Brazil
Digital leaders view business operations as top investment priority
What kind of investments will digital leaders be making in the coming year? A study from Anderson MacGyver reveals that most budget is not spent on digitally enhancing customer-facing products or services, but instead on the company’s tech-backed operational backbone.
For its annual ‘Digital Business Monitor’, Anderson MacGyver approached over 600 digital leaders from four European countries to explore the topics that dominate their agenda, and find out what investment decisions they plan to make in the months ahead.
The study examined the role digital plays in organizations, in the process comparing the results of two different groups. One group clustered companies that use technology and data to support the business, whereas another group brought together companies that have made digital an integral part of their business.
Notably, the second group, those that take a holistic and more embedded approach to digital, allocated more of their total budget to digital investments (47%) than the first group (40%).
As to where digital investments are being made, the researchers had the hypothesis that digital leaders would spend most of their budget on the development of products and services and on digital interactions with their customers. “These activities are mostly thought to contribute to the top-line and help build a competitive edge,” explained Robbert Petterson, who led this edition of the Digital Business Monitor.
However, somewhat surprisingly, the study revealed that digital leaders invest most in their business operations domain, at 31% of the total budget, compared to 18% for the customer domain and 11% for the product development domain.
“Although this could be explained by the large investments that are needed to replace and modernise a complex legacy landscape (the biggest digital pain point cited by most leaders), the business operations domain was also perceived as being the most distinctive. “By investing in the areas that provide distinct value, digital leaders use the power of technology and data to make an impact, to achieve competitive advantages and to ensure long-term survival,” Petterson concluded.
