New Information Technologies Double Corporate Competitiveness

LONDON, Jan. 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- New research has shown, for the first time, that emerging technologies such as cloud services, mobility and online collaboration, are improving corporate competitiveness.

The research from INSEAD, the leading international business school, in collaboration with AT&T*, shows that high investors in new information technologies can double their likelihood of being highly competitive - from 35% to 74% - and outperform their peers.

However, investing in new technologies alone isn't enough to guarantee improved competitiveness. Some high investors in technology are seeing no improvement in their competitiveness at all, and perform the same as companies with low or no investment. The most critical factor in making technology investments succeed is to have other strong business resources in place.

Research Findings

The research findings are drawn from detailed responses from senior executives from 225 multinational companies active across Europe, Asia Pacific and North America.

The data shows that in Asia-Pacific, firms are investing a much greater percentage of their total ICT budgets in new technology, and expect to grow those investments more quickly, compared to the other regions:

• Investment in mobility will grow from 17% three years ago to 31% two years from now (82% growth);
• Cloud will more than double from 12% to 30% (150% growth); and
• Collaboration tools will increase from 18% to 26% (44% growth)

Investment in new technologies in Europe will accelerate over the next two years. Survey data shows that as a percentage of the total European ICT budget:

• Investment in mobility will increase from 12% three years ago to 20% two years from now (66% growth)
• Investment in cloud based services will almost double from 12% to 23% (96% growth);  and
• Investment in collaboration tools will rise slightly from 16% to 17%

Strong Business Resources

The most important finding of the research shows that when firms have strong business resources and invest more in new technology, the probability of becoming highly competitive can double - from 35% to 74%. Conversely, when firms with weak business resources make significant investments in new technology, their likelihood of better performance does not increase at all; their investment in new technology is at great risk of being completely wasted.

As part of the research, INSEAD eLab, a centre of excellence at INSEAD that provides insights into the impacts of digitization on leadership, organizations and countries, identified the following key business resources as vital to success.

1. Business involvement in technology investment and management decisions
2. Access to technology-focused talent
3. Access to management-focused talent, and
4. Having a mature digitized platform – the extent to which the technology, business process and data components of a company are standardized, shared and integrated. This is sometimes referred to as "digital maturity".

The research clearly shows that the most important resource by far is digital maturity. Firms that have mature digitized platforms and invest in new technology significantly increase the likelihood of being competitively agile, compared to firms with immature digitized platforms that make similar investments.

This is critical for global competition. European companies are spending less on new technology, but have the opportunity to leverage their past investments to make every new investment count. In Asia, companies must be careful not to rush too quickly to adopt new technologies, and make sure their platform is ready to make use of them.

There are also clear messages for governments and policy makers in the research. European policy makers can help businesses mature their digitized platforms more rapidly by creating the right regulatory environment that facilitates the storage and flow of data in a stable, seamless and secure way. They can also help businesses define, access and foster talent to make the most of their investments in technology by coordinating industry and universities to ensure demand for key skills is clearly matched with supply.

Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission said:

"To emerge from economic crisis, companies and governments need to identify how technology can be most productive; and how it can best help Europe compete in a global race.

The fact is, we need to fully understand what emerging technologies mean for performance; and how to ensure that they bring most return for your euro. At the moment, it is more important than ever to get the most out of investment: whether public or private. So we need not just to make judicious decisions about new technologies, but also to build the environment where investment has the best chance of success."

Andrew Edison, Regional Vice President for EMEA, AT&T said:

"Increasing productivity is one of the primary challenges facing European companies today. New technologies like cloud offer great opportunities to do this, which some high performers are demonstrating. However, simply adopting the newest technologies is not the answer, and is in fact a great risk. They must sit on top of mature, standardised platforms. Being agile and competitive doesn't mean being the quickest, it means always being able to be quick. The secret is a mature platform and avoiding the creation of 'infrastructure spaghetti' in the rush to adopt the latest tools."

