Organisations operating in government, defence and space are ‘high trust’, as they deliver critical value to society, contributing to the smooth running, physical safety and general freedoms enjoyed by UK citizens.
Advancing technological innovation is a key purpose for high trust sectors. Our research shows that this is particularly important in aerospace and defence, with high numbers of respondents agreeing.
For the majority (55%) of respondents, a ‘digital advantage’ correlated directly with agility, namely the ability to quickly and easily change processes to keep up with advances in today’s connected world.
Defence is most likely to prioritise the ability to change processes (58%), followed by government and aerospace (54% and 53% respectively)
Gaining an advantage is directly related to accelerated innovation and transformation for around half of high trust organisations.
However there was a stark difference across sectors, with 57% of government respondents, and 53% of aerospace respondents, agreeing that an advantage means accelerated innovation and transformation, compared to just 29% of those from defence organisations.
35% of respondents from high trust organisations believe that having an advantage means staying ahead of the adversary. Those from aerospace (42%) and defence (35%) are more likely to say this compared to government respondents (28%).
Overall, almost half (45%) of respondents from organisations operating in high trust sectors report that having an advantage in today’s connected, digital world means being able to meet and exceed their organisational goals.
Those from defence organisations are more likely (58%) to believe that advantage allows them to meet and exceed organisational goals. This drops to 50% among those from government organisations and 30% from those in aerospace.
Several key challenges exist when it comes to handling data in high trust environments, with organisations seeing it as a key barrier preventing them from becoming more digitally mature. Key challenges include:
Being unable to easily move data from one environment to another
Concerns over moving data to the cloud
New systems being compatible with legacy systems
More sophisticated threats from external vectors/enemy states
Ensuring official data is protected
From implementing hybrid working policies to attracting and retaining talent amid digital skills shortages, organisations in high trust sectors are navigating several key people challenges.
Adopting a digital culture that employees are on-board with
Attracting STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) talent
Finding DevOps employees that work in a secure way
Implementing agile approaches/processes
A lack of diversity when it comes to recruiting STEM talent
Security concerns, fear of the unknown and integrating new technology with legacy systems were all cited as being technology barriers to organisations’ digital maturity journeys:
Concerns over security of new technology
Fear of integrating unproven technology from the start-up world
Ability to integrate new technology into existing systems
Our ability to embed digital in processes
It’s hard to identify and on-board trusted suppliers
Lack of budget to upgrade legacy systems