IT Transformation can result in bottom-line benefits that drive business differentiation, innovation and growth, according to new research conducted by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) for Dell EMC.

Today’s business landscape is rife with disruption, much of it driven by organizations using technology in new or innovative ways. In order to survive and thrive in today’s digital world, businesses are implementing new technologies, processes and skillsets to best address changing customer needs. A fundamental first step to this change is transforming IT, to help organizations bring products to market faster, remain competitive and drive innovation.

According to ESG’s 2018 IT Transformation Maturity Study commissioned by Dell EMC and Intel:

■ 81% of survey respondents agree if they do not embrace IT Transformation, their organization will no longer be competitive in their markets, up from 71% in 2017.

■ 88% of respondents say their organization is under pressure to deliver new products and services at an increasing rate.

■ Transformed organizations are 22x as likely to be ahead of the competition when bringing new products and services to market.

■ Transformed organizations are 2.5x more likely to believe they are in a strong position to compete and succeed in their markets over the next few years.

■ Transformed companies are 18x more likely to make better and faster data-driven decisions than their competition and are 2x as likely to exceed their revenue goals.

According to Dell EMC, "IT Transformation is an initiative to accelerate the digital delivery of modern IT services and applications that can differentiate a business, its products and operations."

“Companies today need to be agile to stay competitive and drive growth, and IT Transformation can be a major enabler of that,” said John McKnight, VP of Research, Enterprise Strategy Group. “It’s clear that IT Transformation is increasingly resonating with companies and that senior executives recognize how IT Transformation is pivotal to overall business strategy and competitiveness. While achieving transformation can be a major endeavor, our research shows 'Transformed' companies experience real business results, including being more likely to be ahead of the competition in bringing new products and services to market, making better, faster data-driven decisions than their competition, and exceeding their revenue goals.”

The 4,000 participating organizations were segmented into IT Transformation maturity stages:

■ Stage 1 – Legacy (6%): Falls short on many — if not all — of the dimensions of IT Transformation in the ESG study

■ Stage 2 – Emerging (45%): Showing progress in IT Transformation but having minimal deployment of modern data center technologies

■ Stage 3 – Evolving (43%): Showing commitment to IT Transformation and having a moderate deployment of modern data center technologies and IT delivery methods

■ Stage 4 – Transformed (6%): Furthest along in IT Transformation initiatives

The findings show organizations are progressing in IT maturity and generally believe transformation is a strategic imperative.

■ 96% of respondents said they have Digital Transformation initiatives underway — either at the planning stage, at the beginning of implementation, in process, or mature

■ Respondents whose organizations have achieved "Transformed" status are 16x more likely to have mature Digital Transformation projects underway versus Legacy companies (66% compared with 4%)

■ Transformed organizations were more than 2x as likely to have exceeded their revenue targets in the past year compared with Legacy organizations (94% compared to 44%).

■ 84% of respondents with mature Digital Transformation initiatives underway said they were in a strong or very strong position to compete and succeed

IT Transformation maturity can accelerate innovation, drive growth, increase IT efficiency and reduce cost. More specifically:

■ Transformed organizations are able to reallocate 17% more of their IT budget toward innovation

■ Transformed organizations complete 3x more IT projects ahead of schedule and are 10x more likely to deploy the majority of their applications ahead of schedule
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■ Transformed organizations complete 14% more IT projects under budget and spend 31% less on business-critical applications