The "Connecting Commerce" report includes the first digital cities barometer, a ranking of 45 cities worldwide across five key categories relevant to business performance: innovation and entrepreneurship; the financial environment; people and skills; new technology development; and ICT infrastructure. Executives in 17 European and British cities were surveyed, with London and Madrid citing some of the highest levels of trust among executives in the world.
 
Tom Homer, Telstra's general manager for EMEA, said the report makes an important contribution to exploring what support executives need to digitally transform their business and thrive in a connected world.
 
"Digital transformation can be a long and complex process. In most cases, existing internal resources will not be sufficient, and companies will need to seek additional support from outside. Companies will find most of that support in the city or cities where they operate, with the majority of executives surveyed believing that when it comes to government policies, those implemented by the local government have more influence on their organization's digital success than national policies," says Mr. Homer.
 
"Basically, the environment in which a company operates has a direct impact on whether it can successfully transform. Overall, 48 percent of the executives surveyed said their company had considered moving its operations to a city with a more favorable external environment. This is something governments need to take into account as European cities actively compete for business, technology talent, and funding.".
 
Another current issue for the European market is the sentiment of respondents regarding access to government data. The majority of executives believe that open data is important for their businesses, particularly when it comes to improving services for their clients and developing new lines of business. The research results show that Europe is ahead of other markets when it comes to leveraging this data. However, the introduction of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May 2018 will have implications for how governments and businesses handle personal data.
 
The main findings of the research include:
 
• Executives in London and Madrid are among the most confident in the world about their city's ability to support their digital ambitions, ranking ninth and tenth respectively.
• Trust in the overall environment was lowest in Berlin, which ranked 45th. The city also ranked 45th in innovation and entrepreneurship despite the city's vibrant startup ecosystem.
• 48% of respondents believe that their city's ICT infrastructure is not effective for their transformation needs.
• Executives in Rome have limited confidence in their city's overall environment (35), compared to those in Milan (24), where confidence is substantially higher than in Italy's capital in all categories except ICT infrastructure.
• There were mixed results for European cities in the barometer when it comes to overall confidence in the environment. After London and Madrid, the ranking for the other cities was: Barcelona (12th), Copenhagen (16th), Paris (20th), Oslo (21st), Milan (24th), Brussels (25th), Antwerp (28th), Amsterdam (29th), Marseille (30th), Stockholm (31st), Birmingham (32nd), Rome (35th), Frankfurt (36th) and Rotterdam (41st).
 
Overall, the report found that business leaders are relatively confident that their city environments can provide the support they need to meet their digital ambitions.
 
"Many agreed that an organization's city is intrinsically linked to the success of its digital transformation, with companies willing to relocate to another city to get it right, and 75% of respondents believe that factors in the external environment are as important as their internal capabilities in determining the success of their transformation," Mr. Homer said.
 
The full report, which includes the Digital City Barometer, can be found at http://connectedfuture.economist.com/