While the digital transformation hype-o-meter has been registering 11 out of 10 for a few years now, a recent survey from Dell Technologies reveals most organizations are behind their goals and still hitting roadblocks.
According to the Dell Technologies Digital Transformation Index, 78 percent of business respondents said digital transformation should be more widespread throughout their organizations. Just over half said they’ll struggle to meet their changing customer demands within five years, and 30 percent are worried their organizations will be left behind as a result.
This is the second time Dell has calculated the Digital Transformation Index. Compared with the same research conducted in 2016, progress has been slow. Organizations have universally struggled to keep up with the blistering pace of change, with just 5 percent of businesses globally defined as Digital Leaders. That’s stable since the last index.
Tellingly, 91 percent of respondents said their efforts are being stalled by persistent barriers. According to the survey, the top five barriers are:
1. Data privacy and security concerns (from 5th place in 2016)
2. Lack of budget and resources
3. Lack of the right in-house skill sets and expertise
4. Regulation and legislative changes (from 9th place in 2016)
5. Immature digital culture
Surprisingly, the study found that the most digitally mature are businesses in emerging markets, with India, Brazil, and Thailand coming out on top, while Japan, Denmark, and France received the lowest digital maturity scores. In addition, businesses emerging markets are also more confident in their ability to “disrupt rather than be disrupted,” at 53 percent, compared with 40 percent in developed nations.
What are the priorities in the next three years? Survey respondents said, in the following order: cybersecurity, internet of things technology, multicloud environment, artificial intelligence, and a compute-centric approach.
During summer 2018, Dell Technologies collaborated with Intel and Vanson Bourne and surveyed 4,600 business leaders, from director to C-suite, working in midsize to large companies across the globe to score their organizations’ transformation efforts. Vanson Bourne classified businesses’ digital business efforts by examining their IT strategies, workforce transformation initiatives, and perceived performance against a core set of digital business attributes.
