IT teams need soft, not just technical, skills to ensure successful digital transformation

TRUMBULL, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--#IT--Businesses have accelerated plans to digitalize services and operations by three to four years, due to the Covid-19 crisis.¹Questionmark, the online assessment provider, has unveiled a list of the top five skills that IT teams must develop to successfully implement �digitalization� strategies.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, organizations have been forced to move quickly to digitalize their business processes. Over 40% of the United States (US) workforce worked from home in 2020, Stanford University claims.² Spend on e-commerce grew by 44% according to estimates by researchers at Digital Commerce 360.³

These trends look set to continue even as the crisis abates. Projections by Statista predict that global digital transformation spending will nearly double between 2020 and 2023.⁴

Top five digital transformation skills for IT teams

Based on conversations with customers, Questionmark has compiled a list of the five skills that IT teams must develop to ensure the implementation of successful digitalization strategies.

1. Critical thinking � off-the-shelf solutions will not be sufficient for most businesses. Teams must be able to define the precise nature of the problems they face and create relevant strategies to tackle them.
2. Data literacy � understanding the bespoke challenges of each organization requires understanding relevant data. To do this intelligently, team members must be able to interpret data correctly and ask the right questions of it.
3. Emotional intelligence � it�s a mistake to assume that digital transformation is simply a technical job. Those tasked with digitalizing services must work across the entire organization and be able to understand relevant �pain points� and areas of concern for each business function.
4. Flexibility and adaptability � only one thing is certain: things won�t go according to plan. Teams need to be constantly agile and able to change plans quickly to accommodate new circumstances.
5. Creativity � teams must be able to imagine different solutions to problems that emerge. They will need to discover inventive ways to overcome hurdles and obstacles.

Lars Pedersen, CEO of Questionmark, said: �Digitalizing services has been on the priority list for several years, but few could have envisaged the speed with which businesses would have to accommodate rapidly changing customer behavior.

�Successful digitalization requires more than just technical skills. Technical teams must understand the business need and tailor solutions to it. Measuring the skills that enable them to do this can help employers identify what further support is needed.�

Measuring workforce skills through online assessments gives employers the information they need to ensure digital transformation plans are on track for success. They can introduce training when skills need strengthening. Further assessments can test whether that training worked.

The Questionmark enterprise-grade platform makes assessment content easy to create and adapt. The platform automatically marks papers and instantly compiles results. It is easy to spot trends and patterns. When the stakes are high, a range of anti-cheating measures are available.

www.questionmark.com

Ends

Notes to editors

About Questionmark

Questionmark unlocks performance through reliable and secure online assessments.

Questionmark provides a secure enterprise-grade assessment platform and professional services to leading organizations around the world, delivered with care and unequalled expertise. Its full-service online assessment tool and professional services help customers to improve their performance and meet their compliance requirements. Questionmark enables organizations to unlock their potential by delivering assessments which are valid, reliable, fair and defensible.

Questionmark offers secure powerful integration with other LMS, LRS and proctoring services making it easy to bring everything together in one place. Questionmark's cloud-based assessment management platform offers rapid deployment, scalability for high-volume test delivery, 24/7 support, and the peace-of-mind of secure, audited U.S., Australian and European-based data centers.

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1</sup>https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how-covid-19-has-pushed-companies-over-the-technology-tipping-point-and-transformed-business-forever
²https://news.stanford.edu/2020/06/29/snapshot-new-working-home-economy/
³https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/article/us-ecommerce-sales/#:~:text=Consumers%20spent%20%24861.12%20billion%20online,the%2015.1%25%20jump%20in%202019
⁴https://www.statista.com/statistics/870924/worldwide-digital-transformation-market-size/

Contacts

For more information:

US: Kristin Bernor, external relations: [email protected] 203.349.6438

UK: James Boyd-Wallis: [email protected] 07793 021 607

Australia and New Zealand: Chelsea Dowd: [email protected] +61 2 8073 0527