NZ companies’ digital transformation priorities all wrong, says PwC

PricewaterhouseCoopers says New Zealand companies have their priorities all wrong as they seek to implement digital transformation.

Commenting on the findings of its 2017 Digital IQ Survey, PwC New Zealand said: “When it comes to their digital investments, only six percent of Kiwi companies are thinking about creating better customer experiences while 76 percent are focused on growing their revenues.”

PwC Partner, Kris Nygren, said New Zealand businesses were struggling to put people and data together at the centre of their digital transformation and focussing instead on increasing revenues and making improvements to their products and services.

“However, now more than ever, putting the customer at the centre of their digital strategies will be key to unlocking the value of their investments,” he said.

He added: “Forty four percent of our respondents said their most important digital initiative over the next year is to re-imagine their product and service offering. On the other hand, only 14 percent are prioritising enterprise transformation and 18 percent are focusing on the customer experience. There are clearly some missed opportunities here.”

Nygren claimed that New Zealand companies were lagging their global counterparts in several areas. He said only 50 percent of respondents indicated that they had integrated their digital strategies into their corporate strategies compared to 70 percent globally.

“Data and analytics is an area we’re really seeing local businesses lagging behind their global counterparts with only a third saying that they’re making analytics a priority, compared to 44 percent globally.”

A third of NZ respondents said they were struggling to integrate new and existing technologies and data, compared to 22 percent internationally, PwC said. “As a result, many are turning to external partners to help them implement new technologies in their organisation.”

PwC’s 2017 Digital IQ Survey was its tenth. PwC says it is a study of over 2,000 global business leaders, including 50 in New Zealand, on their view of what makes a digital business succeed.

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“Our Digital IQ Survey looks at what companies have to aim for with their transformation efforts if they want to succeed in the digital age. That ideal future state means bringing together their business strategy, customer experience and technology into a coherent, fully-fledged digital strategy,” PwC said.

“As we’ve seen in this year’s New Zealand findings, it also means being able to bring together human centred design with data and analytics, a combination that is central to this broader transformation and yet is still a weak point for the majority of our survey respondents.”

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Tags surveyPricewaterhouseCooperssurvey resultsprioritiesenterprise transformation

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