Digital transformation process

A QSC study of small and mid-size companies reveals the status of enabling digital transformation. Digital processes should conserve resources and deliver added value - that is more than just improving or optimizing existing processes. The first process step should lead to a second, a third, and so on. Always more resource-efficient, leaner, and more efficient than the previous step.

As part of the survey, 398 SMEs were asked about their assessment of the current market situation and the planning status and degree of implementation. Of the companies, 49 percent were from the service sector and 33 percent from the retail and consumer goods industry and manufacturing. The biggest hurdles to digitization and IT transformation are too few employees with the appropriate expertise, security concerns and insufficient budget. In addition, a third of those surveyed stated that organizational structures are too rigid, that there is a lack of awareness and that there is too little support from top management.

According to a recent Telekom study, companies want to use digital transformation to improve customer relationships (51 points), increase productivity (49 points) and optimize sales and service. With new digital offerings and business models, SMEs can tap into additional markets and customers (46 points). The index also shows that many companies focus on IT security and data protection, scoring an average of 63 points.

The study also shows that there are still various barriers. For example, 41 percent of respondents fear high investment costs; 36 percent are concerned about additional IT security risks.

Hagen Rickmann, Managing Director Business Customers Telekom Germany:

"The issue of investment costs alone makes decisions about digitization a matter for the boss. In addition, business success will increasingly correlate with the degree of implementation in the future. Therefore, managing directors must be the drivers"

The index already shows a clear correlation between transformation and profitability among the top digitalizers. In 63 percent of the companies surveyed, digitization is a top priority. The IT department is also a strong driver - especially in larger companies (44 percent). Marketing and sales were each named by 15 percent of respondents. Security, i.e. protection against manipulation of the Company's own content, also ranked well ahead of all other aspects for the respondents in the QSC study. This also goes hand in hand with the availability of data and information on a central platform.

Process-related aspects, such as transparency, harmonization and optimization of business processes, as well as rapid and cost-effective adjustments through more flexible - because standardized - IT, absolutely require this foundation. The basic prerequisite for the success of digitization in this connection is a clear IT strategy and a reliable roadmap - all the more so because 34 percent of those surveyed by QSC rated these as only "mediocre" or "poor" in IT projects in the past.

With regard to future projects, there is therefore a clear need for optimization there. After all, 85 percent of the SMEs surveyed are planning changes in the IT area over the next few years. First and foremost, modernizations and upgrades, the increasing use of standard solutions and the reduction of the complexity of applications and interfaces are in the foreground. All industries and functional areas see an increasing importance of cloud applications in IT solutions. As a result, the number of hybrid system landscapes consisting of on-premise solutions and cloud systems is currently growing.

The process change of digital transformation should not and will not come to a standstill. It is not about the one-off improvement of a poorly programmed algorithm, but about continuous - sometimes even revolutionary - further development. New things should grow out of what has been successfully created. A good idea should fuel the next idea - that is transformation. Sustainable process change is a continuum.