The research, from communications and IT services provider KCOM and CCA, an authority on contact centres and customer service, was conducted among CCA members. It looked at the potential barriers preventing organisations from being more digitally enabled as well as the current status of digital technology adoption plans. 

It found that cooperation between departments was identified as being extremely significant or significant by 95% of respondents, while resources (people, technology and expertise) and budget allocation was seen as extremely significant or significant by 91%. 

Inflexibility of current processes and systems was identified as being an extremely significant or significant issue by 89% of respondents to the survey. 

Nearly half ( 45%) of respondents said that digital transformation is likely to require significant cost and effort due to the likely challenges associated with integrating existing systems and infrastructure. 

“Organisations that embrace digital technology have the opportunity to innovate and steer their customer service strategy for the future,” said Stephen Long, executive vice president at KCOM. “And typically contact centres are well placed to capitalise on this opportunity, which makes the fact that just a quarter of contact centres have a strategy for digital transformation surprising.

“Beyond the use of social media integration and virtual web assistants, there appear to be limited signs of ambition. For example, 35% of respondents had no plans to take advantage of cloud technology.”

The full report can be downloaded here.