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Technology-led business transformation is still to be felt in boardrooms, though companies are acutely aware of the shift and its importance.
According to a HCL Technologies-commissioned survey, which was conducted by independent market research company Vanson Bourne, while 70 per cent of organisations had formalised a strategy, only 10 per cent had a technology deployment plan.
As many as 340 senior executives from large global enterprises were surveyed.
“There are still some barriers to digital change and execution of the digital strategy,” Anand Birje, Head of Digital and Analytics, HCL Technologies, told BusinessLine .
Global corporations from Chinese banks to FIFA are looking to technology to improve business efficiencies or better engage with their stakeholders.
As many as 26 per cent of the surveyed companies believe that they are reaping the benefits of the technology changes they have made. The survey, however, did not quantify the benefits that flowed from the technology changes that companies made.
However, the survey lays emphasis in certain areas such as the need for boardrooms to have a more nuanced discussion in such things.
“It requires planning at the highest levels of the organisation and larger the organisation, the tougher that gets,” said Birje.
While digital technology and platforms are powerful transformational tools, they are only effective with the right processes, he added.
The problems related to business processes not changing in line with the rapid shifts in technology is a common boardroom discussion.
The survey pointed this out by saying that 89 per cent of the respondents claimed a lack of insights into existing processes hampers their digital projects, while 45 per cent claim to have a clear picture.
A common challenge
The survey gives an example of a leading logistics and shipping services provider that was facing problems in ensuring a consistent online experience to customers.
Further, data being present in many different applications, makes it difficult to make sense of the information.
A common challenge is that data typically reside on different systems, in different formats, making it difficult to track and analyse them, defeating the purpose of digital transformation.
Also, around 81 per cent of respondents said they were overwhelmed by the volume and variety of data.
Top focus area
The survey said that the top focus area for digital investment for companies were cloud (71 per cent), big data (58 per cent), mobile (57 per cent) and IoT (44 per cent).
The gap between intent and execution of corporations has ramifications for software majors, which have built a $155-billion industry that is largely export oriented but is finding the going tough as clients in developed markets are seeking newer solutions.
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