Half the UK’s IT leaders believe lack of consensus from the C-suite is holding back digital transformation

UK businesses need clear direction to keep pace with the digital economy in 2018

London, UK, January 9, 2018 – A survey commissioned by Interoute, the global cloud and network provider, has revealed that 51% of UK IT leaders are struggling to secure boardroom consensus for achieving digital transformation objectives. The UK result is significantly higher than the European average, which came in at 41% and more than any of the 8 other countries surveyed.

“Without a clear route forward agreed by the C-Suite, many IT professionals will find it difficult to progress critical digital transformation projects, risking UK businesses being left behind,” explained Mark Lewis, EVP Products and Development at Interoute. “With Brexit on the horizon, the UK faces unprecedented change and uncertainty in the market and it’s fair to assume this is impacting decision making at the highest level. But it’s never been more important for UK businesses to haul their IT talent out of running just the day-to-day business systems, and into creating the business processes and customer experiences that will make their products and services outstanding.”

“It is vital to get buy-in at the highest levels of any organisation to make the changes necessary that will allow businesses to progress and keep pace with the digital economy,” Mark Lewis continued. “IT professionals need the support of the whole business to be able to deliver the digital foundation business needs for future growth.”

When ranking challenges for achieving digital transformation objectives, the 820 European IT decision makers surveyed were on average most concerned about their ability to integrate legacy technologies with cloud enabled applications (55%). This was closely followed by uncertainty around the changing political climate (52%) and a lack of talent/skills available to drive projects (52%).

The research showed there is a higher cost associated with digital transformation skills, with 61% of UK businesses, 63% of French businesses, and 66% of businesses in Denmark expecting to pay at least 20% more for these, compared with skills required for other IT projects.

“IT skills are in short supply for businesses across Europe, which is why leadership is needed to avoid being left behind in this new digital world,” Mark Lewis concluded. “To make the most of the opportunities presented by digital transformation, IT professionals must work together with C-Suite executives to act quickly and decisively. With the support, direction and consensus of the C-Suite, digital transformation can be accelerated to the benefit of the entire organisation.”

The results of this survey are taken from the report, “The challenges facing European IT decision-makers engaged in digital business transformation,”™ that explores the factors governing IT decision-making and how senior IT professionals are preparing for change. Download the full report here.

About the Research

The survey, “The challenges facing European IT decision makers engaged in digital business transformation,”™ was carried out independently by Coleman-Parkes Research on behalf of Interoute in August and September 2017. The findings include feedback from 820 senior IT decision-makers in organisations across Europe with an annual turnover of 200 million to five billion Euros. It explored how organisations are planning for success in a changing world. It reviewed business confidence to the changing political climate, the impact that uncertainty has on technology decision making and how technology is preparing organisations for the opportunities that lie ahead.

About Interoute

Interoute is the owner-operator of one of Europe’s largest networks and a global cloud services platform which encompasses 15 data centres, 17 virtual data centres and 33 colocation centres, with connections to 206 additional third-party data centres across Europe. Its full-service Unified ICT platform serves international enterprises and many of the world’s leading service providers, as well as governments and universities. Interoute’s Unified ICT strategy  provides solutions for enterprises seeking connectivity and a scalable, secure advanced platform on which they can build their voice, video, computing and data services, as well as service providers in need of high capacity international data transit and infrastructure. With established operations throughout Europe and USA, Interoute also owns and operates 24 connected city networks within Europe’s major business centres. www.interoute.com