Building Competitiveness and Business Performance with ICT

FindingHigh performersmatch investmentsin technology withstrong managerial andtechnical skillsResearch results show that on average, firmsthat have strong business enablers and are highinvestors in technology have a significantlygreater chance of being high performers thanfirms that are either low investors or, moreimportantly, have weak business enablers andare high investors.These findings are of particular relevancebecause all of the firms that were surveyed saidthey expect to invest more in all three types oftechnology over the next three years. Hence,the critical role played by key business enablerscould help firms increase their chances ofenhancing performance from their futureinvestments in technology and likewise reducetheir risks of wasting those investments.In Figure 4 below, “Increasing the valueof investments in technology with strongtechnology-focused talent,” research resultsfound ample evidence to show that firmswhich matched their investments in cloudbasedservices with sufficient technologyfocusedtalent almost doubled the probabilityof being competitively agile. In contrast, thosefirms which did not match their investments incloud-based services with technology-focusedtalent were statistically no better off than thosefirms that made little or no investments intechnology.The different groups consist of low investorsin cloud and high investors in cloud. Notshown were 24% of non-investors in cloudbasedservices. Within the high investor group,there are two important sub-groups: the highinvestors with sufficient technology-focusedtalent and high investors with insufficienttechnology-focused talent. The height of eachbar corresponds to the percentage of firmswithin a group that were high performers.The benefits of having sufficient technologyfocusedtalent: 17% of the total survey sampleconsisted of high investors in cloud-basedservices that also had high technical skills. Ofthe firms in this group, 72% were highly agile. Inother words, firms in this group were 70% morelikely to be competitively agile than those highinvestors in cloud-based services that struggledto access technology-focused talent.The risks of having insufficient technologyfocusedtalent: High investors in cloud-basedservices with insufficient technology-focusedtalent represent 13% of the total survey sampleand 44% of high investors in cloud-basedservices. Survey findings reveal that these highinvestors were statistically no more likely to behighly agile than low investors in cloud-basedservices. In essence, firms that were investingmore in cloud-based services to enhanceagility yet had insufficient access to technologyskills were at risk of wasting their investmentson cloud-based services.Figure 4: Increasing the value of investments in technology with sufficient technology-focused talent.Key: 46% of those surveyed were low investorsin cloud-based services, while 30% were highinvestors in cloud-based services and theremaining 24%, not shown, did not invest incloud-based services. 36% of the low investorsin cloud-based services were highly agile,regardless of whether they had weak or strongtechnical talent. However, 13% and 17% makingup the 30% that were high investors in cloudbasedservices had weak technical talent andstrong technical talent, respectively. Of the 13%with weak technical talent, 42% were highlyagile whereas of the 17% with strong technicaltalent 72% were highly agile. Hence, it reallypays for high investors in cloud to employstrong technical talent.72%Within investorgroup, % of firmsthat werehighly agile36%42%weaktechnicaltalentstrongtechnicaltalent13%17%46% of the sample wereLow Investors in Cloud30% of the sample wereHigh Investors in CloudSize of each investor group (% of total sample);Non Investors in Cloud (24%) are not shownBuilding Business Performance and Competitiveness with ICT 13