Large firms maintaining digital transformation budgets amid Covid: TCS

A significant number of large enterprises have either maintained their digital transformation budget or increased it even as the COVID-19 pandemic as impacted revenue of businesses globally, according to a survey by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

The global survey titled, 'Digital Readiness and COVID-19: Assessing the Impact', engaged almost 300 senior business leaders from large enterprises (97 per cent with revenue above USD 1 billion and 44 per cent above USD 10 billion) across 11 industries in North America, Europe and Asia.

"While 68 per cent of companies have seen revenue declines amid COVID-19, 90 per cent of organisations have either maintained or increased their digital transformation budget," TCS said.

It added that among shifts in technology spends due to the pandemic, companies reported maximum increases on collaborative technologies (65 per cent), cybersecurity (56 per cent), cloud-native technologies (51 per cent) and advanced analytics (39 per cent).

Prior to the pandemic, the average organisation surveyed had only 9 per cent of its workforce working mostly from home.

That percentage has increased seven-fold and is expected to remain elevated through 2025, when the average company projects 40 per cent of its employees will work largely from home, the survey said.

Business initiatives around an end-to-end CX (customer experience) have seen most traction, already deployed at 25 per cent of companies and under development at 44 per cent. Similarly, the use of analytics and AI to improve CX is deployed at 24 per cent and under development at 39 per cent of companies, the survey said.

Higher levels of automation in core business processes is another priority area, already deployed at 23 per cent of companies and under development at 44 per cent of companies, it added.

"Before the pandemic, companies' digital capabilities were rapidly becoming central to their success and business transformation initiatives," TCS Chief Marketing Officer Rajashree R said.

She, however, added that the study has shown how several enterprises were not as far along in developing a digital backbone as they hoped.

Companies that had embraced digital transformation more whole-heartedly performed better during the pandemic and expect a faster rebound, whereas others are now focused on making necessary investments and racing to catch up, she added.