In the report, Closing the Acceleration Gap: Toward Sustainable Digital Transformation, Workday revealed that while finance, HR, and IT leaders recognise the importance of digital transformation, 55% of respondents say their digital strategy is always or often outpaced by the demands of the business.
This trend has the digital acceleration gap widening, where business needs are changing faster than the technology, processes, and culture required to keep pace. In response, leaders are adopting a more sustained approach to transformation by prioritising access to data and employee experience.
Source: Workday 2022
To help close the acceleration gap, business leaders across the three functions are focusing on:
Finance leaders: Unified, fast data
More than half of finance leaders (51%) say that one of the most important elements to accelerating planning, execution, and analysis cycles is new technologies that can help integrate data between disparate systems and break down internal data silos.
Yet, 61% say that technology that unifies financial, people, and operational data is their most pressing need, with 64% admitting that it takes weeks — or more — to get results at the end of a reporting period.
HR leaders: Employee experience and skills development
Amid the Great Resignation, organisations increasingly focused on skills to help improve recruiting, retention, and overall employee experiences. The survey revealed that 25% of HR leaders rank resilience and adaptability first among skills that will ensure teams can continuously meet business demands as they evolve. Further, 50% of HR leaders say positive employee experiences are most important to accelerating transformation across the business.
IT leaders: Breaking down silos to drive automation
While CIOs hold the key to data-fuelled transformation, many are overwhelmed by the pace of change as legacy constraints and data silos are top barriers to digital transformation, according to the survey.
Only 42% of IT leaders are confident in their teams’ ability to adopt cloud technologies without legacy constraints. Further, half of IT leaders (50%) are struggling to keep pace with service upgrades as part of legacy technology, with 59% saying it can take weeks or months to change an automated business process.
“Digital transformation is no longer a choice – it’s necessary to keep pace in today’s changing world. Yet, as the study shows, there’s an acceleration gap that organisations need to address to help ensure their digital journeys keep pace with the growing and evolving demands of their business,” said Pete Schlampp, chief strategy officer, Workday.
“We’re encouraged that global finance, HR, and IT leaders are taking a more measured approach to their transformation strategies by leveraging technology – like Workday – that drives adaptability across their business.”
