Pandemic has accelerated Digital Transformation: Study

A Dell Technologies study has revealed that Indian organisations have not only fast-tracked digital transformation programmes this year but re-invented business models as well.

The study found that 94.7 per cent of the organisations in India had fast-tracked digital transformation projects this year and 92.3 per cent re-invented their business model.

This is the third edition of Dell Technologies Digital Transformation Index (DT Index).

The findings, updated biennially in DT Index show that digital adopters in India have grown from 33.5 per cent in 2018 to 55.3 per cent in 2020.

Conducted in partnership with Vanson Bourne, the survey included 4,300 business leaders from mid-size to enterprise companies across 18 countries.

Alok Ohrie, President and Managing Director, Dell Technologies observed that the current times made Indian organisations realise the importance of having a flexible IT infrastructure with the agility to adapt to the ever-changing business environment. “We are living in a data era, where constant investment in digital technologies is a must,” he added.

Barriers

The 2020 DT Index has cited data privacy and cyber security concerns, information overload and difficulty in extracting valuable insights from the data and lack of economic growth as the top three barriers to transformation.

While the pandemic may have catalysed digital transformation across the globe, over 95 per cent of Indian organisations had stated that continuous transformation posed a huge challenge

“Prior to the pandemic, business investments were focussed on foundational technologies, rather than emerging technologies. But now, they realise the need to be more agile, scalable and make allowance for contingencies”.

The DT Index shows that digital workplace, cyber security and privacy, on-demand digital services, multi-cloud environment and data management and analysis would be among the top technology investments over the next one-to-three years in India.

Recognising the importance of emerging technologies, 93.7 per cent of respondents envisioned increased usage of Augmented Reality to learn how to do or fix things in an instant; 95 per cent said they foresaw organisations using Artificial Intelligence and data models to predict potential disruptions, and 90.7 per cent said distributed ledgers - such as Blockchain – would make the gig economy fairer (by cutting out the intermediary).

Despite these findings, only 22.7 per cent respondents said they were planning to invest in Virtual/Augmented Reality, just 50 per cent in Artificial Intelligence and a mere 16.7 per cent on distributed ledgers.