Four out of every five UK businesses are unable to scale their digital transformation plans to the fullest potential, according to a new report from NeosNetworks.
Despite the advances in digital transformation made during the COVID-19 pandemic and the digital acceleration this brought, only 20% of surveyed firms said that they were in a position to take their plans to their full potential. Lack of connectivity and a shortage of skilled workers were both cited as reasons for the failures of UK organizations to fully embrace their planned changes.
The report highlighted four main challenges faced by firms seeking to upgrade their technology, those being connection quality, handling of hybrid working, security and telecoms partnerships. Almost 80% of organizations are actively seeking to migrate to cloud-based infrastructure, but only 20% stated that their cloud-based solutions were ready to implement. In addition, 74% of those surveyed said that they have connectivity issues with regards to data centers. In a shocking addition, almost 50% of them stated that their IT departments are not always kept up to date with new technology initiatives, with 47% stating that said departments are not always the ones who make decisions on connectivity issues.
Some other key findings that have contributed towards the stunted digital growth in the UK is Brexit and the subsequent lack of skilled workers causing slowed progress within the industry, and a lack of commitment to the digital transformation initiatives within the daily operations of the business. Pete Hanlon, CTO at Moneypenny commented that “It’s easy to be consumed by the day to day work and put off large projects like digital transformation until next year. It’s also easy to think that it’s just a technology project rather than business change. Without the right level of focus and buy-in from across all areas of the business, digital transformation will never happen”
