Digital Business Research 2021

The pandemic accelerated organizations’ transition to become digital-first business – emphasizing the need to improve remote worker productivity along with the ability to leverage data insights to better understand customer requirements and optimize business performance. According to Foundry’s 2021 Digital Business study, which is the third year of the research, 61% of IT decision-makers (ITDMs) agree that the global pandemic forced their organization to begin/implement their digital-first strategy. The research outlines what digital business means to organizations – the top definition this year being to enable worker productivity – and outlines the strategies and technologies that organizations are adopting to successfully complete their journey to become a digital business.

Most organizations (91%) have adopted, or have plans to adopt, a “digital-first” business strategy which mirrors the results from 2019, however the stages where they are at have shifted slightly. Those in the integration stage jumped from 18% to 22% and those companies in the digital maintenance phase increased to 8% from 6% in 2019. Overall, 52% of organizations have already adopted a “digital-first” approach. Explore insights from Foundry’s Digital Business study to learn about the business objectives driving digital initiatives and how vendors can assist technology buyers on their path to digital success. Key takeaways from the research below:

2021 Digital Business Key Takeaways:
  1. Digital business transformation has accelerated. The majority of organizations have at least some digital business plans and close to two-thirds (61%) say that the global pandemic forced their organization to begin/implement a digital-first strategy.

  2. Improved employee productivity, enabled business resilience/agility, and better customer experiences are key drivers to digital business initiatives. Tech leaders expect to invest more in artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) and data & analytics in order to achieve these goals.

  3. To keep up with changing business and customer needs, technology adoption is occurring at a rapid rate as more than half of ITDMs say that the time it takes to implement new technologies has decreased in the past 12 months.

  4. When measuring the success of their digital business initiatives, organizations value improved employee productivity through process efficiencies/automation, excellent customer service as measured by customer satisfaction scores, and increased profitability.

  5. Challenges associated with achieving digital business success include lack of staff/skills and competing priorities. Regarding future of work, ITDMs need vendors to provide recommendations for relevant tech and to help them develop a DX strategy.

View the sample slides below for additional insight and download the full report to better understand and engage with tech buyers as they move forward with their digital business initiatives. To request a meeting with a Foundry sales executive to walk through the full study, please complete the form at the right.

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