Boomi: Gaps found in digital transformation journeys

Boomi, a Dell Technologies business, has announced a new global survey*, commissioned with Vanson Bourne, that reveals although organisations are reaping the rewards of IT modernisation, digital transformation and innovation, but there’s still more work to do. Companies that find ways to maximise their budget when investing in digital strategies and technologies have the opportunity to improve their ROI by more than 1,000%.

The report, The State of Modernization, Transformation, and Innovation in the Digital Age outlines that six in 10 (59%) survey respondents said effectively using technology has been the key to transformational success. However, half of all decision makers admit their company isn’t innovating at a competitive rate. Organisations were found to face multiple challenges to roll out their modernisation, innovation, and transformation programmes more quickly and efficiently.

The survey of more than 1,200 IT and business decision makers around the world, including Asia Pacific (APAC), shows the top barriers for digital transformation and innovation efforts include insufficient in-house skills (41%) followed by a restrictive budget (33%). APAC respondents find that technical knowledge (56%) is one of their organisation’s biggest challenges, more so than their counterparts in North America and Europe (46% and 43% respectively). 

The data suggests that although APAC organisations might have intentions to modernise, they are currently more likely to struggle finding the right expertise required to do so successfully.

“Businesses in APAC have realised the importance of converging and simplifying automation technologies to fully realise positive business outcomes. Many organisations are faced with multiple, poorly-integrated IT environments, tight budgets and limited in-house skills," said Ajit Melarkode, VP Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) at Boomi. 

“While businesses often find themselves ‘out changed’ by competitors and peers, the research also shows positive signs, with organisations exploring new technologies and processes in anticipation of drastic advancements in the next decade.”

From the report, artificial intelligence (46%) is the standout technology for organisations in the next five years, followed by security innovation (35%) and big data analytics (35%). According to respondents, big data analytics is receiving the biggest investment as part of their innovation initiatives.

“The next decade will undergo an even more rapid pace of change than the 2000s and 2010s,” said Chris Port, COO, Boomi. 

“Though modernisation, transformation, and innovation have paid dividends in recent years, organisations can’t afford to rest on their laurels. Especially now. Not when business priorities, drivers of change, and technology needs are rapidly converging, as reflected in this survey.”

The Vanson Bourne survey went on to uncover:

Businesses are turning to ‘low-code’ to drive transformation initiatives

Companies are trying to do more with employees who have less technical expertise. That’s why investing in low-code platforms is a big focus for more than half of enterprises that don’t have one already. Almost 50% anticipate they will introduce a low-code development platform before the end of 2020. Low-code refers to technology that does not require as much coding knowhow to use as traditional platforms.

Companies are honing in on customer experience and employee productivity

Today’s transformation efforts are focused primarily on customer experience (54%) and employee productivity (50%). Both of these areas are crucial for supporting more modern, agile customers and workforces. Business and IT decision makers agree the biggest benefit they have seen from modernisation is improved customer experience (49%).

The CEO currently drives innovation among C-suite, but innovation will be a company-wide responsibility within three years

Organisations still need to modernise, transform and innovate, and it will take a company-wide shift to make that happen, with everyone participating. Currently, innovation is led from top down by the CEO (65%), CIO (58%), and department heads (54%), while only 12% said the workforce as a whole is leading it. However, 56% of respondents anticipate that innovation will be everyone’s responsibility in three years — and not just that of the leadership.

APAC respondents are more likely to rank the CEO as their organisation’s leader of innovation, rather than the CIO or CTO.

The research also revealed:

• In modernisation challenges, respondents working at organisations in the APAC region, as compared to North America and Europe, are slightly clearer on their organisation’s plans, being more likely to re-train existing employees (58%), engage with external partners (52%), or fully outsource the modernisation process (34%).
• IT decision makers see more benefits to modernisation overall than business decision makers, especially when it comes to streamlining processes (48%) comparing it with business decision makers (38%).
• Overall, 59% of organisations agree they have to get technology “right” over the next 12 months to ensure continued success and 86% say that technology will dramatically change the way their organisations operate over the next 10 years.

“Employees drive every business process and interaction. Investing in your workforce today by improving their training, workflow, and resources with technology will position your company as the one to beat,” said Port. 

“It takes the right kind of culture and the right people to continuously out-change and get ahead of the competition. Modernisation and innovation need to start today and then never stop.”

Boomi, a Dell Technologies business, connects everyone to everything with a cloud-native, unified, open, and intelligent platform. Boomi’s integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) is trusted by more than 11,000 customers globally  

Details:

Read the The State of Modernization, Transformation, and Innovation in the Digital Age report

*Boomi partnered with Vanson Bourne to survey more than 1,200 IT decision makers and business decision makers from 19 countries across North America, EMEA, and Asia Pacific. Respondents represented eight key sectors and companies had 500 to more than 3,000 employees.