A disproportionately large portion of Australia’s local companies are struggling to keep up with the pace of global digital adoption and transformation, according to new data from the local arm of Accenture. The consulting firm found 40% of local companies fall in the bottom quartile of companies when ranked by their digital maturity level against global competitors in countries in North America, Europe, and Asia. Matt Coates, technology lead at Accenture Australia and New Zealand, told TechRepublic: Local companies will need to consider investing more of their IT budgets in strategic innovation rather than merely maintaining existing systems to keep pace. Companies must also take a balanced approach to managing technical debt, with Accenture advising clients to direct 15% of IT budgets to debt remediation. Digital maturity was ranked based on how advanced they are in adopting a “digital core” — a term Accenture uses to describe the cloud infrastructure, digital platforms, data architecture, and security backbone that allow for an organisation to innovate and grow. Matt Coates, technology lead, Accenture Australia and New Zealand …