Canadian companies are embracing digital transformation like never before. A new SAP Canada study conducted in partnership with IDC Canada indicates that digital transformation will be the most valuable business investment Canadian companies can make as they enter 2022.
The survey discovered a big rise in enterprises which have fully integrated digital strategies into their core business. Nearly 40 per cent of those surveyed indicated having this integration – three times more businesses than in 2020. This robust digital shift was critical for Canadian organizations surviving the initial shockwaves of the pandemic delivering business impacts across efficiency, cost reductions, resiliency, decision support and intelligence, sustainability, and customer and employee experience.
"Digital transformation has been on the radar of Canadian businesses for years, but the last year has shown us that interest and value for it has soared," said Brian Moore, Chief Operating Officer, SAP Canada. "We are seeing that organizations will need to continue to fully integrate their operations in the coming year to remain competitive. Simply put, a digital transformation strategy is no longer a 'nice to have' – it's a necessity for organizations to thrive. In 2022, we will see Canadian businesses step away from tactical, reactive enhancements in exchange for developing digital transformation strategies that will enable them to achieve new levels of success."
Data further showed businesses realize digital transformation is necessary and valuable:
75 per cent of Canadian enterprises planned on migrating all or some of their applications and data to the cloud in 2021.
84 per cent of respondents highlighted that investment into digital technologies either met or exceeded their expectations this year.
84 per cent of leaders in the digital transformation space are using technologies to make incremental and continuous improvements to their core business.
Customer experience was also at the heart of the survey with most organizations surveyed (81 per cent) indicating a positive impact on financial performance because of strong client experience. This is an increase of 20 per cent over last year's survey.
Research found a need for integrated collaboration between IT departments and lines of businesses (LOB) to achieve digital transformation ambitions, with 40 per cent of IT and LOB respondents favouring a fully integrated digital plan into their enterprise strategy. This will help Canadian organizations make progress towards becoming digital leaders.
"After completing the sixth-annual SAP survey, IDC expects the benefits of cloud will continue to outpace the challenges, resulting in Canadian organizations using cloud services extensively across enterprise applications and infrastructure," said Megha Kumar, Research Director, Software and Cloud Services at IDC
Sourced from Cision