Kate Wilson, CEO Digital Impact Alliance
Digital Transformation can be imagined like baking a layered cake. Done well, it allows for faster and better citizen application development.
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Transcript
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"People often ask my organization for our opinion on which investments in digital transformation they should prioritize. While I spend my days talking about digital transformation, my evenings and week-ends are spent cooking. And lately, I have been considering how to answer the question of digital transformation simply by comparing it to baking. While every country is unique and their pathways different, national digital architectures do share common elements.
This is similar to baking a layer cake. As depending on the ingredients you chose, the outcome differs. Any Chef will tell you, core components - eggs and flower - are needed. But, the ingredients vary by baker and location. And, depending on the order on which you combine them the pathway varies. National digital transformation journeys share common elements. There is a general recipe. Foundational layer, upon which every thing else sits: Do you have sufficient connectivity, power, engineering skills? On top of that countries need a national digital ID. A payments layer, security and a data layer. These backend layers are connected together much as icing binds of cake through common standards and middleware that enable them to work together. On top of that APIs are standard rules that allow new creations to sit on top of the cake. These toppings are the applications that provide citizen services: Healthcare, passport renewal, micro payments. And this is where the magic happens. When done well, these rules enable local developers to create new service applications more quickly.
And like icing and cake toppings, these applications are the most visible part. But, they could not exist without the base and foundational layers. This cake is how we see digital services reaching everyone."
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About the Speaker:
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Kate Wilson, CEO Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL)
Kate believes that digital technology products, new technology policies and updated business model practices are required to make transformative change in the lives of the underserved and decrease the growing digital divide. Kate joined DIAL in February 2016 as its CEO to fulfill this vision. She has committed the past 26 years to bringing diverse stakeholders together to find common ground in business, technology and policy, holding leadership roles in both the corporate and non profit sectors.
Prior to DIAL, Kate co-founded and led the Digital Health Solutions Group at PATH, the Seattle-based international health organization driving transformative innovation to save lives. During her eight years at PATH, Kate designed and led several global projects, in both Africa and Asia, most notably those using digital technology to improve the delivery of immunization services and health information systems for universal health coverage. Prior to PATH, Kate held diverse senior roles in the commercial software sector and international trade. At Microsoft, Intel, and General Electric, Kate held roles in ICT product development and launch, strategic planning, and business development, including launching Xbox Live in Europe and leading deal negotiations with telecom providers in 25 markets worldwide. In the non-profit sector, Kate led policy efforts as the President of the Washington Council on International Trade and the Director for Indonesia Affairs at the U.S. ASEAN Council. At both organizations, she partnered closely with U.S. corporations and government partners to strike mutually beneficial international trade agreements and expand market access for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Kate holds an M.B.A. and an M.A. in Southeast Asian studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a B.A. in international relations from the College of William and Mary. She has worked in more than 18 countries across three continents, including more than nine years in Southeast Asian economies. She has spoken widely at conferences and on television and is the author of several papers on the use of ICT in emerging economies.
