Australian C-Suite: Trying to Move Past the Digital Deadlock

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Each year, IDC goes out to the marketplace to survey top business and IT executives/buyers to gain deeper insights into their latest priorities, investment plans, and challenges. This year, 198 CxO executives participated for Australia, with major representation from Government, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Retail and smaller representation from 6 other industry verticals. The research provides insights into the priorities, digital mindset, behaviour, and requirements of ICT buyers and decision makers including CEOs, CIOs, CMOs and CISOs.

DX (Digital Transformation) is today a must-do for all organizations In the DX economy, the interdependence of digital transformation, 3rd Platform, and IT leadership will become the essential "trinity" for success. Digital Transformation is a customer-centric business strategy and is about new/changing business models enabled by emerging technologies and data.

Change management is the biggest obstacle in digital transformation (DX). Many of the organisations lack digital mindset at the very top despite serving in markets where consumers are tech-savvy (mobile-first, social media-savvy).

According to Annemarie Kikos, Research Director IDC Australia, “In 2017, 63% of organizations in ANZ were in stages 2-3 of their DX maturity, out of which many are stuck and unable to move forward because of their Digital deadlocks.”

Organisations are increasingly endorsing customer experience as the foundation of their business strategy, and across the entire C-Suite the underlying theme shaping business and technology investment priorities is still going back to the core of running optimised operations.

“Australian CEOs are torn between managing the escalating cost of operations and increase competitiveness in the market through new business models to adapt to the changing customer demands, expectations and buying patterns. This results in a change of ownership of the IT budget, which is now increasingly being spread across business functions. By doing this, agility is to be met, however it also brings confusion when it comes to the ownership of risks of something going wrong.” adds Lydie Virollet.

Key topics covered in this study include:

• Priority business initiatives and issues expected to challenge organisations in 2017-2018, and specific nonfinancial business issues troubling CEOs
• DX Maturity and performance scorecard (KPIs)
• The strategic advantage of technologies to stay ahead of competition
• Perception / changing landscape of IT and CIO goals
• The CIO/CMO relationship including where marketing is leveraging IT and the changing role given rising importance of Big data analytics

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of International Data Group (IDG), the world's leading media, data and marketing services company.