Digital transformation: Swiss executives see business models in danger
According to a recent study by Dell EMC, almost all of the Swiss business decision-makers surveyed (96 percent) are rather reserved in their assessment of their level of digital maturity. Only just 4 percent see themselves in the role of digital adopters; no company feels it belongs to the digital leader group. And the study's globally collected results also confirm this: A wide range of digital changes are on the horizon.
Around 4,000 study participants from 16 countries expressed their opinion on the fourth industrial revolution in a survey conducted worldwide by Dell Technologies; in Switzerland, there were 200 respondents. According to the survey, 93 percent of all Swiss managers (78 percent worldwide) see digital startups as a threat to their own business. Worldwide, 45 percent of study participants worry that their current business models could be obsolete in competition against natively digital startups in five years at the latest - with a survey result of 60 percent, Switzerland is even significantly above this figure. In Switzerland in particular, many companies are already feeling the pressure to act: 71 percent of Swiss respondents report massive market changes in the past three years in connection with advancing digitization and new applications in the Internet of Things - here, too, a discrepancy with the global survey figures (52 percent) is visible.
Challenges of the Digital Transformation
Only a few companies have already largely completed the digital transformation in their own organization. Accordingly, most companies do not yet have a holistic solution approach with which they can tackle the digital challenge. In order to successfully drive forward digitization in this country in the future, 74 percent of the Swiss and 73 percent of the remaining study participants believe that digital transformation must be driven forward across the entire company on a broader front.
By their own admission, only 38 percent of Swiss companies (36 percent worldwide) are currently meeting key customer requirements in terms of improved security, round-the-clock services and faster access to information. 62 percent (64 percent worldwide) do not yet operate on the basis of real-time insights. According to the authors of the study, these are the key success factors in the digital era. If they are missed, this could be the beginning of a digital crisis.
According to 71 percent of Swiss business decision-makers, digital change is driven by competitors and startups; the pressure from board staff and management (46 percent) and from customers (33 percent) is somewhat less pronounced. This contrasts with the global results of the study: Worldwide, 56 percent stated that they are under significant pressure to change from their customers; competitors/start-ups (46 percent) and board staff/management (41 percent) were cited second and third most frequently as factors.
Digital rescue plan
The fact that there are still some obstacles on the road to digital success is confirmed by the other results of the Dell-EMC study. Only 16 percent of the Swiss study participants have already established a digital profit and loss statement. This means that Swiss companies are clearly lagging behind in the global environment (36 percent worldwide). Only 32 percent (46 percent worldwide) have now established their digitization goals in all departmental and staff policies. On the other hand, every second company (35 percent worldwide) cooperates with startups and adapts their open innovation model. 54 percent of Swiss companies (38 percent worldwide) have even appointed a management committee to evaluate digital progress.
In light of changing market requirements, Swiss companies have begun to increase the pace of their transformation: 72 percent (73 percent globally) agree that they need to give higher priority to a centralized technology strategy within the company. 70 percent (66 percent globally) plan to invest in infrastructure and increase digital skills development. In addition, 65 percent (72 percent globally) plan to expand their software development capabilities. IT investments are planned in Switzerland in the following four areas, in order of priority: Internet-of-Things technologies, converged infrastructures, ultra-high-performance solutions and Big Data analytics.
What "digitization status" are companies at?
The study results are rounded off by a Digital Transformation Index, which is based on the self-assessment of the participants and reflects the digital maturity level of the companies surveyed. According to this, worldwide:
- 5 percent (none of the companies surveyed in Switzerland) are digital leaders: for this group, digital transformation is anchored in the corporate DNA, as it were.
- 14 percent (4 percent in Switzerland) are digital adopters who already have a mature transformation plan and corresponding investment funds.
- 34 percent (54 percent in Switzerland) belong to the group of digital evaluators who are cautiously approaching transformation and planning related initiatives and investments for the future.
- 32 percent (29 percent in Switzerland) are digital followers. There has hardly been any digitization investment among this group so far; corresponding future plans are currently still very preliminary in nature.
- 15 percent (13 percent in Switzerland) belong to the digital laggards, the latecomers without a dedicated digitization plan who have allocated virtually no corresponding investment funds.
Source: Dell EMC
