Digital transformation is a top priority for 42% of Irish CEOs, who also view cyber security far more favourably than their global counterparts, according to a survey published this week.

The BT survey was conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) with 400 CEOs in 13 countries (including Ireland) across five continents. It found that nearly 40% of CEOs currently have digital transformation at the top of their boardroom agenda, with almost a quarter of them personally leading their company’s transformation programmes.

The breakdown of Irish results reveal:

• Priorities: In Ireland, 42% of Irish CEOs surveyed saw digital transformation as their top priority. When asked about their approach to digital transformation, 50% described themselves as fast followers – watching and learning from other organisations’ digital transformation efforts.

• Shared Responsibility: They also shared the most responsibility for digital transformation with their CIO (39%), and their chief digital officer (31%).

• Barriers to success: Like their other international correspondents, Irish CEOs also expressed concerns about their barriers to digital transformation.

Half of respondents felt inflexible technology was a stumbling block, with 54% seeing lack of technology skills causing problems. Some 43% of Irish CEOs worried that lack of customer insight would be a barrier.

• Security is key: Overall, 73% felt security played a vital role in digital transformation, with 81% believing security technology and the calibre of IT security staff being crucial in ensuring success in digital transformation. This was in stark contrast to nearly 25% of global CEOs who saw security as a ‘necessary evil’.

Other findings show that 86% of CEOs encounter challenges in delivering the ideal infrastructure on which their digital programmes rely. They identify inflexible technology (43%), lack of technology skills (40%) and security concerns (39%) as the main obstacles in building better digital infrastructure.

CEOs highlight better integration, reliability, security and cost effectiveness as being the most critical factors needed to deliver the infrastructure which will build the digital business of the future.

When it comes to achieving their digital ambitions, more than a quarter of CEOs regard security as a key differentiator. This view is especially prevalent in consumer-facing sectors, rising to almost 50% for CEOs who operate in the financial services industry.

Customer service — and specifically the digital customer experience — is seen by the survey respondents as highly important, with 79% of CEOs saying they already offer a ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ digital customer experience today.

CEOs display a similar level of confidence in the digital experience of their employees, where their focus is on retaining talented employees, increasing innovation and reducing costs.

The research also revealed that CEOs regard the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, mobile computing and social media as the technology trends which are likely to have the most significant impact on their organisations over the next two to three years.

Responding to the survey results, Shay Walsh, MD of BT Ireland, said 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.

“It’s interesting that these are primarily human factors and it illustrates that digital transformation strategies should always be built around people,” he added.

In addition to the research report, BT has created a series of whitepapers covering the issues identified by the survey around the themes of security, digital business, digital customer and digital employee. More information about them can be found here.