UK Organisations Lack Board Support in Executing Digital Strategies, Says New Report

LONDON -- March 9, 2017 — Over a third of chief digital officers and chief information officers in large organisations do not feel they have enough support from their boards when it comes to executing their digital strategies, according to a new report released today by Acquia, the digital experience company. This lack of support is felt despite 80% of those same CDOs and CIOs saying digital is integral to their organisations’ operations and performance.

This disconnect between strategy and execution is detailed in Beyond the Hype, a new report published today by Acquia that draws on research of more than 450 digital leaders from organisation across the UK, France and Germany. The report examines how large organisations are performing in an increasingly mature digital world where consumers expect top-class seamless experiences on any device at any time.

The report also highlights several specific areas where organisations are struggling to deliver effectively on their digital strategies:

• Most (61%) are struggling to achieve customer satisfaction across all digital touchpoints
• Over half (57%) are challenged when it comes to executing standard digital strategies to a high standard
• Nearly half (47%) struggle to keep content up to date
• The vast majority (89%) find executing successful personalisation difficult

James Murray, EMEA general manager at Acquia, said: “With so much noise and hype around the digital customer experience, we wanted to see just how today’s businesses are faring in the challenge of transforming the digital performance of their operations. The startling thing about this research is that, while there is a high degree of confidence at the strategic level among CDOs, this confidence is not mirrored by those who execute those strategies. What we see instead is that, once the strategy enters the real world, there are numerous barriers to delivering on the ambition. Whether this is down to a lack of internal support, things taking longer than expected, or the sheer complexity of operating in a multi-everything environment, these barriers risk limiting the performance of businesses in an ever more digital world.”

About Acquia
Acquia is the leading provider of cloud-based, digital experience management solutions. Forward-thinking organisations rely on Acquia to transform the way they can engage with customers -- in a personal and contextual way, across every device and channel. Acquia provides the agility organisations need to embrace new digital business models and speed innovation and time to market. With Acquia, thousands of customers globally including the BBC, Nasdaq, Stanford University, and the Australian Government are delivering digital experiences with transformational business impact.