Page 8 - EngineerIT December 2022

ICT IN THE WORKPLACE

Dell research: South African

businesses regard their people

as their greatest asset for driving

transformation projects

Dell Technologies’ research from 40+ countries details how after two years’ of accelerated
digital transformation, business leaders are more aware than ever of the role that
employees play in driving successful change.

fter two years of accelerated to uncover strategic insights with simplicity, speed and scale. By connecting people,
digital transformation, more applications and data you can power your organisation with trusted IT solutions and focus
Athan half of IT leaders say on inspiring innovation rather than managing infrastructure.”
their organisation knows what it takes Now is the time for organisations to take stock before embarking upon new digital
to digitally transform a workforce, transformation projects, ensuring their workforce is supported and has clarity on the next
but after such rapid change, many stage of implementation.
employees are now facing a challenge
to keep up the pace, according to a Benchmarking readiness for digital change
new Dell Technologies survey. What’s Dell and independent behavioural experts studied survey respondents’ appetite for
more, 69% of respondents believe their digital change and found that 20% of the workforce – from senior business leaders to IT
organisations underestimate how to decision-makers and staff – are pursuing modernisation projects. Further, 23% are slow or
engage with their people properly when reluctant to embrace change.
planning transformation programmes.
The results highlight how the recent This is how the global workforce is comprised today:
period of rapid transformation is leaving
businesses and their workforce in need Breakthrough benchmark (South Africa)
of time to recharge, reflect and refine
before iterating, or embarking on new 1 Sprint: Will chase innovation and trailblaze technological change. 20,5%
projects. Despite the huge progress and 2 Steady: Poised to adopt technological change, selected by others. 53%
efforts of the past few years, the research 3 Slow: Inclined to hold back and observe/deliberate. 23%
highlights how there is still a potential 4 Still: Tend to anticipate problems and resist proposed technology
for transformation to stall, as 62% of innovations based on perceived risk. 3,5%
respondents believe their peoples’
resistance to change can lead to failure,
while 50% say they are still worried that The study charts a path forward. It signposts opportunities for businesses to focus and
they may be left behind due to a lack of keep pace with transformation, with breakthrough happening at the intersection of
senior vision/authority to now capitalise people and technology along three frontiers:
on the opportunity in front of them.
“True, sustainable breakthrough 1. Connectivity
transformation happens at the Businesses performed tremendous feats to connect, collaborate and conduct business
intersection of people and technology, online during the pandemic. But they’re not finished.
along three frontiers: connectivity, More than 60% of respondents say they need their organisations to provide the
productivity and empathy,” says Doug necessary tools and infrastructure to work anywhere (along with the autonomy to choose
Woolley, MDof Dell Technologies South their preferred working pattern). In fact, they worry their people might be left behind
Africa. “Building your breakthrough because they don’t have the right technology to shift to a highly distributed model (where
requires optimising your organisation work and compute are not tied to a central place but occur everywhere).

EngineerIT | December 2022 | 8