Posted by Noida: Nearly 90% of businesses to invest in next-gen technologies in response to COVID-19, according to a global survey.
This HCL- commissioned-study in conjunction with Vanson Bourne, surveyed 420 senior business and IT decision-makers across industries.
According to the Digital Acceleration for Business Resilience report, the majority of businesses (89%) are stepping up their digital initiatives, which are termed as Digital Acceleration. That means nearly 90% of businesses will invest in digital and next-gen technologies.
The respondents state cybersecurity and cloud are the top two technologies to receive increased investment as a direct result of the pandemic.
Three key actions business leaders must take to realise the benefits of digital acceleration for their organisations and customers. First, reprioritisation of digital investments and shortening of implementation cycles.
Second, inspecting and reworking business architecture for operational agility. Third, auditing the partner ecosystem to ensure their companies have the right external expertise.
While these actions are necessary for companies around the globe, the data also shows they must be uniquely designed and deployed for individual industries.
Digital acceleration is pushing business leaders to turn their three-year roadmap for digital transformation into an iterative implementation that can promote long-term changes to stay competitive and support business and customer needs.
From budgeting for new, adaptable innovations that foster enterprise agility to building strategic partner ecosystems, it’s clear that decision makers are taking action to stay competitive in the current landscape.
COVID-19 Has Shifted Boards’ Focus to Digital Investment
A notable finding of the survey is a major increase in reported board-level focus on digital transformation pre-pandemic to today, jumping from 42% at the start of 2020 to 55% currently. As the pandemic situation evolves, this number is expected to keep rising.
Additionally, those industries that started 2020 at the bottom in terms of board-level digital focus have reported the greatest increases throughout the year, closing the gap and representing a levelling of digital investment focus across industries.
The survey also shows 88% of organisations already have a formal digital transformation strategy in place. And nearly 60% of businesses have a tactical roadmap to follow, making next-generation implementations under digital acceleration vital for resilience.
Architecture Agility Empowers Business Stability
The pandemic has disrupted businesses globally. 62% of organisations reporting a negatively disrupted supply chain. Nearly 90% of businesses reporting a change in demand (either positive or negative).
The takeaway is a need for greater flexibility built into business process and technology architecture to respond to uncertain environments now and in the future.
For large and complex legacy organisations, the inability to quickly adapt and test business models in an iterative fashion poses a critical challenge to transformation.
An increased focus on next-gen technologies such as cybersecurity and cloud is necessary for future-proofing today’s enterprises.
COVID Highlights the Importance of a Strategic Partner Ecosystem
Business leaders are well aware that today’s business ecosystem extends beyond their individual organisation.
The survey reveals 45% of respondents use a partner ecosystem to execute their enterprise digital transformation and 48% report external partners as playing a role in defining their digital transformation strategy.
Additional findings from the survey include:
Respondents state the top three barriers to digital transformation are data security/governance (40%), legacy technology (35%), and lack of internal skills (35%)
Nearly 60% of respondents report they have created new in-house teams to execute digital transformation. And only a slightly smaller proportion (55%) are executing within business units
70% of businesses with a robust data strategy provide a consistent omnichannel customer experience, vs 27% of organisations with incomplete or nonexistent data strategies
The full report includes comprehensive data on the key technology investment areas, utilization metrics of digital capabilities and technologies, and barriers to digital transformation success.