What four events told Tom about the state of digital transformation

Over the past few weeks I’ve been to Bath Digital Festival, Utilities Live, Smart Manufacturing Week and WEAF 2025.  Different sectors. Different scales. But the same underlying conversation kept surfacing.

Are we shaping technology around the business, or shaping the business around what the tech happens to offer?

As far as I'm concerned, there isn’t a right answer. And that’s the point.

Startups and smaller teams are often doing well with off-the-shelf SaaS. It gives them a quick way to move, stay lean and keep their focus where it matters. For many, it’s exactly what’s needed.

For larger organisations, particularly those operating across regions or dealing with deep legacy systems, it’s a different picture. What works out of the box can quickly become a limitation. That’s where custom begins to look like the practical choice. Not because it’s flashier or more expensive, but because it’s built to fit.

The value in custom isn’t just control. It’s alignment. It reflects how a business actually runs, not how a product team imagined it might.

There’s a place for all of it. PaaS and SaaS platforms, third-party integrations along with bleeding-edge on-prem AI. The important part is knowing what problem you’re solving and who needs to use the thing you build.

The teams getting the most out of their digital transformation efforts weren’t always the ones with the latest and greatest tools. They were the ones asking better questions before they chose a direction.