About 90 percent of organizations are either maintaining or increasing their digital transformation budgets amid the COVID-19 pandemic, reveals the global survey- 'Digital Readiness and COVID-19: Assessing the Impact', conducted by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

The global survey was conducted on almost 300 senior business leaders from large enterprises about 97 percent with revenue above $1 billion and 44 percent more than $10 billion that is spanning over 11 industries across Europe, North America, and Asia. Alongside this, six digital capabilities were also identified as critical factors in companies undergoing pandemic effects such as End-to-end digital customer experience (CX), Core enterprise systems in the cloud, AI-based analytics to continually improve the CX, Highly automated core business processes, Key partnerships in digital ecosystems, and Digital sensors tracking products.

Rajashree R, Chief Marketing Officer, TCS says, "Before the pandemic, companies' digital capabilities were rapidly becoming central to their success and business transformation initiatives. However, our study revealed how several enterprises were not as far along in developing a digital backbone as they hoped. Companies that had embraced digital transformation more whole-heartedly performed better during the pandemic and expect a faster rebound, whereas others are now focused on making necessary investments and racing to catch up."

Although, the survey has compared the organization that had more advanced digital capabilities before the COVID-19 impact. The high possession company is referred to as leaders while the lesser possession is known as followers. Thus, the survey reveals that about 64 percent were leaders and 73 percent were followers, however, the leader has witnessed revenue decline as compared to the followers. It is also been observed that the leaders have better business visibility and a more confident outlook and about 74 percent are expecting their revenues to bounce back within two years.

In addition to this, the business initiatives of an end-to-end CX have witnessed higher traction and has already been deployed at 25 percent of companies and under development at 44 percent. Likewise, about 24 percent are using analytics and AI to improve CX while at 39 percent of companies AI is under development.

However, due to the pandemic, many companies have opted to shift in technology. Nearly 65 percent have shifted to collaborative technologies, 56 percent to cybersecurity, 51 percent to cloud-native technologies, and 39 percent to advanced analytics.

Also, higher levels of automation in core business processes is considered to be a priority, thus, about 23 percent of companies have already adopted it while 44 percent of companies are in the process of adoption.