ROI-led digital transformation leads the C-suite business agenda

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Digital leaders producing results from their digital strategies focus on investments that deliver the highest returns according to CGI's global research

MONTRÉAL, July 18, 2023 /CNW/ - CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB) announced today the findings from its global proprietary research based on interviews with 1,764 business and IT executives in 21 economic sectors. The findings reveal that digitization is driving business model reconfiguration at record levels, with two-thirds of executives saying it has a high impact on their organization, up nearly 10 percentage points over two years.

At the same time, just 1 in 5 executives interviewed say their organization's business models have a high degree of agility to address digitization, including the integration of new technologies such as AI. Two in 5 executives point to legacy systems among the key barriers to successful digitization.

Over 90% of interviewed executives indicate they have digital strategies, with 31% now extending those strategies to their external ecosystems. While this indicates progress over previous years' research, just 30% of those executives state their organizations are producing expected results from their digital strategies; these organizations are identified as the digital leaders.

When it comes to data strategy, 1 in 5 executives interviewed extend their data strategy across their value chain and partners. Across all executives interviewed, the most common areas of investment for improving data strategy are improving data quality (83%) and data management and governance (83%).

CGI's research also reveals a correlation between business model agility and digital strategy results. Those executives rating their organizations' business model agility as very high are three times more likely to produce expected results from their digital strategies.

"The gap between those organizations with a digital strategy and those producing results is clear evidence that we are still in the 'early days' of the holistic digitization of organizations—and society at large," said François Boulanger, CGI President and Chief Operating Officer (COO). "Many of the executives we spoke with cited the challenging economic environment as a key driver for sharpening their focus on the most critical digital initiatives that will deliver the highest financial returns and drive resiliency. At CGI, delivering ROI-led digitization is at the core of our partnership approach to help clients address this focus."

CGI's research demonstrates that digital leaders are ahead of their peers in areas such as:

• Aligning and integrating their business and IT organizations to support and execute strategy;
• Increasing business model agility to adapt to digitization;
• Extending strategies for digitization, data and cybersecurity to their external ecosystems; and
• Experiencing fewer challenges from their legacy systems and cultural change.

"Our global research is instrumental in helping CGI's consultants as they partner with clients to think boldly and act pragmatically in both the development and execution of their business priorities," adds Jean-Michel Baticle, CGI President and COO. "More than ever, executives are leading their organizations to balance short- and long-term strategies in the midst of rapid—and recurring—change in order to unlock value and deliver on customer expectations. Through our findings, we share insights and best practices from across industries globally as well as the attributes of the digital leaders."

About CGI's global research

Annually, CGI leaders around the world conduct in-depth interviews with business and IT executives on a range of strategic topics affecting their enterprises. The resulting industry insights—including the attributes of digital leaders—lead to actions that help clients better serve their customers and citizens. This year, CGI interviewed 1,764 executives, a majority of whom are C-level, across the industries and geographies the company serves. These in-depth discussions covered topics such as digitization, business agility, innovation, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, sustainability, change management and more. Over the past five years, one million data points have been collected through this research for trending and comparison purposes. Learn more at cgi.com/voice-of-our-clients.

About CGI

Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world. With 91,000 consultants and professionals across the globe, CGI delivers an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions. CGI works with clients through a local relationship model complemented by a global delivery network that helps clients digitally transform their organizations and accelerate results. CGI Fiscal 2022 reported revenue is $12.87 billion and CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB).

SOURCE CGI Inc.

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