Final report

Difficulties of digitalisation captures a cluster of comments that relate to the complexity of the problem 

space. It identifies difficulties including ICT hardware costs, ongoing maintenance costs, staff training costs, 

which are balanced against the size of the business, perceived benefits, other priorities, lack of affordable off 

the shelf solutions, and so on. These issues are complex, interrelated, and not easily actionable as individual 

difficulties. When taken together, they could be perceived as insurmountable and overlap with the anxious 

responses in the “technology” cluster. Within this “technology-strategic issues” cluster, the  difficulties 

associated with rural areas are noted (coastal or island areas are not mentioned). 

4.