The prevalence of digital today can hardly be overstated. And in the same vein, it is considered safe to assume that digital transformation (DX) would be a top priority for business and technology leaders today.

We've seen this growth in recent years, especially during the pandemic. To better understand this global phenomenon, we commissioned Eleven Market Research to survey 300 senior business and IT leaders in large enterprises around the world on the state of digital transformation. It was a diverse group, and there were a variety of intriguing findings. But we start with the most compelling discovery: We are at the very peak of interest in Digital Transformation, and 100% of the survey respondents were engaged in digital transformation.

Despite strong interest over the past decade, the actual investment in DX has been recent. While 100% of enterprises are now engaged with DX in some way, most (77%) have begun their DX journey within the past two years. And most are early stage, with a fourth (24%) at the discussion stage and half (49%) currently transforming. Only 27% say they have finished their DX efforts!

Key Findings from the Survey

The top three drivers of DX cited by enterprises are

■ Heightened customer expectations

■ Trying to keep up with an accelerated pace of business

■ And competitive pressures

Top challenges enterprises face when tackling digital transformation

■ Lack of management support: DX requires more than technology — it requires re-imagining complex business processes, often spanning different business units.

■ Cyber security concerns

■ Lack of in-house digital transformation experience: DX is new and spans a wide range of technologies like low code, AI/ML, RPA, omnichannel engagement tools, and technologies for handling unstructured content. Very few organizations have bench strength in these areas or access to a DX platform to take advantage of these technologies.

What parts of the business are enterprises focused on in their DX initiatives?

Enterprises are transforming everything — 68% are transforming front-end processes, 61% back-end, and 38% everything (end-to-end). But when we look at business processes, business information, and customer engagement, the results were evident — enterprises are more focused on transforming complex parts of their business than simpler parts.

For example, only half (50%) see transforming simple business processes being important, while nearly all (93%) see transforming complex business processes as important. It is the same with complex business information (91% versus 57%) and complex customer engagement (92% versus 6%).

Enterprises that are most successful in their DX efforts are doing these:

Lessons from the top tier:

■ More than SEVEN times as likely to be digitally transforming end-to-end (80% versus 11%)

■ Nearly FIVE times as likely to be engaged with low code (63% versus 13%)

■ 2.4 times as likely to say DX is extremely important (76% versus 32%)

Recommendations for Digitally Transforming Complex Business Applications

Here are three insights we suggest organizations focus on to maximize their digital transformation results:

Deliver frictionless customer experience by making it simple for customers to do business with you

You need to re-imagine your complex business processes to unlock simple. Clients don't care how complex your business is or if there are different departments and systems. The most successful organizations connect these moving parts by doing end-to-end automation and providing a simple, almost Amazon-like experience to their customers across products, channels, and journeys.

Ensure flawless operational execution to deliver a great customer experience

Focus on automating the full application — end-to-end. What that means is providing your employees and managers with the tools, data, and insights they need in an integrated manner, so they can perform their work most efficiently and make the best decisions. A great employee experience is critical to achieving operational excellence.

Choose a DX platform that lets you innovate faster

To be a market leader, you need to differentiate yourself, be a learning organization, and innovate faster. For that, your software should handle complexity and agility and adapt to your unique differentiators and strategy; it should let you configure your secret sauce and provide a way for you to learn and make changes easily. This will ensure you can be future-ready and innovate faster based on business strategy, market dynamics, and operational insights. The survey also shows that top-tier enterprises are using a wide variety of technologies to tame complex business processes, complex business information, and complex customer engagement while ensuring business agility. You may not be able to predict the future, but you can adapt fast and be nimble.