Executive Leadership Is Overwhelmingly Focused on Digital Transformation

Digital transformation fever has struck practically every business leader in the U.S.

QuickBase, the no-code business app development platform provider, and Market Cube recently polled 301 business professionals at U.S.-based companies. Essentially all C-suite executives, a whopping 97 percent, said digital transformation was a top priority.

“This isn’t terribly surprising considering it is typically the C-suite who champions the transformation goals for the business. However, for all the C-level enthusiasm about being ahead of the game, it’s important to understand where organizations are making the actual day-to-day decisions around digital transformation,” stated the report. For senior managers, that figure drops to 68 percent, but still enough for a clear majority.

Digital transformation may have the support of the C-suite, but the process is being guided by other departments further down the org chart. “Nearly half (47 percent) said Central/Corporate IT was calling the shots on their organizations’ efforts, while the rest identified Central/Corporate Operations (30 percent) and Business Unit IT (21 percent) as the project leaders,” continued the report.

In terms of their progress, there are other signs that the view from the top is different than from the ground. Seventy percent of C-level executives believe their organizations are ahead of the digital transformation curve, compared to just 30 percent of the managers that report to them.

Nonetheless, digital transformation is already in effect at a majority of enterprises in the U.S.

Eighty percent of respondents said their digital transformation initiatives are underway or already complete. Fourteen percent expect to complete their transformations within three years, while a tiny minority of (3 percent) said they have no plans to hop on the bandwagon.

Businesses are banking on digital transformation to remain competitive in today’s technology landscape. It is essentially the practice of replacing or enhancing traditional processes and workflows with mobile-, cloud- and analytics-enabled solutions – among several other modern-day and emerging IT trends – to improve efficiency, collaboration, customer services and factors that can contribute to positive business outcomes.

According to the study, the top reason for pursuing digital transformation is to grow revenue, followed by reducing costs. Solving issues took third place.

While attempting to achieve these goals, organizations are encountering some obstacles. A lack of budget was cited as a major barrier to adopting solutions that enable digital transformation. Management resistance also ranked high as does a persistent issue affecting many IT organizations, a skills shortage.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Datamation. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

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