75% of surveyed CIOs struggle to unlock data insights within their organisation

While the large majority (98%) of CIOs report that the pandemic accelerated their organisation’s digital transformation plans, many (75%) are unable to unlock their data to drive a successful digital transformation. These findings come from the 2021 Global CIO Survey commissioned by Logicalis, a global provider of digital transformation and cloud managed services.

The survey, covering 1,000 CIOs from around the world, finds that although organisations are pushing to accelerate their digital transformation plans, three quarters (75%) of respondents admit their organisation is struggling to unlock data to drive a successful digital transformation strategy. Building on this, the survey results reveal that less than half of respondents (48%) use data to increase speed and agility in their operations, and only a quarter of respondents use data to drive overall business strategy.

The most popular area for digital transformation was IT, with 81% of organisations reporting accelerated activities in this department, demonstrating the importance of IT in building infrastructure that can support more agile, innovative operations across businesses. The next most popular areas for digital transformation activities were operations and customer service, all of which benefit from data-led business strategy.

Toby Alcock, CTO of Logicalis comments: “Data driven organisations gain a critical competitive advantage, equipping leaders with key insights to drive informed decisions and create unparalleled business agility. After 18 months of disruption and rapid transformation, organisational leaders need to reassess business operations to define a more flexible, adaptive, and scalable environment for businesses, partners, and customers. By focusing on data as the central tenet of the digital transformation business can directly attribute these solutions to positive changes to top-line revenue or bottom-line outcomes.”

Data provides a tremendous opportunity for businesses, but legacy systems and processes have created information silos which organisations need to unlock to enable insights and innovation. As businesses seek to stay relevant in an ever-changing market, they will look to the expertise of partners who can help them navigate this journey.