Posted by Bangalore: Modern applications use have benefitted organisations, to adapt and maintain agility, and reliability amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Says VMware commissioned new global-study.
A majority (98%) of all the 5000 surveyed business decision-makers (BDMs), IT decision-makers (ITDMs) and app developers at mid-to-large-sized organizations across 17 countries have said digital transformation efforts have been successful.
Says the study titled “Successful Digital Transformation: Apps At The Ready,” which Vanson Bourne conducted on behalf of VMware in March and April 2020.
Alignment across app developers, ITDMs and BDMs have improved as they collaborate to help their organizations operate amid the pandemic, the study indicates.
Most successful organizations are adopting to better their digital experiences. For years now, businesses have been on a mission to digitally transform themselves and their operations.
Technology has been the key to success as it provides the foundation for any transformation initiative or app/software development project. Organizations that can modernize the tools will see their success chances increase.
“The speed at which organizations moved their engagement to digital channels during the pandemic, signals the critical importance of modern applications,” said Sumit Dhawan, SVP and Chief CXO – VMware.
“Businesses need to do more than transform capabilities to deliver digital experiences for customers and for employees,” added Dhawan.
Ultimately, it is about cultivating software-minded leadership according to Dhawan. “And that is drives alignment among app developers, IT and the business, and adopting strategic technology platforms to thrive,” he viewed.
Three key research findings
The main benefits of modern, cloud-native applications during the pandemic include:
o Enabling remote workforces (54%);
o Pushing quick updates in response to changing landscape (42%); and,
o Maintaining reliable uptime (41%).
According to app developers (app devs) and ITDMs, modern applications also provide:
o Improved end-user experience (46%);
o Increased app/software performance (43%); and,
o More efficient use of app/software developer time (43%).
Almost all respondents (97%) have seen some success, big or small, from their digital transformation efforts.
The top three digital transformation priorities for organizations are:
o Increasing business efficiency (48%);
o Improving the customer experience (42%); and,
o Upgrading existing technology platforms (39%).
Pandemic Shifts People’s Mindsets and Perceptions of their Organizations
Companies’ priorities and team working relationships are different before and during the pandemic, according to respondents.
Alignment between different departments is a crucial driver of success in the best of times. But its importance increases exponentially during this pandemic.
US and UK respondents were more likely to agree that their company was “on the cutting edge and quick to embrace change” during the pandemic (25%) than they were before it (15%).
There is a marked improvement in how teams characterized their alignment during the pandemic:
o App dev and IT teams (increased from 64% with good or excellent alignment pre-pandemic to 70% during);
o App dev and business teams (increased from 57% to 67%); and,
o IT and business teams (increased from 55% to 67%).
The digital transformation priorities of “reducing costs” and “improving the employee experience” are weighed much more equally during the pandemic (29% and 27% respectively) than before (37% and 20% respectively).
Software-Minded Leaders, Modern Tools and Agile Processes Help Improve Digital Experience
According to the research, organizations seeking to thrive in this digital world should adopt tech-savvy leadership, modern applications /software development processes, and modern developer tools to successfully
deliver net-new apps and update/upgrade existing apps into production.
Leaders Matter – 88% of respondents say organizations with software-minded leaders are more successful.
Embrace Developer Processes – 80% of app dev and ITDM respondents agree that embracing developer processes such as tests and learn would enable organizations to work more effectively and efficiently.
Modernize Tools – 80% of surveyed app dev and ITDMs say teams must modernize the technologies they use to develop and deploy apps and software for development projects to be more successful.
Develop Differently – 79% of app dev and ITDM respondents agree that organizations will not be able to deliver a best-in-class end-user experience without successfully modernizing application/software development processes.
High performing (HP) organizations, which grow 15%+ per year, do the following better than underperforming (UP) organizations which are experiencing falling annual revenue:
o New software/app development projects making it into production on average (73% HP vs. 40% UP);
o Average proportion of time in-app dev process spent innovating (50% HP vs 39% UP), per-app devs and ITDMs; and,
o More than half of their dev processes could be considered agile (83% HP vs 24% UP), according to app devs and ITDMs.