Dell calls for more digital transformation progress

Dell Technologies has found that although there are plenty of conversations about digital transformation so far most UK firms have yet to get to grips with it.

The vendor has released the latest installment of its bi-annual Digital Transformation Index, run in collaboration with Intel and Vanson Bourne, which looks at what is happening globally.

The UK is better prepared in many other countries but even so 71% of digital leaders admit digital transformation should be more widespread across their organisations.

As a consequence 22% of firms believe they will struggle to meet customer demands in the next five years and 19% worry they will be left behind.

“In the near future, every organisation will need to be a digital organisation, but our research indicates that the majority still have a long way to go,” said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies.

The UK came out well behind the emerging markets, which are more digitally mature, including India and Brazil. But it was ahead of Germany on Dell's ranking.

Customers indicated that where they expect the spending to come in the next one to three years will be in cyber security, IoT, multi-clouds, AI and taking a compute centric approach.

In order to boost their chances of getting into a position to digitally transform the business Dell has charted an increased focus by firms on increasing the skills in their workforce. The number of employees that have undergone coding training has increased from 27% in 2016 to 49% last year.

This is the second Index that Dell has published and already it provides a picture of movement in terms of firms making investments and plans for the future but little change in the number of those who have digital transformation 'ingrained in their DNA'.

“Organisations need to modernise their technology to participate in the unprecedented opportunity of digital transformation. The time to act is now," warned Dell's CEO.