2024 IN TRANSPORT & LOGISTICS – WHAT KEY INVESTMENTS ARE BEING MADE?
As part of our recently-launched Mid-Market IT Priorities Report 2024, we spoke to over 500 IT decision makers across four sectors to get their thoughts on several key issues shaping the Mid-Market. This included gathering data on topics such as:
- How prepared organisations feel in the face of increased cyber threats
- Why IT decision-makers see ESG as an immediate way to stimulate growth
- What key motivators are the driving force behind digital transformation
Transport and logistics has plenty to gain from technology, but what are decision-makers prioritising when it comes to spending their budgets, what are the biggest threats to maintaining security and how vital to their strategy is the implementation of AI?
Find out more below or download the full report to discover the key IT priorities for transport and logistics in 2024.
1. Transport and Logistics says it’s CONFIDENT IN ITS RESPONSE TO CYBER ATTACKS
Across the entire mid-market, we’re seeing a more mature and proactive cyber security posture emerging within organisations, with the importance of threat intelligence improvements now ranking higher than more basic concerns such as protecting brand reputation.
When speaking with transport and logistics IT decision-makers, they revealed they were confident in their organisation’s ability to prevent and respond to cyber attacks, with 81% of respondents saying they were either somewhat confident or very confident. This could indicate that some of those organisations have either tested their response or successfully defended themselves from a cyber attack, which helps to boost confidence. However, with cyber attacks on the rise, it could be said that the detection of fewer attacks from mid-market organisations is a cause for concern, and that their confidence could be worryingly misplaced.
It’s also interesting to note that when it came to discussing the cyber security offerings they currently had in place, 53% of transport and logistics organisations had incident response offerings, which is the highest out of all the mid-market organisations we spoke to. However, only 33% have cyber insurance, which is the lowest out of all sectors surveyed. This could indicate transport and logistics organisations are more focused on damage limitation options rather than enforcing preventative measures – which could be due to rising insurance premiums or stricter acceptance criteria.
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2. WHAT’S DRIVING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION FOR Transport and Logistics?
For transport and logistics, when it came to the main factors motivating their digital transformation efforts, responding to industry disruption was at the top of the list:
- 32% say responding to industry disruption
- 29% state leveraging new technologies and innovations
- 28% say streamlining internal processes
- 27% state entering new markets or business models
- 27% said reducing costs and increasing profitability
- 22% said enhancing data security and compliance
- 21% responded improving environmental sustainability and social impact
- 20% said meeting evolving customer expectations
- 16% said increasing employee engagement and productivity
This could be connected to the increase in public cloud usage levels (around 40%), as organisations tend to find it quicker to implement more advanced and potentially transformative services in the public cloud. With streamlining internal processes coming in second, we could infer a correlation between this and a decline in the productivity of workforces, caused by cost-cutting-led outsourcing and offshore initiatives. Could digital transformation play a part in boosting that productivity and re-engaging workforces?
3. THE CONCERNS AROUND USING AI
The rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is impossible to ignore. The pace at which AI-powered technology has entered the market has kickstarted a race for organisations to implement and take advantage of AI first, in order to gain a competitive edge. That corresponds with the responses from IT decision-makers across the sectors we spoke to, who believe they’re well-placed to reap its benefits, with:
- 66% rating their understanding of AI use in a business setting as good-to-excellent
- 72% rating their understanding of AI use by their organisation as good-to-excellent
- 64% rating their understanding of how AI is used in their sectors as good-to-excellent
Despite this, just 18% of the organisations we spoke to are prioritising AI implementation as a key part of their IT strategy for 2024. Why is this, and what’s stopping transport and logistics organisations from adopting AI to assist and enhance daily operations?
For transport and logistics, their top concern was AI exposing them to new cyber security risks (33%), as well as legal or regulatory uncertainty (29%). This remains consistent with our findings from the cyber security section of the report and indicates a potential barrier for organisations looking to implement AI alongside having effective security measures.
FIND OUT MORE IN OUR MID-MARKET REPORT
Discover why transport and logistics organisations are hesitant to utilise AI, what their IT priorities are for the coming year and more – download our Mid-Market IT Priorities Report for 2024 for free.