Despite Covid-19 pandemic, 90 per cent of companies are not cutting down on their digital transformation budgets, according to a survey done by Tata Consultancy Services.

In a global survey titled ‘Digital Readiness and Covid-19: Assessing the Impact’, TCS spoke to 300 senior business leaders from large enterprises — 97 per cent with revenue above $1 billion and 44 per cent above $10 billion — spanning 11 industries across North America, Europe and Asia.

The report pointed out that while 68 per cent of companies have seen revenue declines amid Covid-19, 90 per cent of organisations have either maintained or increased their digital transformation budget.

WFH

Prior to the pandemic, the average organisation surveyed had only 9 per cent of its workforce working mostly from home. That percentage has increased seven-fold and is expected to remain elevated through 2025, when the average company projects 40 per cent of its employees will work largely from home.

“Before the pandemic, companies’ digital capabilities were rapidly becoming central to their success and business transformation initiatives. However, our study revealed how several enterprises were not as far along in developing a digital backbone as they hoped,” said Rajashree R, Chief Marketing Officer, TCS.

Regarding shifts in technology spends due to the pandemic, companies reported maximum increases on: collaborative technologies (65 per cent), cyber security (56 per cent), cloud-native technologies (51 per cent) and advanced analytics (39 per cent).

Automation at the forefront

Further, higher levels of automation in core business processes is another priority area for businesses. Already 23 per cent of companies have deployed automation, and for 44 per cent of the companies, it was under development.

The analysis compared organisations that had more advanced digital capabilities in place prior to Covid, referred to as ‘leaders’, with those that had fewer, known as ‘followers’. The study showed that fewer leaders (64 per cent) have seen their revenue decline, compared with followers (73 per cent). Moreover, leaders had better business visibility and a more confident outlook, with 74 per cent of them expecting revenues to bounce back within two years, compared with 54 per cent of followers.

Business initiatives around an end-to-end customer experience (CX) have seen most traction, already deployed at 25 per cent of companies and under development at 44 per cent of the survey respondents. Similarly, the use of analytics and AI (artificial intelligence) to improve CX is deployed at 24 per cent and under development at 39 per cent of companies, TCS said.

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