Theodoros Evgeniou, Associate Professor of Decision Sciences and Technology Management at INSEAD, and Academic Director of INSEAD eLab said:

"Our findings show clearly the direct link between specific technology investments and improved organizational performance when these investments are made carefully. We have long known that some technology investments succeed and some fail, but we have never been able to pinpoint why. We are excited by this research because it provides new data that can help business leaders decide how to invest in technology. CEOs must ask a very simple question before adopting any new technology - is our organization and our digitized platform ready?"

Nils Fonstad, Associate Director of INSEAD eLab, said:

"Any firm that is investing in technology to enhance agility would do well to first assess the strength of their key business resources. In the process of identifying what distinguishes high performing firms from others in terms of their investments in ICT and key business resources, we have identified both the benefits of having strong business resources and the risks of having weak ones."

John Higgins, Director General, Digital Europe, said in response to the research:

"Europe is letting its advantage in technology driven productivity erode.  It is investing less, and growing that investment slower than places like Asia. European businesses must leverage their years of investment in technology and ensure their digital platforms are sufficiently mature, so they make every investment count and stay competitive in this tough environment. The technology industry is proving that it can make a serious difference to productivity, but technology must work with the rest of the business if it is to be successful."

The full report and supporting information is available at: www.corp.att.com/bemoreproductive

To join the discussion about ICT and productivity on LinkedIn click here, or search for 'Be More Productive' on www.linkedin.com.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

Note to editors

Methodology

INSEAD, the leading business school, in collaboration with AT&T, has conducted a major study into how investing in new generation information technologies – such as mobility, cloud based services and online collaboration tools - is impacting business productivity and competitiveness.

The report is designed to provide data and analysis to decision makers within companies and governments when making investment and policy decisions related to ICT.

Detailed explanations of the data and analysis methods used in this report, together with in-depth Q&As with interview participants, are included in the annexes to the report and are available in full online at www.corp.att.com/bemoreproductive.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and internationally. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation's largest 4G network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile Internet, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T │DIRECTV brands. The company's suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com/aboutus or follow our news on Twitter at @ATT, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/att and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/att.

© 2013 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. 4G not available everywhere. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

About INSEAD, The Business School for the World

As one of the world's leading and largest graduate business schools, INSEAD brings people, cultures and ideas together to change lives and to transform organisations.

With campuses in Europe (France), Asia (Singapore) and Abu Dhabi, INSEAD's business education and research spans three continents. Our 145 renowned Faculty members from 35 countries inspire more than 1,000 degree participants annually in our MBA, Executive MBA, specialised master's degrees (Master in Finance, Executive Master in Consulting and Coaching for Change) and PhD programmes. In addition, more than 9,000 executives participate in INSEAD's executive education programmes each year.

In North America, INSEAD participates in academic partnerships with the Wharton School; the Kellogg School of Management, and Johns Hopkins University, whilst in Asia, INSEAD partners with Tsinghua University in Beijing.  INSEAD is a founding member in the multidisciplinary Sorbonne University created in 2012, and also partners with Fundacao Dom Cabral in Brazil.

Around the world and over the decades, INSEAD continues to conduct cutting edge research and to innovate across all our programmes to provide business leaders with the knowledge and sensitivity to operate anywhere. These core values have enabled us to become truly "The Business School for the World."

INSEAD eLab is a centre of excellence within INSEAD providing insights into the impacts of digitization on leadership, organizations and countries. A key objective of INSEAD eLab is to strengthen links across academia, business leaders and policy makers by:

Drawing on a variety of global resources to develop research insights that are academically rigorous and relevant to private and public sector leaders; and
Providing leaders with regular opportunities to learn from each other and collaborate more effectively.

Information on INSEAD eLab including research reports, can be found at: www.insead.edu/elab

More information about INSEAD can be found at www.insead.edu

SOURCE AT&T Inc.

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