In 2024, spending on digital transformation (DX) is projected to reach *** trillion U.S. dollars. By 2027, global digital transformation spending is forecast to reach *** trillion U.S. dollars. What is digital transformation? Digital transformation refers to the adoption of digital technology to transform business processes and services from non-digital to digital. This encompasses, among others, moving data to the cloud, using technological devices and tools for communication and collaboration, as well as automating processes. What is driving digital transformation? Digital transformation growth is due to several contributing factors. Among these was COVID-19 pandemic, which has increased the digital transformation tempo in organizations around the globe in 2020 considerably. Although the pandemic is over, working from home among organizations globally has not only remained, but also increased, increasing the drive for digital transformation. Other contributing causes include customer demand and the need to be on par with competitors. Overall, utilizing technologies for digital transformation render organizations more agile in responding to changing markets and enhance innovation, thereby making them more resilient.

The graph shows the primary reasons for digital transformation in organizations worldwide as of 2020. During the survey period, customer demand was the main driver of digital transformation (DX) for an organization, according to ** percent of respondents. Other popular drivers of DX was keeping up with the competition.

Globally, technology and energy companies were most likely to accelerate digital transformation (DX) processes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with 78 percent and 77 percent reporting great advancement of DX due to the pandemic, respectively. Digital transformation requires investments in technologies as well as people and processes to increase business value. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, digitization processes have sped up due to an increase in demand to work remotely and access information from different locations. Therefore, digital transformation was quickly enhanced to meet changing business and market requirements for both employees and customers during the pandemic.

According to a 2020 global CIO survey, ** percent of respondents cited improving customer experience as a very important factor in driving their digital transformation efforts. Improving existing and new products/services are also behind the efforts pushing for companies' digital transformation.

Skills gaps and cultural differences as a result of digital transformation are cited as leading challenges for organizations that have pursued digitalization in the past two years, as of 2020. Organizations need to make extra adjustments in order to face the changes brought about by the implementation of digital initiatives.

Globally, a combined 79 percent of respondents state that COVID-19 led to increased digital transformation budgets in their organization. Digital transformation is the process of creating new or modifying existing digital technologies for business processes and customer experiences to meet changing requirements in the business world. For example, smart applications help organizations manage their businesses intelligently and effectively, enabling them to make well-informed decisions and create better customer experiences. In the context of the global pandemic, digital transformation has become an important way to respond to changing working and market requirements.

Worldwide spending on digital transformation (DX) technologies and services is expected to increase by **** percent in 2020 to *** trillion U.S. dollars, despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. Across different sectors, DX spending will see compromised yet still strong growth, ranging from * to **** percent. Digital transformation    Digital transformation (DX) can be defined as the integration of digital technologies in all areas of a business that lead to improved operational processes as well as more value being delivered to customers. DX enables a more agile and intelligent way of doing business, making use of technologies such as advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). The global digital transformation market has been growing rapidly in recent years and is forecast to be worth *** trillion U.S. dollars by 2023. A global embrace of digital transformation amidst COVID-19     Most digital decision-makers worldwide believe the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak will accelerate the pace of digital transformation. Working from home is expected to be much more accepted in companies post COVID-19, as well as the use of communication and collaboration tools. In line with these changes, businesses are also looking to bolster employee digital experience as they seek to increase operational efficiency and transform existing business processes. The pandemic has resulted in businesses worldwide embracing digital transformation technologies and services, although some still predict that the digital economy may likely endure a long-term revenue loss like the overall economy.

In response to the global pandemic, 78 percent of German respondents say that their organizations accelerated digital transformation by a great deal. Digital transformation requires investments in technologies as well as people and processes to increase business value. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, digitization processes have sped up due to an increase in demand to work remotely and access information from different locations. Generally, many organizations have undergone a re-negotiation of their relationship to and use of technology because of the pandemic.

In 2020, ** percent of data and analytics leaders globally state being heavily involved in digital transformation inititaives. Overall, ** percent of respondents state being heavily involved or leading in digital transformation initiatives. Data quality, ROI from D&A investments, and data sharing as well as data quality are among the top priorities listed.

As this global survey illustrates, an overwhelming 97 percent of respondents state that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic sped up digital transformation processes in their organizations. Specifically, a majority of 68 percent report that digital transformation sped up a great deal in their organizations. As the pandemic forced many businesses to organize for employees to work from home, digitization processes accelerated greatly to keep up with this sudden demand for remote work.

According to the results of a survey conducted among commercial real estate C-suite executives worldwide, it appeared that a large percentage of commercial real estate firms worldwide still have a long way to go with digitalization. Although the need for advancing digitalization within organizations is widely shared, approximately ** percent of European respondents shared that their company does not have a defined roadmap in place. In North America and the APAC region, ** and ** percent of industry experts said their company lacks a defined digital transformation roadmap.

Most surveyed international digital decision-makers are of the opinion that the ******** outbreak will accelerate the pace of digital transformation. The majority of respondents also agree with the statements that remote working and the use of collaboration tools will be more common as a result of the outbreak.

According to a survey from early 2020, ** percent of the small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the Asia Pacific region identified a shortage of digital skills and talent within their companies as the leading challenge in digital transformation. Other significant challenges, according to the surveyed SMBs, were lack of necessary technologies to enable digital transformation, budget and commitment from management, and insight into operational and customer data.

A number of reasons could lead to the lost of momentum of digital transformation initiatives in global companies, as of 2020. Most of these factors, such as a lack of clarity on transformation strategy, are within companies' near- to medium-term control. Some other factors like significant distruption in market and/or business environment are beyond organizations' control.

Forty-four percent of global companies report customer experience to be the primary purpose behind their digital transformation initiatives, as of 2019. As of that time, the majority of organizations worldwide are either executing or developing a digital transformation strategy.

According to a 2020 global CIO survey, in the Americas ** percent of respondents expect the pace of change in digital transformation to increase significantly, in comparison to ** percent of European respondents and ** percent of Asian Pacific respondents who believe that it will be the case.

The statistic shows the spending on digital transformation technologies and services in Canada from 2017 to 2020. Canadian spending on digital transformation technology is expected to reach ** billion U.S. dollars in 2020, growing by ***** percent year-on-year.

In 2020, for ** percent of the companies in Poland, the most important factor accelerating digital transformation was more efficient data processing.

The most important reasons behind the smooth implementation of digital transformation initiatives include strong commitment to the transformation and clarity on the transformation’s strategy, with ** and ** percent of survey respondents reporting them as the success factors.

In 2020, ** percent of the interviewed companies in Italy implemented customer experience campaigns, while ** percent of companies set up projects involving Big Data technologies. Virtual and augmented reality seemed to still be a niche area for Italian companies, as only ***** percent of them implement project in that sector.