PwC survey: Over 70 percent of Romanian companies have started implementing cloud technology and expect results in the next year

Around three-quarters of Romanian companies (71,4 percent) surveyed have begun implementing the cloud either for several departments or for specific processes, and plan wider adoption over the next two years, according to a local report based on the PwC Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) Cloud Business Survey. The percentage is similar to the CEE average.

Only 12 percent of Romanian companies surveyed said they are all-in on cloud, meaning advanced service design capabilities, deep product expertise, optimised workload differentiation, and they characterise their cloud maturity as high, over the CEE average, of 8 percent. At the same time, over 38 percent Romanian companies say all their operations will be on the cloud within the next two years and 43 percent of Romanian companies plan to be there or move 50 percent or more of their operations.

“The cloud has become an essential component in a digital operating environment, and its adoption is part of the business transformation process. The main gain from cloud implementation is the generation of new business models and therefore revenue. As our survey shows, both Romanian and Central and Eastern European companies are at the beginning of their cloud journey and should focus more on innovation and creating new revenue streams and not only on pursuing cost reduction goals,” said Gabriel Voicilă, Technology Partner, PwC Romania.

As companies are still early in their cloud transformation journey, modernisation is the primary reason for leveraging cloud technology for 42,9 percent of Romanian companies and almost half (49 percent) of CEE companies.

Data analytics (66,7 percent), Cybersecurity (64,3 percent), Storage and Artificial intelligence (57 percent) and machine learning (47,6 percent) are cloud capabilities to be prioritised by more than half of Romanian companies in the next 12 months.

By adopting cloud technology, companies are seeking substantial value from their investments. But taking into account lower levels of cloud transformation maturity, the majority of Romanian and CEE executives surveyed are not yet realising the full potential of benefits from their cloud investments, but they are expecting these in the next 12 months.

From those Romanian companies who already achieved measurable value, 40,5 percent mentioned faster time to market, 35,7 percent cost savings, 35,7 improved cyber posture and 33,3 percent profitability, enhanced customer experience and increased agility.

From those who expect to achieve measurable value in the next 12 months, the top expected benefits are increased productivity (64,3 percent), improved resilience (61.9 percent), increased agility 60 percent and new revenue streams (57 percent) .

Across Romanian companies, the top barriers to achieving measurable value are: talent gaps (42,9 percent), inability to effectively measure/quantify return on investment (35,7 percent), budget and/or investment constraints and limitations of technology capabilities (both 33,3 percent).