If you pay attention to more digital change initiatives at your company, you are not alone. Digitalization efforts, particularly the automation of IT and business processes, are on the rise in companies of all sizes, industries and geographic locations.
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According to a 2018 survey on ZDNet's sister site Tech Pro Research, 70% of respondents said their company had a digital transformation strategy or was working on it. The budget for digital IT transformation rose 53% from surveyed from 2016 to 2017.
Respondents indicated that paper reduction (68%), online learning (54%), and use of data analytics for risk management and sales forecasts (39%) were the drivers behind their digital transformation. Other active areas of digital implementation are social media (63%) and IT automation (50%).
This result is not surprising as digitizing the workforce in departments outside of IT is a priority. In fact, half of the respondents said that areas other than IT, such as marketing, have funded their digital transformation.
Despite the inherent benefits of digitization, respondents realized that they pose a challenge to digital transformation.
Purchasing from management and consumers, training employees in new technology, establishing management policies and procedures, and ensuring that the right IT skills are available to support digital technology remain challenges in implementing digital transformation.
The importance of supplier relationships also predicts how quickly and successfully companies can introduce new digital technologies.