Survey: Despite steady growth in digital transformation initiatives, companies face budget and buy-in challenges
If you've noticed more digital transformation initiatives at your company, you're not alone. Digitalization efforts, especially the automation of IT and business processes, continues to grow among companies of all sizes, industries and geographic locations.
According to a 2018 survey by ZDNet's sister site, Tech Pro Research, 70 percent of survey respondents said that their companies either have a digital transformation strategy in place or are working on one. IT digital transformation budgets increased from 2016 to 2017 for 53 percent of survey respondents.
SEE: Digital transformation: A CXO's guide (ZDNet special report) | Download the report as a PDF (TechRepublic)
Survey respondents listed paper reduction (68%), online training (54%), and using data analytics for risk management and sales prediction (39%) as driving forces behind their digital transformations. Other active areas of digital implementation include social media (63%) and IT automation (50%).
These results aren't surprising, as workforce digitalization becomes a priority in departments outside of IT. In fact, half of all survey respondents said that departments other than IT, such as marketing, funded their digital transformations.
However, despite the inherent benefits of digitalization, survey respondents admitted to digital transformation challenges. Buy-in from management and users, training employees on new technology, defining policies and procedures for governance, and ensuring that the right IT skill sets are onboard to support digital technologies remain challenges for digital transformation implementation. The importance of vendor relationships further predicts how rapidly and successfully a company adopts a new digital technology.
Adopting new digital solutions takes time. Over the next 12 months, expect companies to prioritize digital transformations where it's easy to imagine and receive immediate return on investment.
For all results, plus analysis, download the full report: Digital Transformation Research Report 2018: Strategy, Returns on Investment, and Challenges (Available to Tech Pro Research subscribers.)
Also see
- 4 ways finance leaders must change their thinking to embrace digital transformation (TechRepublic)
- What is digital transformation? Everything you need to know about how technology is reshaping business (ZDNet)
- IT leader's guide to achieving digital transformation (Tech Pro Research)
- How to achieve digital transformation: 5 components of a digital work culture (TechRepublic)
- Digital transformation technology and services spending is on the rise (ZDNet)
- The 5 biggest challenges to digital transformation and how to overcome them (TechRepublic)
- Special report: Digital transformation: A CXO's guide (free PDF) (TechRepublic/ZDNet)
- Meet the company reinventing the way we unlock doors everywhere (CNET)