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Almost three quarters of survey respondents in a study conducted by Unisys believe that it is ‘critical’ or ‘very important’ for organisations to modify IT processes and resources to support a digital business model.

The survey, which polled 175 IT and business executives in the US and Europe, examined the effect of social, cloud, mobility, data analytics, the Internet of Things, and security on driving new business models. 88% of respondents say data security in the cloud is a top priority for competing in the digital world, while more than half (55%) of organisations’ applications are already deployed in a cloud environment.

The overall sense of the report was that organisations were seeing positive results from their cloud and digital initiatives. As data security is a priority, one of the more interesting aspects is with regards to improvements over the past 12 months; 56% said data security had gone up, compared to greater user experience with applications and services (44%), IT efficiency (42%) and infrastructure performance (41%).

Similarly, organisations need to be more agile to better compete, the research argues. Only 15% of companies polled say they have the ‘extremely flexible’ and ‘nimble’ attributes required to take full advantages of the opportunities of digital.

“Digital business is all about finding innovative ways to empower workers and customers,” said Steve Nunn, vice president of cloud and infrastructure services at Unisys. “The organisations that will prosper in the new order are those that most quickly become focused, proficient and flexible in integrating and securing the cloud, IoT, and other key digital technologies to drive new levels of service.

“This research points the way for organisations to become more nimble and successful in capitalising on present and future business challenges,” Nunn added.