India- Racing ahead on the digital world map and carving a leader’s curve

Authored by Amit Mehta, Transformational Lead, Enterprise, Dell EMC

“In the near future, every organization will need to be a digital organization, but our research indicates that the majority still have a long way to go,” Michael Dell 

When it comes to investing in modern technologies, people often presume that Indian organizations are more price- and value-conscious. However, nixing such presumptions is the latest Dell Technologies Digital Transformation Index, stating that a growing number of business leaders in the India are more mature when it comes to leveraging digital technologies for their business transformation than those in countries like France and Japan. According to the study—which was conducted by Dell in collaboration with Intel and Vanson Bourne—91% of leaders believe that digital transformation should gain more prevalence, as against 78% globally. 

It's now a proven fact that the digital transformation drive in India is gaining pace like never before. Right from SMEs to enterprises and from the government to start-ups—everyone has somehow assimilated digitalization into their organizational DNA—irrespective of their size, industry, or scale. Moreover, some forward-looking organizations are making the most of digital technologies to enhance business efficiency, sharpen their competitive edge, and offer a more personalized experience to their tech-savvy customers. 

The government has also provided a much-needed fillip to businesses to make investments in emerging technologies and leverage the benefits of digitalization. The Union Budget 2019 bears a testimony to the government’s focus on emerging technologies. Further, progressive schemes, such as Digital India, Smart cities, Aadhaar, and JAM, have already proved to be a major push for the country’s economy. 

On the other hand, industries throughout the country have also started adopting digital technologies. Especially, the country’s BFSI sector has embraced digital transformation whole-heartedly. Let me cite a nice example here. Earlier, banks used to boast about the number of branches they had. But in today’s time, the sector has been disrupted significantly, owing to the concept of virtual credit and debit cards. For other sectors, too, investments in digital technologies are now on the rise. As revealed by Gartner, “India’s IT spending is projected to total $89.2 billion in 2019, an increase of 6.7 percent from estimated spending of $83.6 billion in 2018.” 

Has this digital transformation drive reached its full potentials? 

Probably not. As suggested by the aforesaid study of Dell, almost half (44%) business leaders in India think that they would struggle to address the changing requirements of their customers within five years. Some major challenges faced by Indian Inc. while moving ahead in their digitalization drive include: data privacy and security concerns, regulation and legislative changes, lack of the right in-house skill sets and expertise, information overload, and weak digital governance and structure. 

So challenging are these factors that almost three in ten (28%) participated in the survey don’t trust their own organization to comply with regulations such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Besides, 31% don’t trust their organization to protect their customer data. 

The time has finally come for organizations to renew their outlook for technology and tech-related investments. Especially, since our digitalization inspiration is now riding high and high, there is a growing need to invest in skilling our workforce and leverage technology more efficiently to build a better, more connected ecosystem that goes in line with regulation and legislative changes. We have already put our best foot forward in pushing a digital economy, now appropriate actions by organizations will lead the way ahead.