New research by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has revealed that nearly 40 percent of CEOs currently have digital transformation at the very top of their boardroom agenda, with almost a quarter of them personally leading their company’s transformation programmes.
There is a high level of confidence (among 75 percent of CEOs surveyed) that their specific programmes will help them achieve their strategic objectives, which include making operational efficiencies, improving customer service and innovating for the future, with security as a key differentiator.
Bas Burger (pictured), CEO, Global Services, BT, said:
"Our research confirms that digital transformation has become a prevalent topic on the boardroom agenda. It also shows that CEOs all around the world identify the skills shortages, lack of insight into what customers and employees really want or need, and security as the main obstacles to delivering an optimal digital experience."
Burger said it was interesting that these are primarily human factors, and that this illustrates that digital transformation strategies should always be built around people.
Despite this, 86 percent of CEOs encounter challenges in delivering the ideal infrastructure on which their digital programmes rely. They identified inflexible technology, lack of technology skills, and security concerns as the main obstacles in building better digital infrastructure. They highlighted better integration, reliability, security, and cost effectiveness as being the most critical factors needed to deliver the infrastructure that will build the digital business of the future.
