4 technologies businesses want to invest in to drive long-term value 

Businesses are undertaking technology-enabled transformation to meet changing consumer needs.

With a belief that the needs of customers are rapidly changing (46%), businesses are planning to invest in four digital technologies which they also believe will drive long-term value.

Amongst the four, C-suite executives and senior leaders placed data and analytics at the top of their priority list for technology investment (57%), followed by cloud (43%), Internet of Things (43%), and artificial intelligence (30%).

“More than investing in a single technology tool or platform, the emphasis is on picking a combination of technologies based on the goals of the organisation. While foundational technologies are becoming the bare minimum for technology investments, building the right technology combination involves picking additional technologies that are unique to the sectors that the company is operating in,” Gaurav Modi, EY ASEAN and Singapore consulting leader, said.

Whilst businesses are driven to undertake a technology-enabled transformation to meet changing consumer needs (37%), the employee skills gap (76%) is hindering them to do so.

To successfully transform, executives said employees must possess tech skills, particularly on data and analytics (35%).

As organisations find talent acquisition to be more difficult (80%), they have turned to reskilling their existing employees instead of hiring experienced people (72%) to address the gap.

“To bridge the digital talent gap, companies need to take a multifaceted approach. They need to be proactive with change management and new experience design for employees, implement a holistic digital talent strategy to retain existing staff and attract new talent to secure required skills. Participating in digital ecosystems to access skills and outsourcing to a trusted strategic partner are also pathways to accelerate access to capabilities,” Gaurav said.