One third (33%) of enterprises globally are underprepared for “digital transformation” – the process of replacing legacy networks and dedicated service platforms with a coherent digital environment that is flexible, cost-effective, and capable of delivering changes rapidly and dynamically.
The study from global data, market research and advisory firm Ovum additionally revealed that while 60% believe their organization’s process of digital transformation is “well advanced” or “in progress,” only 7% believe it to be complete.
Key findings:
• The financial services sector demonstrated the most confidence in enabling digital transformation, with 60% of enterprise IT decision makers in this industry believing the process to be “well advanced” or “in progress.” The retail sector considered their industry the least prepared for digital transformation.
• 25% of enterprises are significantly increasing ICT spending (Over 6% budget growth) in 2017. The top 3 regions where IT spend is increasing most rapidly are South Asia, Southeast Asia and Latin America, with North America, Western Europe and Australia showing the slowest increase.
• Enterprises are struggling with omnichannel customer/citizen engagement – Thirty percent of enterprises are only at the early or not-started stages in this area, while 25% of enterprises claim to be at least well advanced
The findings are published in Ovum’s ICT Enterprise Insights for 2017, the world’s largest research report of enterprise IT decision makers, capturing insights from 7,000 enterprise organizations across 62 countries and 15 industries.
Respondents from the financial services sector demonstrated the most confidence in enabling digital transformation, with 60% of enterprise IT decision makers in this industry believing the process to be “well advanced” or “in progress.” Of these organizations, retail banks claim to be the most advanced (45%), followed by payments, insurance and financial markets (40%). By contrast, respondents from the retail sector considered their industry the least prepared for digital transformation. In the public sector, 38% of respondents thought their sector was experiencing some or significant disruption to services from digital technologies, only 29% thought their own organization was affected.
Daniel Mayo, Director of IT, Data & Tools at Ovum commented: “The uneven maturity of digital transformation by industry and country has created a complex landscape for sales teams to navigate, but our data plays a significant role in quantifying for our customers their target markets’ investment appetite and timescales. This enables them to quickly and confidently make decisions about where to focus their go-to-market and product investments.”
In addition to this, the study indicated that while IT spend is growing globally, the top 3 regions where spend is increasing most rapidly are South Asia, Southeast Asia and Latin America, with North America, Western Europe and Australia showing the slowest increase in spend.
The new study closely examined the process of digital transformation currently taking place within enterprises today, and found many are struggling with omnichannel customer/citizen engagement, predominantly focused on online/mobile channels to date. Thirty percent of enterprises are only at the early or not-started stages, while 25% of enterprises claim to be at least well advanced in this area.
Ovum’s ICT Enterprise Insights report provides insight for Ovum clients to help determine which industry in each market region is best prepared for digital transformation, how enterprises in their target vertical markets are prioritizing their IT and communication investment, and how much IT budgets are expected to increase or decrease for their target customers in 2017. This includes which of the latest technologies (IoT, mobile, BYOD, cloud) will be most important to their target markets in 2017. Sales teams can then clearly see which part of their portfolio is most in demand within their target market sector and know how to align their sales resources (managers, reps, sales engineers, field marketers) with market size by factors including country, vertical and target company revenue.
“Ovum ICT Enterprise Insights has broad appeal in the technology market,” concluded Aneil Rakity, Managing Director of Ovum. “Our clients, including enterprise software vendors, industry application vendors, information management, digital service providers, system integrators, and enterprise hardware vendors, are able to interrogate Ovum’s data with high granularity to better address their target markets’ needs.”
Based on the world’s largest annual IT decision-maker survey (covering 7,000+ enterprises across 62 countries, 80 technologies and 15 industries) Ovum’s ICT Enterprise Insights provides the unparalleled granular data that strategy, marketing and sales managers need to develop meaningful go-to-market initiatives. More information on the Ovum ICT Enterprise Insights for 2017 can be found at https://www.ovum.com/data-tool/ict-enterprise-insights/