Retail, metallurgy and oil and gas have become leaders in digitalization

Only a third of the largest Russian companies have a digital transformation strategy, calculated in the integrator “T1 Consulting,” the company’s research report says. Vedomosti got acquainted with the results of the study. The most “digitized” industries were: retail (29.1%), ferrous metallurgy (26.9%) and oil and gas industry (25%). The least digital industry was construction (19.8%).

During the study, the company analyzed the performance of 150 large companies according to more than 200 criteria. For each of them, the researchers awarded companies from 1 to 10 points. The final assessment was formed as an arithmetic mean value for all digitalization criteria. Criteria such as the presence of a digital transformation strategy, its publicity and relevance, the use of electronic services in work, the presence of technical directors in the company, as well as transactions for the purchase of startups and development companies, etc. were taken into account.

In terms of total points, the most “digitalized” companies in terms of the study were “Kamaz”, developer PIK, Russian RailwaysOzon,Gazprom» and metallurgical holding Evraz.

Metallurgical company Meta, gas company Arktikgaz (joint venture Novatek andGazprom oil”), retailer DNS, the railway transportation company Coal-trans, as well as the construction company Anntek and the Russian division of Volkswagen. Their representatives did not respond to Vedomosti’s inquiries whether they agreed with the study’s findings.

“The absence of a digital transformation strategy is neither good nor bad. This does not have any catastrophic consequences for companies,” said the manager of the Digital Consulting business unit.T1 Consulting” Anastasia Ryzhkova. But any business scaling, including replacing one information system with another, without a unified strategy “can cause unnecessary costs for companies, both in terms of cost effectiveness for changes, and in terms of choosing the best path for changes,” she added.

According to various estimates, at the end of 2021, digital transformation strategies were developed in approximately one in three large Russian companies, agrees with the assessment “T1 Consulting Polina Khabarova, Business Transformation Director of IT company CROC. At the same time, among “super-large organizations” this share is much higher and approaches 100%, she adds.

“All large companies have IT strategies, this is a prerequisite for business development. The portfolio of IT projects and indicative transformation budgets were previously determined for 3-5 years, ”objects Sergey Nikitchuk, director of the B1 digital technology group. At the same time, medium-sized businesses may not pay attention to this area, he admits.

At the same time, now all IT strategies have become irrelevant due to the need for import substitution, while the business wants to be technological – to develop portals, mobile applications, predictive analytics, to build interaction with customers and employees in a different way, Nikitchuk continues. Now these two trends are key in IT, he notes. Therefore, large business is now in the process of updating its IT strategies, the expert believes.

“Due to current events, many old strategies could turn out to be irrelevant in the new conditions, and companies are forced to develop new ones, taking into account the trend for import substitution,” Khabarova sums up.

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