2 min

28% of Dutch companies consider themselves to be a disruptor; a company that can challenge the established order. But only 1 in 25 Dutch companies falls under the Digital Leader category. This is shown by the Dell Technologies Digital Transformation Index (DT Index), which was compiled jointly with Intel.

The DT Index shows the extent to which medium-sized and large companies are able to digitise. The survey shows that 35 percent of managers in Dutch companies believe that their organization will struggle to meet the changing expectations of customers over the next five years. 27% of them are afraid that their organization will fall behind.

Minimal growth

The DT Index shows that the number of companies that are included in the Digital Leaders category has grown at a minimal rate since 2016. 11 percent of Dutch companies are now a Digital Laggard (3 percent less than in 2016), which means that relatively fewer companies have to do without a digital plan.

The DT Index shows that a relatively large number of companies remain stuck in the bottom two groups (45% in 2016 and as much as 55% in 2018). This means that they are only digitising slowly or do not have a plan for doing so at all. Whereas in 2016 the largest group was made up of Digital Evaluators (down from 45% in 2016 to 30% in 2018), two years later the largest group was made up of less digitally skilled Digital Followers (up from 31% in 2016 to 44% in 2018).

Biggest obstacles

According to the study, almost all Dutch companies (95%) are currently faced with major obstacles. The five most frequently mentioned obstacles on the road to digital transformation are:

  • Lack of budget and/or resources (35%)
  • Lack of a coherent digital strategy and vision (34%)
  • Concerns about data privacy and cyber security (32%)
  • Lack of support from top management (30%)
  • Immature digital culture: lack of coordination and cooperation (26%)

These obstacles hinder attempts to digitise. For example, 74% of Dutch managers believe that digital transformation should be supported more broadly within their organisation (compared to 71.5% in 2016). Only 6% strongly believe that they are more likely to be a disruptor than that they themselves will be hindered or disturbed by another company in the next five years. Companies do take steps to remove barriers. These include digital technology that they use to develop new products and services faster (53%); better security and privacy (51 percent); and attempts to develop skills and expertise in-house (43 percent).

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.