Digital transformation momentum increases

Digitopia’s DMI, enables businesses to accurately measure and benchmark their digital progress. It remains industry agnostic, and blends high-end consulting services with advanced software and analytics. Digital transformation is hard, especially during turbulent times where competition, regulatory pressure, challenges arising from climate change and supply chain disruptions heavily impact decision-making. The data shows that while the digital capabilities of many businesses are trending upwards, there is much left to be done for organisations to become ‘optimised’ or truly digital in their operations. Areas that require ongoing effort across all industries include systems integration, advanced analytics, business agility, and other advanced systems.

According to Digitopia’s latest research, as the average score shifts upwards, so do stakeholder expectations for all organisations to provide a more digitally-accessible service. For many organisations, improving their score by a whole level within the DMI (for example, from organised to integrated) takes years of planning and implementation. 

The study, which analysed the responses from more than 1000  executives - ranging across C-Suite, VP and Director roles - in over 100 different companies and 10 industries, found that technology maintains the highest priority of importance with a score of 2.91 compared to the customer dimension sitting at 2.77. This is evidence that customer focus is not the driving factor for organisations going through a digital transformation journey. However, customer experience and customer-centricity saw an average improvement of 0.15 points from its 2020 report, the largest of any individual dimension.

Across the six digital maturity dimensions assessed within the DMI, innovation is falling behind as the least developed aspect of business transformation. COVID-19 has had lasting effects on organisations, but without implementing innovation they will not be able to maximise benefits from developing an ecosystem that brings in new and impactful ideas from outside the business.

Digital maturity differs between sectors, but financial services, including banking and insurance, is ahead as one of the digital pioneers with a score of 3.1. Closely followed by automotive (2.9), insurance (2.9), manufacturing (2.8), C&G (2.7), retail (2.6) and services (2.5).

“These findings show that organisations are beginning to understand the importance of digital transformation and measuring this journey.” said Halil Aksu, CEO and co-founder of Digitopia. “You manage what you measure, and it’s encouraging that businesses are progressing their digital maturity. Digital transformation is more than just technology, and only by measuring, benchmarking and assessing every aspect of the journey can an organisation know where it is succeeding, and where it needs improvement. Only then can these businesses see a maximum return on investment and deliver sustainable, long term business success.”