Digital Enterprise 4.0: Digital Persistence Amid Volatility

The year 2022 presented various challenges for organizations, including economic fluctuations, geopolitical uncertainties, and volatile market demands. These factors directly impacted the cost structures, technology budgets, and availability of skilled job candidates. As a result, many organizations adopted a cautious approach to their business operations and investments. They were forced to explore new markets, diversify product offerings, enhance supply chain efficiency, and take a more conscious approach to technology spending.

NASSCOM and Avasant present the “Digital Enterprise 4.0: Digital Persistence Amid Volatility” report in this context. The study is an in-depth survey of more than 500 global enterprises across all major global regions and 12 industries to assess their performance in adopting digital technologies toward overall enterprise digital maturity. The report offers insights into enterprise strategies for business resilience, digital investments, business process transformation, and digital talent development. Furthermore, the report provides a perspective on potential opportunities for service providers concerning enterprises’ digital needs, outsourcing, and ESG strategies.

The report provides a number of findings and recommendations, including the following:

• • Seventy-five percent of enterprises anticipate allocating over 20% of their technology spending to digital priorities across technology services and products, talent, R&D, and M&A in 2023, compared to 56% last year.
  • About 30% of enterprises will have more than 15% of their overall workforce as digital talent in 2023, a twofold increase from 2022.
  • Cybersecurity, cloud, robotics, 3D printing, and AI/ML are the top five mainstream digital technologies where enterprises will likely increase spending by 25% or more from last year.
  • Metaverse, digital twins, and Web 3.0 will witness the most early-stage investments, while 5G/6G/Wi-Fi 6/7 and connected wearables will invite higher investments for production-grade solutions.
  • About 71% of enterprises refunneled 5%–15% of cost savings from previous projects into new digital projects in 2022 to mobilize a zero-cost transformation strategy.
  • Companies in high-tech, aerospace and defense, healthcare and life sciences, and travel and transportation industries demonstrated an increase in overall digital maturity and higher digital spend allocation in 2022.
  • Fifty-three percent of global enterprises chose India as a preferred technology services outsourcing destination in their top three location choices. India is emerging as a friend-shoring destination with cost and value advantages.
  • Sixty-five percent of companies will offer hybrid work to over 40% of their employees in 2023 to remain attractive to digital talent, up from 55% of companies that offered similar options in 2022.
  • Sixty percent of enterprises either adopted globally accepted ESG norms or built internal ESG norms in line with local/global reporting requirements in 2022, up 13% YOY.