Digital Darkness Consumes 90% of Businesses

There is light at the end of the tunnel.  

We’ve been through the darkest hours of this decade. Everybody adopted to the “new normal” more or less. Some benefited, some suffered. But what about your people? What about your culture? What about innovation? Are you up to the new situation, able to cope with the new realities?

Additionally, we have also found that 65% of respondents blame their lack of awareness on being too busy with managing the digital transformation itself to monitor if they are actually progressing – or just spinning their wheels.

The cut-throat influence of the pandemic has made one thing very clear – businesses can either fly or die when it comes to digital adoption. As a result, organisations all over the world have embarked on a digital transformation journey that would not only benefit businesses during short-term lockdowns, but also create long-term growth sustainability.

At first, it was simple; to better facilitate remote and hybrid working, leverage the cloud to create a completely flexible working environment. However, with recovery from the pandemic well underway, the next steps in a company’s digital transformation strategy can quickly become unclear.

According to Digitopia’s latest research, this is already the case for the vast majority.

The study – which analysed the responses from 700 executives, ranging across C-Suite, VP, and Director roles in 400 different companies – found that only 4% of organisations are aware of the full extent of their digital transformation progression and can accurately measure it.

Lack of visibility over digital transformation progression isn’t exclusive to one industry, either. The research assessed the position of businesses across several sectors, including retail, consumer goods, automotive and manufacturing, insurance, banking, and finance.

We believe that digital is the only way forward. Digital is your best friend to overcome the crisis, basically any crisis. Digital gives you agility. Digital gives you flexibility. Digital gives you speed. Digital integrates value chains, end to end, reduces friction, reduces delays. All you dream of…

What gets measured, gets done.  

We recommend you have a constant view on and control of your digital maturity. This is the ultimate and most comprehensive indicator that your digital transformation undertakings are going well, contributing business value, and progressing your journey.

Of these organisations that do not track their digital transformation progress, ‘busy with digital transformation’ was cited as the most common reason for failing to measure digital maturity, with ‘no shared vision’ being the second most popular response at 47%. A deeper insight into the findings of the survey are as follows:

• Lack of skills and competencies (39%)
• No sense of urgency (33%)
• Misalignment in leadership (27%)
• Disagreement on importance (13%)

These findings have surprised us following a year where so many organisations have turned to digital transformation to continue operating.

You manage what you measure, and it’s concerning that so few businesses are paying attention to such an important aspect of modern business. Digital transformation is more than just technology, and only by measuring, benchmarking, and assessing every aspect of the journey can an organisation know where it is succeeding, and where it needs improvement. Only then can these businesses see a maximum return on investment and deliver sustainable, long-term business success.