New research surveyed more than 8,300
organizations globally to reveal the relationship between
technology adoption and business growth
TORONTO, Dec. 3, 2019 /CNW/ - New research from Accenture
(NYSE: ACN) shows that Canadian companies with a carefully
calibrated strategy toward technology adoption and a clear vision
for what their companies' future systems should look like, are
growing revenue at 2.5 times the rate of companies that are
struggling to scale innovation.
The global report, Full Value. Full Stop. How to scale
innovation and achieve full value with Future Systems,
tracked performance indicators between 2015 and 2023
(projected). It compares companies that are "Leaders," those
building enterprise systems capable of scaling innovations
repeatedly, with "Laggards," those adopting technologies, but
in a piecemeal fashion.
Looking at an illustrative model of a company with US$10 billion in revenue in 2015, the research
found that between 2015 and 2018, a Laggard in Canada would have surrendered US$4 billion in annual revenue and stands to
potentially miss out on an astonishing 43 percent – US$22 billion – in revenue gains by 2023 if it
does not change its enterprise technology approach.
The report is based on a global survey of more than 8,300
organizations across 20 countries, including 313 companies in
Canada. It is designed to help
companies understand and close the innovation achievement gap,
which is the difference between potential and realized value from
technology investments. The research sheds important light on the
enormous impact that technology investment and adoption have on a
company's financial performance and most notably, the mindsets and
behaviors of companies that are industry leaders.
"Today's C-suite is investing staggering amounts of money into
new technology, but not every company realizes the benefits of
innovation that results from those investments," said Nicholas Bayley, managing director and head of
Accenture Strategy in Canada.
"Canadian companies that want to be successful in today's
post-digital, data-driven economy need future enterprise systems
that allow them to innovate at scale while unlocking value
currently trapped by legacy systems and processes."
The report scored companies on three important dimensions:
technology adoption, depth of technology adoption, and
organizational and cultural readiness. By assigning a score for
each of these key factors, the study determined which companies
were 'Leaders' (top 10 percent) and which were 'Laggards' (bottom
25 percent).
Fundamentally, Leaders believe that humans and machines can
bring out the best in each other while companies and their
ecosystems can form mutual alliances. It's one reason they're
motivated to build future systems that are boundaryless, adaptable
and radically human, which the study defines as follows:
- Boundaryless: Boundaryless systems take advantage of
blurring boundaries—within the IT stack, between companies, and
between humans and machines—to create new spaces where ideas and
partnerships flourish.
- Adaptable: Adaptable systems learn, improve and adapt by
themselves, eliminating the friction that hinders business growth
and empowering humans to make better decisions, exponentially
faster.
- Radically Human: Radically human systems talk, listen,
see and understand just like we do, bringing elegant simplicity to
every human-machine interaction and creating tomorrow's
advantage.
The Future Systems research found that Leaders exhibit a
distinct mindset and approach to enterprise-wide technology
adoption and organizational transformation – often in stark
contrast to Laggards.
Specifically, Leaders are:
- Adopting fast, flexible technologies: In Canada, Leaders are adopting powerful
technologies such as microservice architectures, containers and
Kubernetes at a rate of 100 percent compared to just 20 percent of
Laggards. Leaders are also using solutions that enable
decoupled data, infrastructure and applications.
- Embracing cloud computing: Leaders are far ahead when it
comes to adopting cloud technologies as way to effectively leverage
other technologies, including AI and analytics. A full 100 percent
of Canadian Leaders see the cloud as a catalyst to innovation,
compared to just 33 percent of Laggards.
- Treating data as a corporate asset: A full 94 percent of
Leaders in Canada take steps to
ensure data quality rather than relying on data that is potentially
unverified or biased. This means that Leaders trust that their data
is reliable enough to drive business change, compared with just 35
percent of Laggards.
- Managing technology investments across the enterprise:
Leaders in Canada – 100 percent of
them – are achieving better business alignment by effectively
breaking down barriers between IT and other departments.
- Upskilling their talent: Leaders are using experiential
learning at more than three times the rate of Laggards in
Canada and globally. AI and
advanced analytics in areas such as personalized learning,
predicting worker skills needs, and matching worker skill
requirements with training modules are being used by 88 percent of
Leaders, but just 27 percent of Laggards in Canada.
More information on the Full Value. Full Stop research,
including infographics, key indicators over an eight-year time
period and benchmarks by industry and geography is available
here. Follow the conversation on Twitter with
#IntoTheNew.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global
professional services company, providing a broad range of services
and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and
operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills
across more than 40 industries and all business functions —
underpinned by the world's largest delivery network — Accenture
works at the intersection of business and technology to help
clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for
their stakeholders. With 492,000 people serving clients in more
than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way
the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.
SOURCE Accenture