As a global engineering, technology and consulting service provider, Expleo supports leading businesses in aerospace, automotive, banking, insurance, defence, energy and transportation.
As part of our commitment to maintain close working relationships, we asked customers from across these industries to predict their biggest challenges over the next 12 months.
With insights from 441 contributors, the feedback provides a fascinating entry into the minds of decision-makers at the world’s most influential companies. The challenges split broadly across four key areas, encompassing digital transformation, automation and AI.
1. Resource and workload concerns spark need for outsourced engineering & IT services
Staffing projects was a recurring theme in the survey, as respondents shared their concerns about sourcing skilled personnel in a highly competitive talent market. Anticipating when and how many qualified workers were needed was another major challenge, given the uncertainty around project timelines.
A telecoms provider raised the prospect of sourcing outsourced engineering & IT services to cope with high volumes of demand for IT projects and resources, which had risen compared to previous years. Ramping up new resources and replacing existing ones without any impact was a top priority for one of the world’s largest technology companies. Meanwhile, a leading insurance firm is weighing up how to strike the right balance between expert and junior profiles.
Finding people with the right qualifications was critical for meeting ‘highly fluctuating’ workload demands of projects, according to a manufacturer in the aerospace sector. The company was planning to upskill employees as a result. For an automotive player in Germany, the biggest challenge was summed up simply as: “the economic situation and shortage of skilled workers”.
Ambiguity around workforce needs was regularly cited as a cause of stress. For example, an electrical solutions provider was anticipating difficulties from sudden spikes in resource demand. A specialist manufacturer in the UK voiced anxiety about implementing an ambitious digital transformation strategy while replacing their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform over the same time period.
In the defence sector, a major company highlighted the need to “flex resource” as a crucial factor in their success over the next year. A competitor said they faced pressure to resource and deliver a complex software-intensive systems development and integration programme. Maintaining sufficient capacity to ensure high levels of safety during project delivery also raised a warning flag.
2. Budget constraints drive automation and AI
Project budgets are not rising in step with requirements, according to a sizeable number of survey respondents. In fact, teams are increasingly expected to deliver more with less, against ever tighter timelines. As a result, firms are pushing forward automation and AI projects to reduce expenditure and accelerate delivery over the next 12 months.
“Budget challenges are widespread,” stated a spokesperson for a major Asian bank. “That’s why we are gearing towards more automation to reduce human participation in certain processes or workflows.”
A North American financial services firm spoke more broadly of the need to reduce technical debt in applications, as a driver of digital transformation. For a European government department, there were concerns about capacity issues if budget cuts deepen, leading to increased demand for digital services. Another state organisation in Europe pointed to inflated maintenance overheads as a drain on budget allocation.
An automotive customer confirmed that more and more project budgets were being slashed. In aerospace, a leading company said teams were expected to augment output and make efficiencies due to reduced funds. The same concern around budget allocation was felt by a mobility manufacturer that was seeking to increase profitability by reducing costs in sub-contracting and research.
3. Growing complexity hampers project delivery
Firms feel under pressure to complete projects on time and to expectations due to the growing complexity of deliverables, according to survey respondents across a spread of industries. “Deliver, deliver, deliver… on time and on quality,” summed up one customer in the aerospace industry.
Hitting strategic deadlines would prove problematic for a leading defence company this year, while another was fixed on tracking projects across the verification and validation strategy (V&V) design and manufacturing phases. A software provider in the UK highlighted the imperative of cost efficiency, when delivering essential projects, such as digital transformation, automation and AI. Meeting targets on decarbonisation was called out as a focus for the next year by a major steel producer in France.
“Delivery of multiple complex products while modernising our estate,” was deemed a primary challenge for an energy provider. An aerospace customer in the US pointed to ‘consistency in delivery’ as a concern, while a defence firm in Europe was concentrated on accelerating delivery performance despite a reduction in personnel. “Multiple design programmes at different stages of the lifecycle [risk impacting] our ability to deliver on our commitments across multiple fronts,” they added.
4. Constant change demands digital transformation and flexibility
Companies are prioritising structural changes in the year ahead, according to our survey. A top insurance company highlighted the importance of ensuring that new offshore projects deliver the right level of quality and expected cost reductions, while a rival firm in the same sector looked forward to implementing an offshore strategy across their organisation.
A financial services leader stressed the need for the “continued transformation globally of all its business processes and automation“, while a technology provider forecasted the “transition of clients and processes across new applications and solutions which have been built over recent years”. Cloud migration was signalled as a key challenge around digital transformation for a global operator in the aerospace sector.
Improved agility and responsiveness were raised as goals over the next 12 months. “Agile transformation results in new team constellations with new requirements,” said a leading insurance firm, adding “we need to integrate testing into our agile teams”.
Ideally positioned to future-proof your business
Expleo is ready to provide engineering & IT services that help our customers address tomorrow’s challenges, regardless of the industry. With deep sector knowledge and wide-ranging expertise in key fields, such as AI engineering, digital transformation, automation and hyperautomation, cybersecurity and data science, we are a trusted partner for the innovation journey through every step of the value chain.
