Credit: Dreamstime
A total of 30 per cent of Australian and New Zealand businesses are worried they will struggle to meet changing customer demands within five years.
That's according to research findings commissioned by Dell Technologies and Intel, spanning 200 business leaders from mid- to large-size companies on both sides of the Tasman.
Specifically, the index found that 22 per cent of A/NZ businesses fear they’ll be left behind, with calculations based on companies’ perceived performance in: delivering against the core attributes of a digital business, their existing IT strategy, workforce transformation strategy and planned investments.
Research also found that 93 per cent of A/NZ businesses are facing major impediments to digital transformation today.
The top five barriers to digital transformation in A/NZ centre around a lack of budget and resources (36 per cent); data privacy and cyber security concerns (34.5 per cent); immature digital culture: lack of alignment and collaboration across the company (31.5 per cent), information overload (29 per cent) and lack of the right in-house skill sets and expertise (27.5 per cent).
Only 14 per cent of Australian and New Zealand businesses strongly agree they’ll disrupt rather than being disrupted within five years.
Australia vs. New Zealand
According to the research, 50 per cent of Australian and 41 per cent of New Zealand businesses are building security and privacy into all devices, applications and algorithms.
Both countries have acknowledged a skills gap with 43 per cent of Australian and 40 per cent of New Zealand businesses striving to develop the right skills sets and expertise in-house, such as teaching staff how to code.
In Australia, 62 per cent of businesses are sharing knowledge across functions, by equipping IT leaders with business skills and business leaders with IT skills, compared to 43 per cent of New Zealand businesses.
The research also found that nine in 10 Australian and New Zealand businesses intend to invest in technology initiatives that enable digital business transformation.
This includes planned investments within the next one to three years in cyber security for 53 per cent of A/NZ businesses, 42.5 per cent in multi-cloud, 48 per cent in internet of things and 40 per cent to invest in artificial intelligence.
There is also a 19 per cent of A/NZ businesses planning to invest in blockchain, 14.5 per cent in quantum computing and 27 per cent in VR/AR.
