“Emerging markets digitally score their best on maturity.

Many digital transformation programmes are still in their infancy in organisations, according to the Dell Technologies Digital Transformation Index (DT Index). For example, 78 percent of business leaders surveyed from around the world say that digital transformation should be more widespread in their organization.

In addition, 51 percent of organizations expect to have difficulty in meeting changing customer requirements within five years. 30 percent say they’re worried about falling behind in the next five years.

The study also shows that emerging markets are digitally the most mature. India, Brazil and Thailand lead that list. Developed markets such as Japan, Denmark and France score the lowest on digital maturity. Together with Switzerland, the Netherlands ends up the fifth lowest position of the (developed) EMEA region. The two countries have an adulthood score of 41.

In addition, organisations in emerging markets are more likely to be self-assured (53 per cent) about their chances of challenging the established order. In developed countries, this is 40%.

Slow progress

The first DT Index appeared in 2016. A comparison between the scores for 2016 and today shows that the digital process is progressing slowly. Organisations seem to be struggling with the rapid changes. The percentage of Digital Adopters grew from 14 percent to 23 percent worldwide, but the percentage of Digital Leaders remains at 5 percent. 39 percent of the organisations worldwide belong to the two bottom groups for digital maturity, the Digital Laggards and Digital Followers.

According to the study, business leaders seem to be on the verge of a crisis of confidence. 91 percent are hampered by persistent obstacles in the digital transformation. These include a lack of budget or resources, a lack of a coherent digital strategy and vision, and concerns about data privacy and cyber security. Lack of support from top management and a lack of coordination and cooperation also cause problems.

In addition, 49 percent of those surveyed stated that they expect their organisation to find it difficult to demonstrate reliability over the next five years. Moreover, 32 per cent do not trust their organisation to comply with regulations such as the GDPR.

Future

In order to achieve future transformation, the same priorities and investments are often mentioned. This includes a greater focus on workforce, security and IT. There is also a lot of investment in IoT, multi-cloud environments and artificial intelligence.