Horváth: Companies do not achieve their digital transformation goal without a prioritization of projects

Employees’ digital skills and jobs related to Big Data and Artificial Intelligence are vital to the success of companies’ digital transformation projects, according to a study by management consultancy company Horváth. At the same time, SMEs must realign their internal organization in the context of digital transformation, in order not to be left behind. Among companies with more than 10,000 employees, 57 percent have digital transformation departments, while only 33 percent of companies with 250 or fewer employees currently have such departments.

These are some of the results of a study conducted by Horváth. The study conducted among companies in over 15 industries such as automotive, finance, trade, IT, logistics and consumer goods – shows that success in digital transformation is strongly enabled by IT.

Outsourcing of complex solutions is a key driver of added value from the cloud’s rapid gains. Companies pursue consistent cloud strategies with individual cloud features and services. The choice of a strategy is determined by individual factors such as the size of the company. Thus, 44 percent of respondents are pursuing a cloud strategy, and 57 percent of them plan to implement in the next 3 years. As for the hybrid cloud, 62 percent are already following it, and for 76 percent it is a priority in 3 years. Regarding private cloud, 62 percent are already pursuing one and 65 percent plan to implement in the near future.

IT security is a major goal in the context of cloud-based strategies and is not perceived as a risk in outsourcing. In addition to IT security, study participants agreed that connectivity (75 percent), IT security (74 percent), performance (73 percent), flexibility and cost optimization (73 percent) and stability (72 percent) were the top goals of a cloud strategy). Obstacles that companies face in migrating to the cloud are legislative and regulatory, for example GDPR – (72 percent), cloud readiness of legacy, already existing systems (65 percent), lack of procurement strategy (60 percent) or lack of necessary skills (59 percent).

The lack of skilled IT workforce is less critical than public opinion suggests: 80 percent of responding companies do not face problems in finding qualified and suitable personnel to implement strategies. The goal of digital transformation of companies is at risk of not being achieved, especially due to ineffective portfolio management that results in less than optimal consumption of resources. Companies have an urgent need to optimize planning and project portfolio management to ensure efficient use of resources and skills.

The importance of digital skills will increase throughout the coming years in many fields of activity. The recruitment of digital talents along with development trainings are the main factors of a successful digitization. Companies have realized the importance of dedicated roles in the context of digitization, those that require analytical skills in the field of data are in high demand in the market. Thus, the importance of these roles in the next 3 years looks like this: Data Engineer (75 percent), Product Owner (67 percent), Business Consultant & Analyst (65 percent), Scrum Master (64 percent), AI Product Owner (64 percent), Data Scientist (63 percent).

“After, in the last two years, priority was given to ensuring the conditions for remote work, in the post-covid period, the importance of data and digital skills, necessary for their exploitation, will return to the foreground. The focus will be on the digitization of the business, because only 20 percent of companies can do data management as they want, and a third do not yet have uniform data models. Digital transformation is accelerating in most companies, and the success of this process depends on harmonious collaboration between departments, IT and business experts, as well as understanding the coordination role that a CIO plays. In this ecosystem, the role of the project portfolio management function is crucial in the success of the digital transformation”, said Iulia Malioukis, Principal, Horváth Romania.