Accenture: Combining digital technologies for success
In order to benefit the most from the digital era, companies should jointly implement digital technologies instead of one at a time, research by Accenture shows. A unified approach will bring about a variety of benefits, including improved business growth and roll-out speed.
In its recently released ‘Growing the Digital Business: Accenture Mobility Research 2015’ report, professional services firm Accenture explores how companies are applying digital technologies to improve their organisations. The firm surveyed 1,925 senior decision-makers in nine industries and 15 countries around the world, of which 87% state their company made significant inroads in leveraging digital technologies in the past year, with 80% saying their company has a holistic strategy for becoming a digital business.
While the respondents report their progress made, they also acknowledge that more work remains to be done to address a variety of challenges. One of the main issues that could prevent a faster uptake of digital implementation is a dispersed digital approach and 70% of decision-makers surveyed believe that digital technologies implemented together have greater potential to transform businesses, rather than in isolation or one at a time.
Several benefits are expected to being realised from implementations combining digital technologies, of which the ‘creation of new revenue opportunities’ was ranked #1, named by 48% of the decision-makers, followed by ‘faster time to market for product/services’ and ‘increased customer engagement’, both named by 46%.
When looking at the challenges to implementing digital technologies, more than half (51%) say security is their biggest concern, followed by keeping up with digital advancements (41%), finding technology partners (37%) and being able to exploit the potential of digital (36%). “Constant developments in technology mean new challenges arise all the time around how to optimise a connected workforce or manage consumer campaigns across omni-channel platforms,” explains Jim Bailey, Global Managing Director of Accenture Mobility.
Going forward, Bailey recommends companies to “not only focus on implementing the new technologies, but on keeping ones already in place fit for purpose. To overcome the challenges of security, enterprises need to view digital technologies holistically, treating them as an extension of wider enterprise security on an on-going basis.” The researchers conclude that “fully embracing digital technologies and deploying them in a highly coordinated, strategic way, is arguably one of the most proven routes to strong and sustained business growth—bringing efficiencies to the enterprise and customers, through all of a company’s channels.”
