A new study reveals critical challenges for U.S. based CIOs grappling with digital workplace transformation. Zoho Corporation’s Trends in Digital Workplace Transformation survey indicates that the U.S. lags slightly behind Zoho’s global average in digital workplace maturity, highlighting headwinds caused by significant security challenges and having to grapple with shadow IT persistently.
Zoho’s analysis incorporated a survey of 4,900 employees within businesses across industries and of varying sizes. According to Zoho, 39% of U.S.-based organizations are spinning their wheels in the early stages of transformation. To reach these findings, Zoho’s team created what the company calls its “digital workplace transformation maturity model.”
This model evaluates two core indicators: Workplace indicators, defined as digital tools and processes, and employee performance indicators, defined as productivity, collaboration and security preparedness. In this analysis, Zoho ranked the U.S. with an average maturity level of 61.0, just slightly behind the international average of 62.3.
The findings show enterprises everywhere need to improve these digital transformation strategies. Also, many U.S. businesses are stuck in early “transitional phases” and are struggling to move their efforts forward.
According to the report, sectors such as technology and finance are ahead in leveraging advanced technologies. However, government, health care, and education prioritize robust processes due to regulatory demands. Entertainment and hospitality face adoption challenges because of their decentralized operations. These industry differences reveal how essential it is for CIOs to build their digital efforts customized for their industries and the specific needs of their business in that industry.
Krishna Prasad, CIO and chief strategy officer at technology services provider UST, emphasizes the importance of technology and business alignment to success. “It does start with how well the CIO understands the nature of their business and closely aligns with their business stakeholders. CIOs need a seat during high-level business discussions to shape the business direction.
As it turns out, according to Zoho’s analysis, hybrid and remote work environments exhibit higher maturity levels due to the flexibility in adopting custom processes, tools and security controls. In contrast, traditional office setups lag, suggesting a need for CIOs to accelerate digital transformation in these environments.
One of the most pressing of Zoho’s findings is the prevalence of security gaps. Despite the wide availability of password management systems, many employees, particularly in administrative roles, still rely on spreadsheets or ad-hoc password sharing. The survey also found that less than 6% of workplaces have adequate security to detect suspicious emails.
Shadow IT is also a significant concern, as many employees use unapproved file sharing, project management and communication tools. This reveals the need for CIOs to address the underlying reasons for shadow IT adoption by providing equal or better and approved solutions.
Tim Crawford, CIO strategic advisor at the consultancy AVOA, agrees. “The employees and business unit leaders are trying to do the right thing and use innovative technology to advance their actions. That’s great, and I love that mindset, but you need the guardrails to go with it,” Crawford says.
While AI adoption is growing, with content enhancement the top use case, Zoho’s report found that adoption rates for AI-enabled threat detection and predictive analytics remain low, indicating an opportunity for CIOs to begin soon to leverage AI for security and strategic insights. “There’s adoption differences out there,” Crawford adds. “Some businesses are moving ahead with Copilot and ChatGPT, and others are much more cautious and do not allow workers to try ChatGPT.
The report underscores the need for CIOs to quickly develop tailored digital workplace strategies that recognize the unique needs of different sectors, organization sizes and work modes. And it highlights how CIOs must prioritize security, including threat detection and secure credential management. “The role of the CIO in driving their transformations is fully understanding how they can shape their organization’s technology, data and processes to enable the business to scale and be agile moving forward,” says UST’s Prasad.
