There is a major disconnect between managers and executives over the digital posture of their organization, a new report from digital intelligence company ABBYY claims.
While most C-level executives (82 percent) feel confident in their organization’s readiness to go digital, only 58 percent of managers agree.
What C-level executives don’t seem to understand, the report hints, is the level of disruption affecting digital transformation (DX) plans. More than twice as many managers said they have been burdened with disruptions to DX than C-level executives. As a result, investments get wasted and opportunities are missed.
DX has accelerated “massively”, the report says, but the progress has been marred with challenges that have, in many instances, forced organizations to abandon their projects completely.
Difficulties in getting the budget approved, troubles replacing legacy systems and challenges in finding a skilled workforce were the biggest issues cited by respondents. For some, getting buy-in from their senior management or board was a major barrier.
ABBYY argues that board level “tunnel vision” is a major issue, as most managers disagree with the idea that C-level execs drive the DX decision-making.
“We can see that some C-Suites are experiencing tunnel vision, which comes as no real surprise in a year when survival was top of the agenda,” said Neil Murphy, Global VP at ABBYY.
“Unfortunately, our research exposed that despite leaders’ best efforts, junior staff and middle managers are still experiencing challenges, even with intelligent automation technologies in place or readily available. It’s crucial to understand which technologies can improve productivity and where it will have the most impact. After all, technology should be an enabler for empowering employees even in a remote and distributed workplace.”
