6 Keys to Digital Transformation Success

Nearly every enterprise is undergoing a digital transformation. Some are more successful than others. Here are 6 factors shared by the successful ones.

Digital transformation has truly arrived, with nearly all enterprise organizations are engaging in some form of transformation or else planning one. That’s according to a new survey conducted by Hanover Research and commissioned by AHEAD, an enterprise cloud provider.

But how are these transformations going? That’s another question entirely. A full 36% of organizations are behind schedule, according to the survey that analyzed 293 responses to the poll of key IT decision makers at US-based companies. Yet still more were on target to hit their planned schedules at 44%. Another 14% reported being ahead of schedule. Still, 6% reported being stalled.

Like any initiative, there are plenty of obstacles in the way of success and hitting those milestones on time. If you are among the many in the midst of a digital transformation, these may sound familiar to you. Among those surveyed, the most common challenges to digital transformation were legacy systems (36%), regulatory hurdles (30%), employee skill sets (29%), cultural resistance to change (28%), internal politics (27%), lack of funding commitment (25%), underlying IT infrastructure (24%), poorly performing vendors (21%), and lack of digital strategy (20%).

That’s a whole host of headaches for anyone who works in an enterprise organization. Considering the funding for these projects, 65% of those surveyed said they believed that their budgets will increase in the future to facilitate digital transformation, while 34% said they expected their budgets to remain the same. Only 1% were predicting a budget decrease.

However, an interesting note is that more of those who are ahead of schedule expect a budget increase (70%), while a smaller percentage, 58%, expect a budget increase among those whose transformations are behind schedule or stalled. It’s unclear whether the more generous budgets are driving success, or the success is driving the more generous budgets.

Aside from the most common challenges to digital transformation, survey respondents also identified the most difficult challenges, too.