According to a new survey by KPMG, executives are taking the necessary steps to invest heavily in emerging technologies and digital transformation. 70% of the 1000 executives surveyed expect to have a significant presence in virtually all emerging technologies over the next two years.
Highlights of the report include the fact that companies are already making plans to take on emerging technologies, high digital confidence and returns, high investment in the cloud and skills shortages.
Concerning new technology plans, 46 per cent intend to strengthen customer centricity which remains the primary objective for investment in enterprise technology.
New technologies in which companies want to invest include crypto, metaverse, web3, NFTs, quantum computing, VR/AR, 5G and edge computing. Crypto remains a top priority for companies. 58 per cent of respondents plan to invest in the metaverse, 62 per cent in Web3 and 37 per cent in both technologies.
On the high digital confidence and returns, 66 per cent of respondents say that their companies are very or extremely effective in using digital transformation to move the business forward.
Virtually every single respondent reported positive effects of the digital transformation on profitability or performance over the past 24 months, and a significant number achieved significant gains. More than one in five respondents said that their efforts had achieved profitability or performance gains of 11 per cent or more.
With high investments in cloud technologies, three out of four respondents say that their companies are now shifting strategic workloads to the cloud. A further 13 per cent say they have completed the migration and are now looking for optimization. Almost one third (30 per cent) of companies have converted more than 60 per cent of their business processes to the cloud.
Despite the positive cloud momentum, 67 per cent of the companies in the survey are yet to realize significant ROI from cloud investments. These companies are now focusing on optimization and modernization.
All areas of transformation are affected by the final topic of the survey, the skills shortage. According to the survey, 44 per cent of respondents say that the lack of skilled workers remains the biggest challenge in the introduction of new digital technologies. 30 per cent state that the high cost of adding necessary skilled workers is a top challenge in the introduction of technology. 35 per cent also say that insufficient skilled workers remain the biggest challenge facing their companies on their cloud journey.
“Creative approaches are needed for companies to access the skills they need to deliver on digital transformation goals. Clearly, companies can’t expect external talent to simply walk through the door. With that in mind, businesses should recalibrate their approach to hiring, training, and ‘buying’ specialist talent from the ecosystem. We think reskilling traditional IT professionals is due to play a more prominent role in companies’ talent strategies,” said Kimberly Sorensen, Principal, Advisory at KPMG.
The sources for this piece include an article in KPMG.