More than 50% of UK IT leaders are struggling to secure boardroom consensus for achieving digital economy objectives, new research has revealed.
The UK result is significantly higher than the European average of 41% and more than any of the eight other countries surveyed.
When ranking challenges for achieving digital transformation objectives, the 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 – commissioned by Interoute – showed that 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.
Interoute’s Mark Lewis commented: “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.
“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.”
He added: “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.
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