There is strong connection between business performance and the technologies and practices that underpin digital transformation in enterprises in Asia Pacific & Japan, according to the Keeping Score: Why Digital Transformation Matters survey released by CA Technologies.
The study also highlighted that the telecoms and public sectors in the region have thrived the most from embracing digital transformation.
The survey introduced the Digital Transformation Business Impact Scorecard (BIS), which assessed the success of enterprises’ digital transformation initiatives. The BIS ranked countries and industries globally on a 100-point scale based on 14 key performance indicators (KPIs), across the categories of business agility, business growth, customer focus and operational efficiency.
APAC score higher than global average
Overall, the impact driven from digital initiatives from the APJ region, with a score of 56, was higher than the global BIS average of 53. The deepening adoption of practices such as agile management, DevOps, API management and identity-centric security had boosted business impact by up to 54 percent in APJ. The percentage of enterprises in the region that perceived themselves to be significantly outpacing competitors because of digital investments (36 percent) was also higher than the global average (34 percent). This reflected the confidence of the enterprises in the region in their ability to transform digitally.
APJ respondents also reported the following benefits since undergoing digital transformation:
- 76 percent report improvement in digital reach
- 73 percent report improvement in customer experience
- 40 percent improvement in customer satisfaction
- 38 percent growth in new business revenue
- 32 percent increase in time-to-decision
- 25 percent increase in speed-to-market
“The touchscreen immediacy of the application economy has led to high expectations among consumers,” said Stephen Miles, chief technology officer, Asia Pacific & Japan, CA Technologies. “To meet the ever-growing demands of the digital era, businesses need to incorporate technology – specifically software, into their operations and embrace digital transformation. It is key for businesses to develop ideas with customers iteratively in order to deliver a rich customer experience throughout the digital journey.”
The strong showing in the BIS score for the region was lifted by several developing countries leading the global list – India (79), Thailand (71), Indonesia (66) and Malaysia (64).
More potential
The study suggests that emerging economies have more potential than their mature counterparts to kick start digital transformation efforts on a “clean slate”, with less legacy systems to contend with. Therefore, the payoffs can be deemed to be faster and more significant.
From an industry perspective in the region, the three top-performing sectors on the BIS are telecoms (45), public sector (45), and banking & financial services (41) – out of a total possible score of 100.
The telecoms sector leads in the score as it is a digital industry, and faces huge challenges to its core businesses from a new breed of pure digital competitors. Tied in first place, the public sector reaffirms the strong emphasis governments in the region have been placing on digital transformation to provide more jobs and deliver better services to their citizens.
The banking & financial services industry is a sector that has always been technologically advanced, which explains the high ranking.