Digital transformation drives big investments among German enterprises: TCS Survey

Digital transformation is top priority for German enterprises with a sharp increase in investments focused on change management, talent development and agile processes, Mumbai headquartered information technology (IT) services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) found in the course of a survey it conducted recently. 

“German corporations are increasing the scale and complexity of their initiatives, necessitating robust change management processes, and investments in talent development. Additionally, to gain better speed to value, organisations are embracing agile methods,” Sapthagiri Chapalapalli, managing director, TCS Germany, said.

TCS undertook the survey earlier this year to map the digitisation preparedness of German companies. The IT company spoke to close to a thousand senior IT executives and board members across medium and large enterprises in the country.

Almost half of the companies use change management methods to adapt to new structures and prepare the workforce, compared to 36% who deployed these methods in 2017. Among large companies with 500 employees or more, 57% rely on change management methods, the survey found.

At more than one third of the companies, the change process is the responsibility of the digitalisation units or the chief digital officer. In around one in four companies, the management or the executive board or internal corporate communications was responsible.

According to the survey, 43% of companies said that they sometimes, mostly or always use agile methods, against the 35% who did in 2018. Agile adoption was greater among large companies with 500 or more employees.

Eight out of ten companies acknowledged that employees should have general digital skills in order to drive the digital transformation of the company. Half of the companies said that employees quickly adopt new technologies with 81 percent of them helping employees to learn these new digital skills.