Digital Transformation: The Priority of IT Spending on Companies
Are you wondering about the need to start the digital transformation of your business? The economic figures show that it is time to start to stay in the race. But, what are the benefits, and on which technological trends to bet to ensure a strong ROI?
Why invest in the digital transformation of your business?
According to a survey conducted by the Professional Union of the French Digital Ecosystem, only 38% of companies in the industrial sector had engaged in a digital transformation initiative as of September 2016.
Conscious of the interest in investing in this area, companies have placed digitalization at the heart of their concerns this year. So much so that it has become the top priority for IT departments in 2017.
It is true that the benefits of successful digital transformation can be important for businesses:
- In terms of operational efficiency: improving business processes and productivity, adapting tools and needs, reducing costs…
- In terms of innovation and service development: penetration of new markets, development and launch of new products.
3 technological trends to bet on in 2018
According to consulting firm Gartner, the technological and strategic developments expected in 2018 revolve around three main trends:
- The Artificial Intelligence (AI): With Machine Learning and connected objects able to interact more relevant to users, the AI should allow companies to review their organization, optimize their processes and improve their customer relationship management.
- The digital representation of reality: with Virtual Reality (VR), one can imagine totally immersive user experiences.
- Networks and collaboration: with the implementation of Blockchain technology , event driven strategies and the reinforcement of IT security, experts highlight the importance of networks and indirectly collaborative platforms .
In this context, it becomes difficult to ignore technological developments and not to engage in a process of digitization, at the risk of losing competitiveness, given the benefits of these technologies in terms of profitability.
Collaboration: a revolution in productivity and innovation
Next step for companies: focus on cross-enterprise collaboration solutions . According to a study by Stanford University, collaborative enterprises are 5% more profitable and 6% more productive than others.
In addition, according to Equinix, more than one-third of companies that deploy an interconnect strategy generate more than $10 million in additional revenue (58%) and cost savings (42%) with rapid return on investment , in a period of 4.2 months on average.
Making digital transformation has become a necessity for companies wanting to increase their profits. To do this, many avenues can be explored, including inter-company collaboration solutions or Artificial Intelligence.
