An overwhelming majority of 85% of managers surveyed in Germany and 84% worldwide wrongly assume that the use of email and social media alone constitutes a digital workplace. This is the conclusion of an international survey conducted by Avanade. According to the study, more than half (52%) of German companies and 56% of the international comparison group do not yet use any digital workplace technologies at all. Overall, three out of four companies stated that more than half of their software and applications cannot be accessed seamlessly from outside a physical office environment. A further quarter do not know whether this option exists within the company.

Avanade defines a "digital workplace" as the combination of applications, information and collaboration in an intelligent context - individually adapted to the position, location and tasks of the employees.

Investments pay off

Although employee motivation is the main driver of the results, large companies are on average still four years away from providing true digital workplaces due to the increased costs involved. Almost half (48%) of global respondents said that the cost of digital workplace solutions was the reason their companies decided not to implement them. In Germany, only 40% held this view. 77% of German representatives also felt that their company is currently facing the challenge of using data and analytics profitably within the company. Only 40% of German companies prioritize investments in technologies that provide insights into business processes and deliver business intelligence in the next 12 to 24 months.

However, the success proves the companies that are already using digital workplaces or at least individual tools for this purpose right: 100% of German managers were able to achieve a positive business benefit as a direct result. These include increased productivity (61%), greater employee motivation (44%) and sales growth (40%).

"German companies need to focus more on digital workplaces for knowledge workers," concludes Robert Gögele, General Manager at Avanade for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. "This will enable them to respond to the information needs of their employees in a completely digitalized environment and remain competitive in the battle for talent in a networked world."

Survey method

The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research as an online survey of 500 C-level executives and IT decision makers in the following countries: 51 respondents in Australia, 42 in Canada, 126 in Germany, 26 in the Netherlands, 51 in Singapore, 100 in the United Kingdom and 104 respondents in the United States.

The survey was conducted in May 2015 using an email invitation and an online survey. The sample results are subject to sampling variance. The degree of variance is measurable and is influenced by the number of respondents and the level of percentages reflecting the results.