Corona Redefines Digital Transformation Priorities

Study: Maintaining Business Operations and Flexible Working Methods Become the Primary Goals of Digital Transformation Projects as a Result of Corona

Munich, February 3, 2021: At the end of 2020, digital transformation expert valantic and market analyst techconsult jointly surveyed 218 IT managers on the subject of digitalization in Corona times.

According to this study, Corona redefines digital transformation priorities and the participants are reprioritizing their IT roadmaps in the wake of the crisis: Cost cutting, maintaining business operations and more flexible working methods are currently seen as the primary goals of digital transformation projects while, unsurprisingly, flexible and progressive working methods are also gaining in importance.

Before the crisis, many IT decision-makers still regarded higher revenues as the central goal of digitalization. The current pandemic, however, is causing attention to refocus on a new factor at many companies: According to the latest study by valantic and techconsult, 51 percent of respondents said that cost cutting has become the most important driver when implementing and planning digital transformation projects. Within the top three drivers for digitalization initiatives and projects, the topic of cost cutting has notched up to first place, compared to third place where it was in pre-Corona times. Maintaining business operations remains unchanged in second place at 50 percent.

Focus on Flexible, Progressive Working Methods

The survey confirms the general trend toward home offices and collaboration and file-sharing tools. According to the study, the topic occupying third place, namely flexible and progressive working methods, experienced the largest jump as a digitalization driver during the Corona crisis – moving up eleven percentage points to 49.1 percent. In general, improving flexibility plays a greater role than before Corona, recording a massive increase of almost ten percent. In addition, companies also wish to invest more heavily in supply chain optimization.

The IT and business topic of supply chain management can be deemed the Corona winner, enjoying the largest increase with an almost ten percent surge in relevance. Transparent supply chains that incorporate all of the vital supplier and vendor KPIs help identify bottlenecks in advance and institute countermeasures. Smart supply chain management also serves the overriding goals of cost cutting and avoiding additional costs (due e.g. to production downtime).

By contrast, the classic goal of improving revenue through digitalization – which was the top driver from pre-Corona times – has been “put on the back burner” for the time being, losing almost four percentage points in the assessment (45.9 percent).

valantic founder and CEO, Dr. Holger von Daniels, explains: “The study results coincide with our own experience gained with customers during the Corona pandemic. With many companies, we succeeded in identifying opportunities in the crisis and leveraging competitive advantages within a few weeks – and, in some cases, even within a few days. Many projects focused on the topics of e-commerce, digital marketplaces and stabilizing infrastructure and supply chains. We also noticed that, after a few weeks of the initial big scare, most customers are willing to invest for the long term: Virtually no long-term digital transformation was ditched – on the contrary: If anything, the pressure was increased to complete them sooner rather than later.”

Over 200 IT Experts Provide Insights into Their IT Roadmaps

Digital transformation expert valantic commissioned market analyst techconsult to conduct a survey of 218 IT managers, IT technical managers, CIOs and other digital transformation managers from local companies with respect to the impact of the Corona pandemic on their IT roadmaps. The majority of the study’s respondents work in the service, industry and retail sectors. Other managers from the banking and insurance, telecommunications, and energy and water supply sectors were also surveyed.