The State of Digital Transformation 2018-19 edition, Altimeter
Why read this report?
This research shines a spotlight on digital transformation in organisations. It looks at what organisations are doing to transform and which business areas are benefitting from digital investment. The sobering news is that the people dimension of transformation plays second fiddle to customer experience.
About the research
This piece of research, carried out by consulting firm Altimeter, surveyed 554 digital strategists and senior executives from brands, consulting firms, and other organisations with 1,000-plus employees, across North America, Europe and China. Respondents were asked about digital transformation at their respective organizations.
Standout stats
Digital transformation is being driven by market forces. For 51% of organisations the driver is to pursue growth opportunities and for 41% it is a response to competitive pressure. The result is that organisations are focusing their efforts on modernizing customer touchpoints (54%) and enabling infrastructure (45%).
But there are challenges, most notably that digital transformation is still perceived as a cost center (28%), and data to prove ROI is hard to come by (29%). Cultural issues also present challenges, with resistance to change (26%) and legal and compliance concerns (26%) slowing progress.
The data paints a worrying picture for the people function as HR is way behind other internal functions when it comes to digital transformation. The IT team (51%) is the first to undergo transformation followed by marketing (42%), customer service (40%) and customer experience (39%). HR is ninth in the priority list (25%).
Developing digital skills and behaviours is not yet seen as an important part of the transformation process: creating a digital culture that is more digitally literate, adaptive and innovative is a short term priority for 27% and a long term priority for only 20% of organisations.
And yet, when it comes to transforming the employee experience, organisations will be looking to training to modernise aging skill sets (57%), recruiting digital talent (53%) and creating a culture of empowerment and innovation (48%).
Final word
This research suggests there is lots of opportunity for L&D. There is opportunity to push digital skills and behaviours and to support a more digital culture. However, making this happen will present a big challenge when organisations are prioritising the customer experience.
Report reading time: 10 minutes
Media: PDF
Link: http://ow.ly/82uG30okRya
