Published on the 31/08/2016 | Written by Newsdesk
Dipstick research from Unisys Corporation shows executives are going in boots ‘n all for digital business even though there are reservations…
While it might not be necessary to read too deeply into the findings, given that it polled just 175 execs (and those good folk were in the USA and Europe), it does nevertheless confirm what one surely feels instinctively: that there is inherent risk in ‘digital transformation’.
The survey shows a strong commitment among executives to adopting a digital business model, with the cloud as the key enabler. However, it also indicates that security concerns and tepid execution complicate the ability to deliver on that commitment.
Conducted for Unisys by IDG Research, the study polled 175 IT and business executives on the initiatives their organisations are undertaking to capitalise on the convergence of social, cloud, mobility, data analytics, internet of things (IoT) (Gartner’s Nexus of Forces) and security. This was in the context of using these forces to drive new business models and engage, enable and support an increasingly tech-savvy workforce and customer base.
There is something approaching consensus on the ‘transformation’ part of digital transformation. Some 72 percent of the respondents agreed that it is ‘critical or very important’ for an organisation to modify IT processes and resources to support a digital business model. In other words, the old stuff isn’t going to cut it – and those in charge are increasingly realising it, as the finding is up from 65 percent from a similar question in a Unisys-IDG study conducted in October 2015.
Unisys said ‘the respondents clearly see the value of the cloud as the linchpin in an IT infrastructure that enables digital business: they report that 55 percent of their organisations’ applications are already deployed in a cloud environment’.
Moreover, the respondents indicate that their organisations are seeing positive results from initial cloud and digital initiatives, with improvements over the last 12 months in multiple areas, including data security (56 percent), user experience with applications and services (44 percent), IT efficiency (42 percent) and infrastructure performance/availability (41 percent).
However, the executives show greater trepidation about their organisations’ ability to build quickly on that initial success: fewer than 1 in 5 (15 percent) of respondents indicate that their organisations currently have the “extremely flexible/nimble” attributes required to implement a digital model that enables them to capitalise fully on future business opportunities.
Those insufficiently robust capabilities could pose a challenge in areas the respondents see as priorities over the next 12 months. For example, 88 percent cite data security in the cloud as a top priority for competitiveness in the digital world while only 32 percent cite significant progress, creating a gap between aspiration and execution of 56 percentage points.
Similarly, less than a third of respondents report significant progress in other areas key to digital business, from creating scalable/predictable IT environments (24 percent) to gaining a high level of visibility into IT environments (32 percent). These shortfalls may slow progress at a time when it should be accelerating.
On the plus side, the study shows that the respondents who consider their organisations extremely flexible and nimble, and more aggressive in adopting the cloud, more frequently report benefits from use of cloud apps than the aggregate population of respondents.
Respondents in extremely nimble organisations are also more likely to report improved customer experience through integration of infrastructure and applications with IoT.
The full study is available (registration required).
