Just five per cent of enterprises globally have fully embraced digital transformation, according to a Dell EMC report.
While the majority of those surveyed agree that they will not be competitive moving forward if they do not embrace digital transformation, only a small number are actually prepared to do that right now. However, despite that small number, roughly eight in 10 have started on that path. Only one in 10 have yet to make any significant strides towards this digital future.
To Mike Sharun, vice president of enterprise sales at Dell EMC, the fact so many respondents understand the need for digital transformation, and are working towards that end, is significant for IT as a whole.
“IT is now not information technology, but it is business technology,” said Sharun in an interview with ITWC. “This is more of a study saying that IT has now become part of the business strategy of every organization that’s out there and that different organizations are in different phases of that transformation.”
And for those falling behind, Sharun doesn’t believe that it is too late to catch up. He connects the lack of digital transformation progress to senior leadership not getting involved with the transformation. But there is still time, especially because digital transformation is a process that ‘is going to take a while.”
“I don’t think it’s too late at all. IT can move very quickly, it’s just how far you can get every iteration. It’s an evolving process over and over,” said Sharun.
Keep reading for more highlights from the report.
Grouping the respondents based on digital transformation progress
The study used research-based and data-driven stats to identify four different stages of digital transformation.
- Stage 1 – Legacy (12 per cent): falls short on many – if not all – of the dimensions of digital transformation
- Stage 2 – Emerging (42 per cent): showing progress in digital transformation but having minimal deployment of modern data centre technologies
- Stage 3 – Evolving (41 per cent): showing commitment to digital transformation and having a moderate deployment of modern data centre technologies and IT delivery methods
- Stage 4 – Transformed (5 per cent): furthest along in digital transformation initiatives
How ‘transformed’ companies are progressing with digital transformation
Despite 71 per cent of those surveyed agreeing that transformation is necessary, only a small number have succeeded meeting that goal. Those ‘Stage 4 – Transformed’ are seeing positive results because of that.
- 96 per cent of transformed organizations exceeded revenue targets last year – nearly two times more than the least mature companies
- Eight times more likely than the least mature organizations to report a highly cooperative relationship between IT and the business
- Seven times more likely than the least mature organizations to have IT viewed by the business as a competitive differentiation
- Six times more likely than the least mature organizations to leverage IT resources to speed product innovation and time to market
What type of modern infrastructure are these companies adopting?
Those on the digital transformation path are turning to modern data centre technologies and IT processes.
- 54 per cent of all respondents use converged or hyper-converged infrastructure to support applications
- 58 per cent have adopted scale-out storage systems in some capacity
- Half of respondents are committed to software-defined as a long term strategy and have begun to implement, evaluate, or plan for software-defined technologies
- 26 per cent have ‘extensive’ or ‘established’ self-service capabilities
- 65 per cent have made ‘excellent’ or acceptable’ progress toward providing end users with the same ability to provision IT resources that they can get from a public cloud provider
- 43 per cent claim ‘extensive’ or ‘good’ adoption of formal DevOps principles and best practices
Cooperative relationship between IT leaders and business leaders
More IT professionals are reporting directly to business leaders or C-suite executives.
- 36 per cent of IT organizations and their outcomes are evaluated by the C-suite or board of directors monthly, with 38 per cent evaluated quarterly
- 39 per cent have the most senior IT executive reporting directly to the CEO
The 2017 IT Transformation Maturity Curve report was conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). 1,000 senior IT executives were surveyed worldwide.