One in five digital transformation projects fail

One in five businesses in the UK have not managed to deliver digital transformation projects, according to a new survey.

Lack of understanding of technologies available to support digital transformation projects is the main cause of failure, cited by 51% of firms polled by Censuswide on behalf of IT firm Econocom.

Other key reasons mentioned include selecting a platform that was not appropriate for the purpose, cited by 39% of respondents, followed by lack of skills (23%) and lack of budget (23%).

Budgeting concerns in a climate of uncertainty is another issue impacting the success of digital transformation initiatives, the research says, with 44% of respondents worried about spending too much on systems in a lump sum.

In addition, 40% of the executives polled reported concerns around making the wrong technology choice, while 38% stated Brexit is holding them back.

Separate research from Gartner, released in January 2019, predicted IT spending would be unaffected by factors such as the UK’s departure from the EU.

A desire for alternative funding models to enable digital transformation initiatives was also highlighted by the Econocom research, with 93% of IT leaders polled saying service-based models would be the ideal option – though only 17% are already doing so.

The Computer Weekly/TechTarget IT Priorities annual research has reported software, platform and infrastructure as a service will be hot areas for spending among IT decision-makers in 2019, particularly around software as a service.

The Econocom research surveyed 150 IT and finance decision makers in companies in the retail, legal and financial services sectors with more than 100 employees and over £1m in revenue.