on the analysis of the current practice of automation in its evolutionary aspect, performed using the basic concepts of systems-cybernetic theory, the general methodology of enterprise architecture. The analysis of digitalization using these tools will help to form a scientifically based, structured view of this concept and formulate some elements of taxonomy in this area. Applying the obtained method, the authors proposed the concept of “digitalization”, as well as “digital transformation” (which is inextricably linked with the previous concept). In the article, the authors limited the area in which digitalization is analyzed to the corporate sector.

Keywords

• digitalization
• enterprise architecture
• applied systems and cybernetic knowledge
• taxonomy of the digital sphere
• corporate sector