COVID-19 and working from home aren’t the only culprits of abandoned or poorly emptied projects
Amsterdam, June 8, 2021 – Four out of five C-level CEOs (82 percent) are convinced their company is in good shape digitally, but only 58 percent of CEOs agree. That’s according to new global research by digital intelligence company ABBYY. Managers report that they are 2.5 times more likely to suffer with disruptions to digital transformation than C-level executives, despite access to new technologies. The findings point to a worrying cleavage within companies, leading to a deluge of missed investment and missed opportunities.
For example, only a quarter of CEOs (24 percent) reported using emerging low-code/no-code platforms for their current digital transformation projects. Although these platforms allow them to create their own solutions to automation problems faster, manual coding would be unnecessary. Additionally, 34 percent of managers use action mining, a technology that helps discover automation opportunities and sources of bottlenecks and delays. By comparison, half of C-level executives (48 percent) use this technology. Interestingly, however, more than 60 percent of executives understand the importance of Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) technology for digitizing and transforming business content — for more actionable insights.
While digital transformation has gained momentum, not everything is without its challenges:
– 97 percent of companies have experienced disruptions in their digital transformation projects, but surprisingly only 60 percent believe the disruptions are caused by COVID-19 and are working from home. These disruptions have had a significant impact: one in five (22 percent) have completely ignored a digital transformation project, and one in three (32 percent) testified that the technology did not work as planned.
In addition, IT decision-makers believe that these disruptions will not only disappear after the pandemic: three-quarters of companies worldwide (76 percent) expect a greater impact on their business.
To identify the challenges, the following emerged:
– More than a third (36 percent) blamed the difficulties of replacing legacy systems and approving the budget (35 percent) and a lack of appropriate skills within their organizations (34 percent).
– A quarter (23 percent) said the approval of senior management or the board of directors was a major obstacle.
Many companies seem to struggle with C-level tunnel vision: 54 percent of C-level executives said they drive digital transformation decisions, but only 32 percent of CEOs agree. Half of CEOs (47 percent) believe innovation teams are to blame. With such an internal struggle, it is no wonder that many projects fail.
Managers are also much less positive than C-level executives about how their company operates digitally. For example, despite access to new technologies, 38 percent of CEOs still face challenges—compared to 16 percent of C-level executives. Additionally, only 28 percent of C-level executives have approval issues. on the budget, compared to 37 percent of managers.
The gap between senior corporate executives and actors hinders successful digital transformation projects. Simply put, the technology investments made by those at the top do not have the supposed effect.
Maxime Vermeir, Director of Customer Innovation at ABBYY: “We’re seeing some C-levels struggle with tunnel vision, which isn’t surprising after a year where staying afloat has been a priority for so long. Unfortunately, our research shows that despite the efforts of C-level executives, Employees and other managers still face challenges, even with extensive access to intelligent automation technologies It is essential to understand the technologies that drive productivity and where the impact is greatest Widespread use of IDP solutions is the first step in what C-level executives can do to give their employees Faster access to information. However, the process of mining and information provided by this technology is the key to bridging the gap between the reality of the managers and employees’ experience and what the C level expects.”
methodology
This research was conducted by Sapio Research between April and May 2021 and sponsored by ABBYY. It surveyed 1,220 IT decision-makers from Germany, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, who work in organizations with more than 1,000 employees. The survey asked respondents about the impact of digital transformation projects, the obstacles businesses face, and the role of automation technologies in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
###
More from ABBYY
ABBYY enables organizations to get a complete picture of their business operations and the content that supports them using their digital intelligence platform. The technologies developed by ABBYY are used by more than 5,000 organizations, many of them Fortune 500 companies. The company is seen as a leader in Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), process discovery and mining, which has a significant impact on critical things: customer experiences, efficiency, profitability, and advantage. competitiveness. ABBYY operates worldwide, with offices in thirteen countries. For more information, visit www.abbyy.com/company.
This article is a submission and is not the responsibility of the editors.
