Irish enterprises are feeling the pressure to transform, but are not sure how to go about it, while many are unsure as to why they should. According to Ger Perdisatt, director, Enterprise Commercial Group, Microsoft Ireland, there is very strong impetus to do digital transformation, but often there is a lack clarity as to why the change is necessary.

“When you start bringing it back to ‘why is it you feel you need to transform, you need to change shape and you want to use digital means to do that,’ it tends to be a big struggle,” said Perdisatt.

If as a business, previously, you would encounter a problem and you would come up with a solution that would involve some technology, and that would be steady state for five or seven, or even 10 years. Now you are in a situation where technology is constantly evolving and the ability of your people to assimilate — what’s the latest we can do, what are our customers asking for, what are our competitors doing? — is constantly changing,” said Perdisatt.

While the multinationals are making considerable strides with respect to digital transformation, the small firms are lagging behind. Policy should always be based on evidence, but there is a considerable knowledge deficit in Ireland with respect to an important section of the business economy, that is, micro-businesses. Micro-businesses with between one and nine employees constitute 90% of Irish businesses and employ over 400,000 people. In fact, microbusinesses account for almost 20% of all Gross Value Added in the Irish business economy. These firms are critical to future productivity and job growth. How innovative are Irish micros? How do they compare internationally with respect to digitalisation?

A recent UCC report on Irish micro-businesses revealed that over 70% of small business owners want to keep their business similar to how it operates now. This is not particularly surprising, as most micro-businesses start small and stay small. If many micro-businesses seem to shun high-growth, then where do their ambitions lie?

Digital transformation failure could see a third of Irish companies shut down by 2020. New research from Ricoh shows many organisations are not in a position to digitally transform effectively. For many business leaders, digital transformation is a priority, but new research from a survey commissioned by Ricoh shows that 61pc of organisations in Ireland are not in a good position to take advantage of new digital technologies.

Gary Hopwood, managing director at Ricoh Ireland, said: “It’s very worrying that the future of so many Irish organisations are at risk because of their failure to innovate. Change is happening and it’s happening now, which is why it’s vital that business leaders take action as soon as possible and formulate a strategy that enables them to embrace digital disruption.”

(Source: techcentral.ie)

(Source: siliconrepublic.com)

(Source: rte.ie)