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Building a high tech reinvention-ready digital core
5-MINUTE READ
April 10, 2025
The high tech industry thrives on relentless innovation, from semiconductors powering our devices to advanced AI reshaping how we work. To stay ahead, companies must navigate challenges like the increasing complexity of chip design, demands for energy-efficient technologies, and rapidly evolving AI workloads, all while adapting to a fluid tariff environment. For example, leading-edge chip manufacturers are tackling the transition to sub-3nm process nodes, which require revolutionary approaches in materials, science and photonics. Meanwhile, the rise of quantum computing and neuromorphic chips signals a future of unprecedented possibilities—and complexity.
Against this backdrop, achieving sustainable innovation and growth requires more than just incremental improvements; it demands a reimagined approach to digital transformation. This is where a Digital Core becomes indispensable. It acts as the foundational engine that enables organizations to adapt, innovate and thrive amid these evolving dynamics. It provides the agility and resilience needed to integrate next-generation technologies, optimize operations and accelerate time-to-market—all while maintaining a focus on sustainability and scalability.
What is the digital core
The digital core enables organizations to accelerate ahead of the competition and achieve their ambitions—using the right mix of cloud infrastructure and practices for agility and innovation; data and AI for differentiation; applications and platforms to accelerate growth, next-gen experiences and optimized operations—with security by design at every level.
Engineering as a Discipline: Building the future tech stack
In this era of rapid technological shifts, engineering as a discipline is gaining momentum. Organizations are not just adopting technology; they are actively engineering future tech stacks that combine robust architectures, scalable systems, and advanced integration capabilities. This engineering mindset is critical to staying competitive, especially in the high tech industry that depends on seamless collaboration between hardware and software.
In my previous blog, I explored insights from our report, "Reinventing with a Digital Core," emphasizing the importance of a strong digital core within the high tech industry, investments needed to overcome tech debt and delved into some of the key findings from our research.
ACT now to evolve your digital core
Our chapter 2 report identifies three key engineering principles—ACT principles—that streamline and enhance digital core evolution. Leading companies adopt these principles twice as often as others.
ACT principles
Architect for intent
Modernize your business and tech frameworks to be always on, always learning, and dynamically adapting. Integrating AI into core processes provides real-time insights and smarter automation, driving faster innovation. For instance, a leading high tech company has adopted a modern data architecture and strategy to enable AI agents to orchestrate decisions across the enterprise. Without a digital core, agents won’t be able to orchestrate decisions across the entire enterprise, resulting in siloed decision-making.
High fidelity data is key, and the data transformation is a product in its own right. The company has created different AI use cases across the end-to-end value chain, including design, plan, make, buy, and moving products. By using these capabilities, they can simulate decisions in the supply chain in a compressed period of time with less effort, resulting in more flexibility and reducing time to market. For instance, a change in demand, such as a request for 100 AI servers, can be modeled, and the plan can be adjusted to accommodate this high-value order without losing market share to competitors.
Connect the dots
High tech companies face growing demands for seamless experiences, personalized products, and faster problem-solving. Connecting the dots ensures smooth integration between transaction and analytical platforms, providing real-time insights to enhance customer experiences and drive smarter decisions. This continuous data flow keeps companies agile and responsive, improving personalization and service quality. For instance, a leading high tech company has implemented an AI coach to support design decisions, ensuring that engineers use preferred parts and validate bills of material (BOM) to identify component shortages and discrepancies. This not only enhances design efficiency but also ensures that business objectives and KPIs are met.
The digital core connects applications through a data mesh, allowing the company to adapt and use multiple bill of materials across different parts of the organization for more flexibility. This has been particularly crucial in the high tech supply chain, where there is a lot of complexity and types of management of inventories with products that are built to stock, configured to order, and engineered to order. These processes need to be executed at scale to be profitable.
Thriving with Ecosystems
New companies and business models are constantly emerging, forcing established players to rethink their strategies. Thriving with Ecosystems allows high tech companies to leverage the latest innovations, quickly adopt new technologies, and stay ahead. By partnering with key players, tech companies can ensure security, reliability, and seamless integration, accelerating innovation and competitiveness.
How to get started
Establishing a resilient digital core is essential for high tech companies to thrive in the digital era. This core integrates systems, data, and operations to create a strong, productive environment for growth.
- Embrace a data-driven culture: Data is the lifeblood of digital cores. Prioritize data collection, analysis and utilization to gain insights, drive decision-making, and create personalized experiences for customers. A digital core allows companies to gather and analyze customer data, leading to enhanced customer experiences, better service and new products that meet changing needs.
- Invest in modern infrastructure: A contemporary IT framework, encompassing cloud computing, agile development practices, and stringent security protocols, is vital for a scalable and robust digital core. Modern infrastructure supports the integration of systems and automation of processes, streamlining operations, reducing costs and improving efficiency.
- Foster a culture of innovation: by providing a robust platform for experimentation, risk-taking and the pursuit of knowledge. At Accenture, our close to 100% cloud-based, composable IT architecture enables seamless integration and deployment of new technologies, such as generative AI, enhancing productivity and creativity. The 360° Value Navigator tool provides real-time, integrated data, supporting data-driven decisions and scenario planning. Initiatives like the Digital Transformation Academy and the Technology Quotient program equip employees with the skills needed to use emerging AI tools responsibly, further supporting continuous learning and innovation.
- Collaborate with ecosystem partners: Partner with other companies, startups and academia to access specialized expertise, technologies and resources to enhance the digital core. Collaboration helps businesses grow smoothly and respond to changing market needs, ensuring success in a dynamic business environment.
A call to action for high tech leaders: Navigating digital transformation
In an era of rapid technological change, high tech companies must prioritize continuous reinvention and a robust digital core to enhance customer experiences, streamline operations, accelerate innovation, speed decision-making, and ensure scalability. Embracing a data-driven culture, modern infrastructure, new ideas, and partnerships with other companies is crucial for staying competitive and unlocking all of the potential. By doing so, companies can drive growth and shape the future of technology.