Latest Ovum Report Shows Businesses Eager to Invest in Digital Transformation

Ovum released its ICT Enterprise Insights for 2017 this week, and its most significant finding was how underprepared we all are for the digital transformation. The global data, market research and advisory firm found that a full one-third of companies aren’t ready for the migration from legacy networks and dedicated service platforms to a digital environment.

The report provides insights from 7,000 enterprise organizations in 62 countries and 15 industry verticals. Partners, take note. Ninety percent of the respondents have a strategy for digital transformation, not many of them have gotten very far. Only 7 percent report it completed (and we’d like to see their definition of “complete”). Business leaders and CIOs know it’s an imperative for 2017, and they could use some help making it happen.

The biggest trouble businesses have with the digital transformation seems to stem from omnichannel customer engagement. A full thirty percent of enterprises have just started or haven’t started making strides in omnichannel, opening up a big opportunity for partners with expertise in online and mobile channels.

Unsurprisingly, the financial services sector feels it’s furthest ahead with 60 percent of enterprise IT decision makers reporting the process as “well advanced” or “in progress.” Many argue that the digital transformation has its roots in finance, so this isn’t a shocker. (See this fascinating interview with data scientist Dana Bullister of LogicNow for a more in-depth look.)

Partners working in the retail sector should have plenty of opportunities to help customers along the path to digital transformation. These respondents considered their industry the least prepared, despite the proliferation of ecommerce platforms and security risks. Healthcare also ranked low. If you have expertise on navigating HIPAA and other regulations to help healthcare providers leverage analytics, automation and virtual agents, you’re in very high demand

The public sector lies somewhere in the middle, with 38 percent of these respondents saying the industry is experiencing some or significant disruption to services from digital technologies. Interestingly, only 29 percent thought their own organization was affected. Just you wait…

Enterprise investment in IT is rising fast. A quarter of respondents said their organizations plan to grow their IT budgets by at least 6 percent in 2017, compared to just nine percent last year. As businesses finalize their budgets for next year, make sure you have your share of line items.