Measuring industry digitization: Leaders and laggards in the digital economy

Executive summary

The pace of digitization is picking up rapidly, as consumers, companies, and entire industries become increasingly connected at home, in the office, and on the go. It is already obvious, however, that the speed at which digitization is taking place varies a great deal from industry to industry. And these differences can already be felt in how quickly certain industries are capturing value as digitization grows in importance.

To gain a better understanding of the relative degree to which digitization is transforming different industries, we have created the Industry Digitization Index, consisting of the four factors involved in the digitization effort: input, processing, output, and underlying infrastructure. At the top of the list is the financial services and insurance sector, which should come as no surprise, given its purely informational products and services, and its long-standing effort to automate both back-office and customer-facing transactions. At the bottom are such industries as hospitality and real estate, both of which have made great strides in digitizing their contacts with customers but still struggle to automate supplier and construction management in a highly fragmented environment.

The race to capture value in the age of digitization is not yet over, however. All industries can benefit by investing in the input, processing, and output capabilities needed to extend their digital footprints throughout their business ecosystems.