Boston Consulting Group states that 70% of digital transformations fall short of their objectives. Digital transformation challenges are pervasive and enterprise-wide, making them difficult to overcome.
| Risk aversion: Businesses and employees can be highly risk-averse. This is natural, no one wants to fail. However, being risk-averse can be a greater risk than not. Organizations tend to self-impose a risk-aversion tax on themselves, which can cause them to miss out on improving performance, in some cases, by nearly one-third.
Regulations: Some industries are highly regulated, making it difficult to innovate or move quickly with new software solutions. |
Fear of change: The people in companies can, understandably, be reluctant to change processes, organizational structure, and new technologies.
Poor infrastructure: Digital transformation initiatives can be bogged down by mission-critical systems and processes that are older and too brittle to support new ways of business. In fact, 52% of IT departments spend at least 70% of their budget maintaining legacy systems rather than focusing on innovative solutions, according to the Win with Customer Experiences survey. |
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Where does digital transformation fail?
Digital transformation projects fail when organizations lack a cross-functional program and program managers that support the goals of the digital strategy. Program managers ensure that the digital transformation strategy is carried in a uniform way across every department and that there is a repeatable and scalable process.
Organizations tend to view digital transformation as having a finite end point. This line of thinking plays a large factor as to why digital transformation projects fail. Organizations need a digital execution plan that aligns with a perpetual strategy in which organizations set goals, accomplish them, reset, and repeat.
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How do you achieve digital transformation?
You need a digital execution plan, of which software development is at the center. Software (or applications) fuel the processes and functions of every department—HR, finance, the warehouse, sales, the supply chain, marketing, etc.—which means application development is at the center of digital transformation.
Slow application planning and delivery cycles can hurt any organization’s attempt to create transformational software. Digital transformation is not just about technology. It requires a holistic, cross-functional approach to software development.
