Companies Pursuing Digital Transformation Gain Significantly, Even in Early Stages

The majority (87 percent) of enterprises are actively pursuing digital transformation to gain a competitive edge in today’s increasingly digital business environment, and even the 41 percent in the early stages are seeing measurable returns on investment, according to a new IDG Research Services survey.

The largest improvements cited by respondents include quality of service (44 percent) and user experience/satisfaction (40 percent), followed by business continuity (35 percent), cost efficiency/savings (34 percent), resource optimization (33 percent), increased agility (32 percent) and increased innovation/creation of new revenue-generating products (32 percent).

Nine out of 10 survey respondents reported that digital transformation has accelerated over the last 18 months, with dramatic changes in priorities led by new workplace and business realities. The responses also revealed the following

• 87 percent of respondents are pursuing digital transformation in either some or all areas of their businesses, ;with 41 percent implementing business unit or departmental initiatives and 46 percent undertaking enterprisewide efforts. Only 13 percent have taken no action.
• 90 percent expect IT modernization to have either a transformative or significant impact on their organizations' long-term growth, including 29 percent that have not yet begun the process. Those with enterprisewide initiatives are significantly more likely to expect a transformative impact (54 percent) than those with only business unit initiatives (30 percent).
• IT infrastructure optimization is expected to have the biggest impact on innovation and revenue creation, followed by increasing use of as-a-service delivery models providing consumption-based pricing for on-premises delivery. .
• The top three enterprise IT goals in 2022 are optimizing data and analytics capabilities, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and IoT (48 percent); increasing cloud adoption via multicloud or hybrid models (47 percent); and modernizing legacy applications, infrastructure, and networking technologies (37 percent).

The survey also revealed the stumbling blocks that enterprises face in advancing digital transformation projects. They include the following:

• 89 percent of respondents report that existing infrastructure, operations, and culture are constraining innovation and strategic business growth, with 49 percent indicating these factors are limiting their ability to drive the business forward to a great extent and 40 percent to some extent.
• 44 percent cite skills/knowledge gaps as the #1 constraint inhibiting innovation followed by a lack of infrastructure optimization to support digital dexterity and inadequate data analysis capabilities (each cited by 39 percent).
• 87 percent indicate that the working relationship between developers and traditional IT is hindering their ability to take full advantage of digital transformation. Just 20 percent are implementing platform teams that collaborate with development and security teams.

"Digital transformation has become a priority for nearly every organization, and this survey shows that the effort yields improvements on every factor measured. Quality of service, user experience, and business continuity lead the list, with 35 percent to 44 percent citing these benefits. But even increases in time to value and total addressable market were reported by one-third of respondents," said Stan Lequin, senior vice president and general manager of solutions at Insight.