Businesses face digital ceiling in their transformation progress: Infosys

Businesses globally face a digital ceiling when it comes to digital transformation, according to new research from Infosys Knowledge Institute (IKI), the thought leadership and research arm of Infosys.

The study shows that businesses must change their mindsets to achieve sophisticated levels of digital maturity.

Infosys Digital Radar 2020 assessed the digital transformation efforts of companies on a digital maturity index and found year-over-year progress in basic areas, like digital initiatives to improve a company's efficiency.

However, most companies come up against a digital ceiling when trying to achieve the most advanced levels of maturity.

The report, which surveyed over 1,000 executives globally, ranked the most digitally advanced companies as 'visionaries' followed by 'explorers' and then 'watchers.'

Companies know how to achieve moderate transformation success, with an 18 per cent increase in companies progressing this year from the lowest tier of watchers to the middle explorer tier.

However, explorers struggled to move into the top visionary cluster, with the top tier remaining the same, indicating a digital ceiling to transformation efforts.

"Faster, better and cheaper technology alone will not provide the improvements enterprises need," said Salil Parekh, CEO and Managing Director at Infosys.

"Our research has shown that companies which can keep pace with digital transformation are those that design digital initiatives to improve customer experiences and empower their employees, differentiating themselves and propelling their business to the most advanced levels of progress," he said.

Jeff Kavanaugh, Vice President and Global Head at Infosys Knowledge Institute, said this year's Digital Radar research showed significant progress across transformation initiatives.

"However, traditional programme models are not keeping up with the rapid pace of market change and companies face a distinct barrier in reaching top levels of digital maturity."

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