• Study shows that the issues of sustainability, supply chain dependency, alternative working models and energy crisis have moved into the focus of companies.
• IT and digital solutions can play a significant role in overcoming the current crises.

(Arvato Systems) Gütersloh – With the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the German economy has also changed. Trends towards more sustainability and greater awareness of the multi-layered dependencies of global supply chains have accelerated. At the same time, topics such as alternative working models and the use of energy have become more relevant. These are the findings of the trend study "Digitisation strategies in the face of global challenges", which the market analysis and consulting company PAC published on behalf of Arvato Systems in February 2023. Another finding of the study: IT can play a significant role in overcoming the crises. Digital innovations enable companies to collect and analyse process, contact and supply chain data. The results can then be transferred into needs-based solutions.

The study, initiated by PAC and Arvato Systems, clusters the results into different areas: economic environment, digitalisation, transformation, technological advancement and cooperation with external service providers.

• Economic environment: Global challenges such as the increase in cybercrime (85 percent), the shortage of skilled workers (75 percent) and the energy crisis (70 percent) are strongly to very strongly addressed by the respondents. Measures against cyber-crime (76 percent) and the shortage of skilled workers (55 percent) have been initiated by significantly more than half of the companies.
• Digitalisation: 95 percent of companies are in the midst of their digital transformation. With digital solutions, respondents are trying to counter cybercrime (91 percent), the energy crisis (75 percent) and the skills shortage (75 percent)
• Transformation: Customer orientation (52 percent) and the ability to innovate (51 percent) are very important for more than half of the respondents in order to remain fit for the future. 46 percent have already implemented customer-centricity projects, 40 percent want to invest in this. The situation is similar with regard to cyber security.
• Technological advancement: More than three quarters of the companies already rely on basic technologies such as the public cloud (73 percent) and measures to defend against cyber attacks (66 percent). The use of innovative technologies, such as RPA and bots (41 percent), hyperautomation (38 percent) as well as low code and no code (36 percent), is planned in the next two years.
• Cooperation with external service providers: When cooperating with an IT service provider, 72 percent of respondents prefer a full-service provider whose services cover the entire service chain. The service provider must have extensive competencies in the areas of application management & operations (56 percent), agile development methods (52 percent) and strategic consulting (50 percent).

Arvato Systems as a competent partner
98 percent of the companies that have already worked with Arvato Systems value the company’s industry expertise. The IT service provider focuses on the target industries of energy and utilities, manufacturing, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, retail and consumer goods, media and entertainment as well as the public sector. 94 percent of customers consider Arvato Systems’ IT service portfolio to be fully comprehensive – from the integration and operation of applications to infrastructure services such as public cloud integration and solutions for cyber security to its own data centres for the operation of private and public clouds.

IT and digital innovations as solutions for global challenges
"The current crises are forcing companies to constantly adapt in order to remain competitive," says Rene Wendt-Leppich, Head of Business Transformation Advisory at Arvato Systems. "At Arvato Systems, we not only keep an eye on the market and current developments at all times, we also always take a holistic view of our customers’ situation. By identifying suitable measures and implementing the right solutions, we successfully guide companies through the omnipresent challenges. In a world with increasing headwinds, technology is the necessary tailwind."

Methodology
For the study, PAC, a leading European market analysis and consulting firm for the IT industry, conducted a telephone survey in November 2022 among 104 senior IT and business unit managers on the status of digitisation in their companies. The respondents belonged to companies in the manufacturing, service, utilities, public, retail, wholesale, logistics and media sectors with an annual turnover of more than 500 million euros.

The study is available for free download here.