EY and Apax Partners, in collaboration with METI (Mouvement des entreprises de taille intermédiaire — French medium-sized business movement), recently published their third annual barometer on the digital maturity of mid-sized companies. The results are very interesting, reflecting the current challenges faced by procurement departments.
Two out of three MSBs are undergoing digital transformation
Today, MSBs believe their digital strategy is at a fairly advanced stage. A large majority (61%) are now in the development stage. In other words, initiatives have been introduced with promising initial results. What's more, a considerable number of the companies surveyed would like to increase investment in this area over the coming year.
What are the priorities for the year ahead?
The top five SMB investment projects involve:
- Improving the customer experience (90%).
- Digitalising internal processes (86%).
- Cybersecurity (85%).
- Collecting and processing data (84%).
- Bring innovation offers/services and the business model (81%).
Customer relationships are at the centre of the digital transformation of businesses, whether this involves optimising the customer journey, assessing satisfaction or developing what's on offer.
These results directly reflect the current challenges faced by procurement departments. In the latest survey conducted by Forrester Consulting, procurement decision makers share similar priorities:
- Improving the strategic vision of procurement through reporting and analytics (67%).
- Improving security and compliance with internal policies (64%).
- Improving the customer experience (63%).
French MSBs are clearly on track with their digital transformation and are aiming to update their business models, processes and customer relationships. EY notes that 81% of German MSB directors believed that purchases and supplier relations were the first areas to see results. It's therefore not surprising to see companies and purchasing departments with extremely similar overall priorities.
- Read the full report: « Baromètre de la maturité digitale des ETI ».
*Survey of 100 CEOs, managing directors and MSB directors from across all sectors, conducted between 10 and 22 October 2018.
**MSBs (mid-sized businesses) are companies with between 250 and 4999 employees, with a turnover of less than 1.5 billion euro or a balance sheet of less than 2 billion euro. This business category is positioned between SMEs (small and medium-sized businesses) and large compa
