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Autodesk leader urges companies to ‘self-serve’ their digital transformation
By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>
AUTODESK research has found Australian ‘design and make’ companies – architects, engineering, construction operations and manufacturing firms – are behind the rest of the world in the kind of digital maturity they need to transform their businesses.
Autodesk – a company that develops software for 3D design, engineering, and entertainment, and which services a variety of professionals, including architects, engineers, designers, manufacturer and 3D artists – did the study analysing 2500 organisations around the world. About 250 were from Australia.
Andy Cunningham, the senior regional director for Australia and New Zealand at Autodesk, said Australia fared fairly well in a few areas but lagged globally in others.
“We found that 36% of organisations regard themselves as digitally mature, which is actually slightly behind the world average in that regard and of all organisations that responded, only 15% achieved their goals,” Mr Cunningham told Talking Business. 
“We were slightly behind the global average as the far as the completed status.”
Australia falls behind in sustainability
Australian companies were also behind the rest of the world in terms of sustainability.
“Of those customers surveyed, only 13% had clear goals for carbon neutrality within their organisation which is about 10 points behind the global average,” Mr Cunningham said.
He said digital transformation was particularly important in driving productivity. This is critical in Australia where productivity levels are now at low levels where growth in hours worked outpaces growth in output.
Productivity in Australia has now returned to the same stagnant pattern to what was seen before the pandemic.
Mr Cunningham said this problem was most notable in Australia’s construction industry.
“If the construction industry were to be more productive, there would be reduction in waste, cost and better sequencing,” he said.
“For 50-60 years, we have not evolved so far as productivity in construction.
“You see that on sites today. The adoption of digitisation in the field itself is one of the greatest laggards in the industries we see, right across the digital spectrum.”
Digital lag holds companies back
However, Mr Cunningham pointed out that this pursuit of digital transformation was an ongoing process.
“It’s an evolving journey, you could argue it’s never complete,” he said.
Mr Cunningham said one of the three big issues stopping companies transforming themselves digitally was attracting and retaining talent. The other two were managing costs and reacting to global volatility and economic events.
From his own perspective, he said companies needed this to be discussed and understood at boardroom level in terms of metrics and value.
“It has to be understood and invested at a board level,” Mr Cunningham said.
“It drives growth, that’s the thing. What have seen in our research is that clients that have actually transformed or are transforming are more productive, more competitive and more digitally mature as well so they’re getting more work, they’re more cost effective.
“And of the entire world-wide survey that we did, 79% of respondents said the future of their company depends on digital tools.”
He said when there was no investment from the board “these small projects that either stay on the project level or die on the vine”.
Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness
