63% of Irish businesses report no digital skills plan

A report conducted by digital transformation services firm ActionPoint found that 90% of Irish businesses are between the stages of ‘pre-digital’ to ‘digitally purposeful’ compared to 10% who are ‘digitally optimised’ and ‘digitally strategic’.

ActionPoint’s H2 2021 Digital Transformation Index Report surveyed 248 respondents across a mix of small, mid-size and large Irish companies across eighteen industries including Financial Services, Technology and Manufacturing, and Construction.

Digital agendas

10% of Irish businesses said when it comes to digital maturity they are ‘optimised’ - meaning that they have a digital-led business strategy and are at the peak of their digital transformation journey.

Of the remaining 90% of companies surveyed, over half would be considered “digitally purposeful”, as in they have well-documented IT plans, understand and utilise data and are in a strong position post-covid to strengthen their digital strategy.

In February 2022, the Irish Government launched Harnessing Digital - The Digital Ireland Framework, where ambitious targets were set out for the digitalisation of Irish businesses including the goal to have 90% of SMEs at basic digital intensity by 2030 and 75% enterprise take-up in Cloud, AI and Big Data.

Lack of digital skills plan

It would appear Irish businesses are still lacking in the digital transformation department, with 63% of respondents to ActionPoint’s survey indicating that they do not have a digital skills plan.

The main barriers for companies on their digital journey include the lack of a digital skills plan in place to train employees, lack of investment in Employee Experience (EX) tools and the lack of advanced analytics software.