British business is not ready for digital transformation and might become obsolute, according to Independent research commissioned by Dell and conducted by Vanson Bourne.
Vanson Bourne surveyed 4,000 medium to large enterprises across 16 countries and 12 industries for the Dell ‘Digital Transformation Index’, and found that nearly half of all businesses – at 41 percent – are uncomfortable with the pace of change.
They are complaining that there has been “significant disruption” over the last three years and a third of them believe that their businesses could be made completely obsolete in the coming years.
Dell said that report highlighted discrepancies in the mature markets versus emerging economies such as India, places which were unencumbered by legacy infrastructure that needed replacing.
Dell said that there were five different categories in the British market: leaders, adopters, evaluators, followers and laggards. The bottom three set make up the largest group – with 41 percent lumped into the ‘followers’ set. Few have made digital investments or carried out some tentative planning for the future. The 19 percent in the ‘laggards’ class, with no plan at all, and 24 percent in ‘evaluators’, who are very gradually embracing a more digital approach.
The study aimed to clarify the meaning digital as many companies found themselves boasting of being digitial when they had not got a clue what it meant. The term digital transformation is cloaked in different interpretations: some organisations might think it means simply building an app or bringing in some new kit.
