Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 31 | Page 28

TRENDING transformation can be a major enabler of that,” said John McKnight, Vice President of Research, Enterprise Strategy Group. “It’s clear that IT transformation is increasingly resonating with companies and that senior executives recognise how IT transformation is pivotal to overall business strategy and competitiveness. While achieving transformation can be a major endeavour, our research shows ‘transformed’ companies experience real business results, including being more likely to be ahead of the competition in bringing new products and services to market, making better, faster data-driven decisions than their competition, and exceeding their revenue goals.” This year’s 4,000 participating organisations were segmented into the same IT transformation maturity stages: • Stage one: Legacy (6%): Falls short on many – if not all – of the dimensions of IT transformation in the ESG study • Stage two: Emerging (45%): Showing progress in IT transformation but having minimal deployment of modern data centre technologies • Stage three: Evolving (43%): Showing commitment to IT transformation and having a moderate deployment of modern data centre technologies and IT delivery methods 28 INTELLIGENTCIO “ WHILE ACHIEVING TRANSFORMATION CAN BE A MAJOR ENDEAVOUR, OUR RESEARCH SHOWS ‘TRANSFORMED’ COMPANIES EXPERIENCE REAL BUSINESS RESULT. • Stage four: Transformed (6%): Furthest along in IT transformation initiatives This year’s findings show organisations are progressing in IT maturity and generally believe transformation is a strategic imperative. • 96% of respondents said they have digital transformation initiatives underway, either at the planning stage, at the beginning of implementation, in process, or mature • Respondents whose organisations have achieved transformed status are 16 times more likely to have mature digital transformation projects underway versus legacy companies (66% compared with 4%) • Transformed organisations were more than twice as likely to have exceeded their revenue targets in the past year compared with legacy organisations (94% compared to 44%) • 84% of respondents with mature digital transformation initiatives underway said they were in a strong or very strong position to compete and succeed IT transformation maturity can accelerate innovation, drive growth, increase IT efficiency and reduce cost. More specifically: • Transformed organisations are able to reallocate 17% more of their IT budget towards innovation • They complete three times more IT projects ahead of schedule and are 10 times more likely to deploy the majority of their applications ahead of schedule • Transformed organisations also report they complete 14% more IT projects under budget and spend 31% less on business-critical applications. n www.intelligentcio.com