Digital transformation projects still at risk, says survey

The majority of businesses are suffering to progress in digital transformation, despite the optimism that surrounds it, a new report coming out of California has found.

Open source and database company, Couchbase, discovered in its online survey that firms are struggling to move forwards due to delays, failures and scaled back expectations in digital transformation projects.

It’s not all bad news

The report was taken out across the U.S, U.K, France, and Germany and revealed that of the 450 heads of companies asked, almost three quarters claimed to have made a “significant” or greater improvement for the end-user experience when practicing digital innovation.

Whilst 22% say that the end-user experience has been completely transformed or “revolutionized”. This was a 15% increase from the 2017 survey that was carried out by Couchbase.

Problems with modernising

Despite these positive results, however, the report did find that there are still many issues being faced with digital growth.

A massive 86% of heads said that factors such as complexity with adopting tech, reliance on technology and lack of skills and resources had stopped them from taking digital services further than they would like. Just over half said that their reliance on relational databases “somewhat” limited their ability to implement digital transformation projects.

Adding to this, 81% have had a digital project fail or suffer delays in the last year. A further 42% commented that when working on a significant digital transformation project, they had ended up falling behind with plans.

Around three-quarters of companies surveyed believed that there is more talk over developments being progressive than is actually practical.

Helping with hindrances

These problems have not stopped the organisations wanting to modernise digitally, with places aiming to spend $30 million (£25 million) on this area in the next 12 months.

Matt Cain, the CEO of Couchbase spoke of the need for companies to adopt to digital change at this key point in time.

“Digital transformation has reached an inflection point,” said Cain. “At this pivotal time, it is critical for enterprises to overcome the challenges that have been holding them back for years. Organizations that put the right people and technology in place, and truly drive their digital transformation initiatives, will benefit from market advantages and business returns.”

The CEO also discussed what companies can be doing to take advantage of digital innovation, enabling their companies to progress. He says, “In order for companies to succeed with their digital projects and overcome the inherent challenges with these new approaches, they have to attack the projects in a comprehensive and systemic way,”

Adding, “Transformation is ultimately achieved with the right combination of organizational commitment and next-generation technology.  Change must be driven across the entire enterprise as a true strategic imperative, not left in the sole hands of the IT team. The best technology will then help companies enable the customer outcomes they desire.”

 

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