U.S. Companies Are Falling Behind in Digital Transformation.
Is your company doing enough?
Despite significant investments in artificial intelligence and other technologies, companies in the United States are facing delays in their digital transformation processes, according to a new study. A report by Zoho revealed that up to 39% of organizations in the country are still in the early phases of this transformation, with a maturity index that places the U.S. 1.2 percentage points below the global average.
The slow progress in transformation is attributed to weaknesses in security and the late adoption of tools, as only 15% of workers indicate that the tools available to them meet their expectations. Additionally, a previous study by WalkMe shows that only 28% of employees feel adequately trained to use the digital tools at their disposal.
The Zoho report indicates that moving from the standardization stage (Level 2) to structured operations (Level 3) can take between three and five years, incurring costs of between $250 and $500 per employee per year. To reach Level 4, which involves optimized digital operations, it requires approximately double the resources, taking between 10 and over 10 years and between $500 and $1,000 per employee annually.
The majority of companies (85%) continue to rely on manual task delegation rather than automation, with sectors such as hospitality, logistics, and retail facing greater challenges compared to more technological industries like IT and finance. Small and medium-sized enterprises are also lagging behind large corporations, likely due to their more limited resources. WalkMe's research corroborated this, revealing that only one in four utilizes artificial intelligence to improve efficiency.
Highlighted issues include poor implementation of multifactor authentication (MFA), which is only used by half of the companies analyzed, as well as secure access policies like VPNs, which are available in only one in four organizations. Furthermore, physical security controls are adopted in fewer than a third of companies.
In terms of losses, WalkMe estimates that there will be $104 million in losses during 2024 due to suboptimal technology usage, in addition to losing 36 days a year due to inefficient workers. In contrast, proper digital adoption could nearly triple returns on investments in transformation.
Raju Vegesna, Chief Evangelist at Zoho, commented that U.S. companies have strong foundations in collaboration and digital tools; however, inefficiencies in processes and security issues are significant obstacles to transformation.
