For Canadian businesses, the data indicates that Canada scored above average compared to the global results when it comes to digital transformation. While the majority of global businesses’ digital transformation programs are still in their infancy, Canadian businesses are making strides to become digital adopters and leaders on the world stage.
The survey “Dell Technologies’ Digital Transformation Index” was conducted with the involvement of 4,600 businesses in over forty countries. Data pertaining to Canada has been extracted and compared with an earlier 2018 poll focusing on Canadian enterprises.
The survey focuses on a number of important measures of digital transformation success. One of these factors is leadership in the corporate space. While only 6 percent of Canadian businesses have been defined as Digital Leaders, this stands higher than the global average of 5 percent. These figures indicate that only a small minority of companies are ahead in terms of being digital transformation pioneers.
In terms of the importance of digital transformation. 83 percent of Canadian businesses expressed the view that digital transformation should be more widespread throughout the organization. This placed Canadian firms higher than the global average, which is at percent.
Canadian businesses also appear to be well-placed for meeting customer expectations in the digital age. Just 21 percent of Canadian businesses indicated they will have problems in meeting changing customer demands across the next five years. This was well below the international average of 51 percent. That over half of firms globally are potentially out-of-sync with consumer preferences does not bode well for remaining competitive.
A risk that does present itself to Canadian firms, as with other businesses in high-income countries, is the threat posed by startups from emerging markets. These disruptor companies are faring better than developed markets. The main challenges for Canada are coming from India, Brazil and Thailand, with several companies gaining the highest digital maturity scores according to the Dell figures.
Overall Canada’s digital maturity score ranked in the middle, slightly higher than the global average and trailing closely behind the U.K. and U.S., suggesting that progress has been made but that the cultural side of digital transformation requires more effort.
Summarizing the survey overall, Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies acknowledged: “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. Organizations need to modernize their technology to participate in the unprecedented opportunity of digital transformation. The time to act is now.”
