One out of every two Indian corporations has a digital transformation plan in place, as per the third edition of the DBS Digital Readiness survey. The survey added that 48 per cent of large corporations (companies with revenues exceeding $1 billion equivalent) and middle-market companies (with revenues between $200 million and $1 billion equivalent) in India have adopted a digital transformation strategy.
Over 70 per cent of large corporates and middle-market companies in APAC have a digital transformation strategy in place, with Taiwan leading the pack at 95 per cent, it said. In 2020, 57 per cent of APAC businesses had a digital strategy.
Moreover, the proportion of businesses with clearly defined digital strategies has increased significantly from 26 to 35 per cent, the report stated.
According to the study, 62 per cent of large corporations and middle-market companies are in the formative stages of digitalisation in India.
SMEs in India is making steady progress in the digital economy to match the pace set by their peers abroad, according to the report.
Singapore leads the pack with 72 per cent of its SMEs having a digital transformation strategy in place, followed by Hong Kong (47 per cent), China (44 per cent), Taiwan (38 per cent), India (25 per cent) and Indonesia (20 per cent).
However, Indian SMEs have digitised 23 per cent of their payment collection volumes, up from 18 per cent a year ago.
Customers and key market demands (28 per cent) were the two major external challenges driving change for large corporations and middle-market companies. According to 34 per cent of SMEs in India, digitisation pressure is caused by increasingly complex supply chains.
In India, the challenges of digital adoption are different for large corporations, mid-market firms, and small and medium businesses. For large and middle-market corporations, barriers include cybersecurity (54 per cent), availability of digital talent (53 per cent), and cost (51 per cent). A major challenge faced by SMEs was the high cost of adopting new technology (80 per cent), the report said.
Cybersecurity concerns were identified by more than half of large corporations and middle-market companies as DDoS attacks (77 per cent) and cloud infrastructure security (76 per cent) as the most concerning issues.
Over half of large corporations and middle-market companies in India cited trade and supply chain financing (82 per cent), ongoing cash management (58 per cent), and back-office operations (55 per cent) as the top three digital investment areas. In India, 63 per cent of SMEs are investing in new technology solutions for cash management.
