Member Article

42% of Manchester businesses believe that culture is central to digital transformation

New research has found that more than two in five (42%) businesses in Manchester believe that digital transformation is strongly related to business culture, with a further 30% stating that they associate it with collaboration.

The figures form part of a survey of decision-makers at businesses in the city by Imago Techmedia, organisers of this year’s Digital Transformation EXPO Manchester (formerly IP EXPO Manchester). It questioned respondents across a range of sectors about their thoughts on how their business is implementing technology-led change and the effect it’s having on their teams.

When asked which words they would use to describe digital transformation, “culture” and “collaboration” were both highly-cited responses. This comes following a recent report by McKinsey that found that up to 70% of digital transformation projects fail – many due to poor implementation of culture change and employee buy-in across an organisation.

Automation topped the list of technologies and terms that businesses associate with digital transformation, with more than two-thirds (67%) of those surveyed making this link. The second most popular response was “cloud”, cited by 51% of respondents, followed by “AI” (49%), “evolution” (44%) and “cyber security” (42%).

Meanwhile, just 2% of business decision-makers stated that they associate “hype” with digital transformation, suggesting that the majority are taking technology-led change seriously within their organisation.

Commenting on the findings, James McGough, MD at Imago Techmedia said: “It’s hugely encouraging that so many businesses in Manchester see the value and importance of digital transformation as a whole, but particularly in relation to the collaborative culture that underpins its success. Technology is nothing without people to deploy it on a daily basis. Clearly this is being taken seriously throughout one of the UK’s leading tech hubs – but there is still much more to do.

“Digital Transformation EXPO, taking place in Manchester in March, aims to educate and address many of these points; not least the importance of culture when it comes to introducing new processes to a business. We’ll be taking a deep-dive into digital transformation across all sectors while giving businesses access to the world’s leading technology companies, including Google and Microsoft. The aim is also to explain how current and future solutions can be integrated and to celebrate digital transformation success stories from Manchester and the North more widely.”

This research is the first part of a wider study on digital transformation across the north of England, to be released in the coming weeks.

The full list of words that Manchester businesses would use to describe digital transformation is below:

1. Automation – 67%
2. Cloud – 51%
3. AI – 49%
4. Evolution – 44%
5. Cyber Security – 42%
6. Collaboration – 42%
7. Modern Networks and Infrastructure – 42%
8. Agile - 35%
9. Unified communications – 35%
10. Opportunity – 33%
11. Culture – 30%
12. Data analytics – 30%
13. Future – 28%
14. Hype – 2%
15. Survival – 2%

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Digital Transformation EXPO Manchester .