DT Index Reveals Its Analysis on South African Business Leaders in 2018

TechInAfrica – The Dell Technologies Digital Transformation Index (the DT Index) has collaborated with Intel to conduct a study regarding digital transformation progress on mid to large-sized companies. The study tried to map and identify digital expectations and challenges faced by business leaders.

DT Index shows that about 13% of South African business leaders are sure that their companies will have difficulty to cope with customers’ changing demands within a period of five years. Meanwhile, there are 19% of the business leaders are feared that their customers will leave them.

DT Index examines companies’ performance in several areas, including IT strategy, workforce transformation strategy, planned investments, among the others.

DT Index was founded in 2016 and have been tracking movements from IT companies. For instance, DT Index reveals that there are 23% of businesses are Digital Adopters. It shows that these companies have used advanced innovations and digital plans to support their businesses’ transformation.

This following information shows IT Index’s findings on South African business leaders in 2018:

• Digital Leaders: 8%
• Digital Adopters: 23%
• Digital Evaluators: 39%
• Digital Followers: 24%
• Digital Laggards: 6%

In terms of challenges, DT Index unveils that about 90% of surveyed South African business leaders revealed that they have difficulties in facing current digital transformation. The digital transformation challenges divided into five key points, including the lack of proper in-house skills and expertise; data privacy and cybersecurity; lack of sources and budget; lack of collaboration in the company, and the changes of regulation.

How the companies overcame the challenges:

• Using digital technologies: 64%
• Applying security and privacy into all devices, apps, and algorithms: 64%
• Developing proper in-house skills sets and expertise: 53%
• Sharing knowledge across functions: 60%
• Planning investments in the next one – three years: (Cybersecurity: 65%; IoT technologies: 49%; Multi-cloud environments: 46%; Flash technologies: 41%; and Compute-centric data center design: 34%).

Speaking about DT Index’s findings, the GM of Dell EMC South Africa, Doug Woolley, said: “It’s an exciting time to be in business. We’re at a crucial intersection – where technology, business, and mankind meet to create a better, more connected world. However, only technology-centered organizations will reap the rewards offered by a digital business model, including the ability to move quickly, to automate everything and to delight customers. This is why digital transformation needs to be a number one priority.”