What Companies Growing More than 50 Percent Faster Are Investing In

Big data. Cloud. Mobility. Security. Sounds like the making of a buzzword bingo blog post, right?

But the results of Dell’s second annual Global Technology Adoption Index (GTAI), reveal that organizations actively investing in big data, cloud and mobility have up to 53 percent higher growth rates compared to those who aren’t using the technologies. That’s a strong correlation, not just noise.

Dell GTAI chart illustrating how organizations actively using big data, cloud and mobility are growing up to 53 percent faster than laggards

And more organizations are using security to enable new things or gain a competitive advantage – growing in North America from 25 percent in 2014 to 35 percent in 2015, and growing in Western Europe from 26 percent to 35 percent.

“We’re enthused to see more organizations recognizing the strategic importance of technology investments,” said Paul J. Walsh, CIO, Dell. “We believe this new research will help companies see the correlation between technology use and revenue growth, improved efficiencies and organizational growth.”

That’s one of the reasons Dell commissioned global research firm TNS to conduct the GTAI in 2014 and again 2015. For example, 39 percent of organizations surveyed report that their mobility strategies are leading to improved efficiency, as well as business process improvement and reduction in paperwork (21 percent each). Security initiatives are not only about reducing risk, but are also about driving quicker response to market conditions, with 78 percent of organizations with establish security solutions citing that as a key benefit.

“We knew adopting new technologies would help us become more efficient, but we’ve recognized an even more impressive return on our investment,” said Rick Mears, senior vice president/chief information officer for Owens & Minor.

The 2015 study is a quantitative survey with 2,900 IT and business decision makers, like Mears, at mid-market organizations (100-4,999 employees) across 11 countries and multiple industries that shows correlations between technology use, adoption, benefits and barriers.

And while many of those findings were released today, there’s a lot to dig into so expect to hear more about GTAI as we head into the second half of the year and even into 2016. For now, there are four major trends to note:

  • Investment in cloud, mobility, big data and security is correlated with higher revenue growth.
  • These technologies also fuel company benefits, including efficiency and organizational growth goals.
  • Cost joins security as a chief barrier to technology adoption, use and expansion.
  • Business leaders are the drivers for big data and mobility adoption, but they partner with the IT team for cloud and security.

Read more here, and for those of you who are visual thinkers, check out this infographic.

 Dell Global Technology Index 2015 overview infographic

About the Author: Laura Pevehouse

Laura Pevehouse was profiled as one of five “social media mavens” in the March 2009 issue of Austin Woman Magazine and named an AdWeek’s TweetFreak Five to Follow. She has been part of the Dell organization for more than 15 years in various corporate communications, employee communications, public relations, community affairs, marketing, branding, social media and online communication roles. From 2014-2018, Laura was Chief Blogger/Editor-in-Chief for Direct2DellEMC and Direct2Dell, Dell’s official corporate blog that she help launch in 2007. She is now a member of the Dell Technologies Chairman Communications team. Earlier in her Dell career she focused on Global Commercial Channels and US Small and Medium Business public relations as part of the Global Communications team. Prior to that, she was responsible for global strategy in social media and community management, as well as marcom landing pages, as a member of Dell’s Global SMB Marketing, Brand and Creative team. When she was part of Dell’s Global Online group, Laura provided internal consulting that integrated online and social media opportunities with a focus on Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. She managed the home page of Dell.com, one of the top 500 global web sites in Alexa traffic rank, and first brought web feeds and podcasts to the ecommerce site. In her spare time she led Dell into the metaverse with the creation of Dell Island in the virtual world Second Life. Laura has earned the designation of Accredited Business Communicator from the International Association of Business Communicators, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Louisiana State University. Before joining Dell Financial Services in 2000, she worked at the Texas Workforce Commission and PepsiCo Food Systems Worldwide.