Third of Digital Transformation Projects Canceled in Last 2 Years – Report

A third of organizations -- 33% -- have canceled a digital transformation project in the last two years, according to a new report from Fujitsu. The technology company finds that there needs to be a clear shift in culture if more digital projects are to succeed.

The average spend on these canceled projects exceeds €500,000 ($588,420); a significant amount of money even to a large company with thousands of employees. (See Millions Going to Waste in Pursuit of Digital Transformation – Report.)

However, almost half -- 46% -- of companies surveyed report that their digital transformation projects had succeeded, with proven results across the business. Putting these two figures together -- 33% and 46% -- totals 79%, with a 21% deficit. So what happens to the other 21% of digital transformation projects? Can we conclude that they fail to produce results?

Not that failure is a bad thing: if taken well, failure can lead to much better results the next time round, through learning from the mistakes made and not doing the same thing twice.

In 58% of cases, customers drive digital transformation, respondents said, but if these digital projects fail, as they do a third of the time, 66% of businesses are reluctant to try again and use what they learned from the previous project to build and, hopefully, succeed.

Over 1,600 businesses were surveyed for the report, entitled "The Digital Transformation PACT," named after the so-called digital PACT, made up of People, Actions, Collaboration and Technology.

Fujitsu found that people, talent, skills and training were vital to a digital transformation project or strategy succeeding. With this in mind, nine of out ten businesses are investing in various forms of training in digital skills for employees.

Traditional businesses struggle with transitioning to digital, often because employees don't have the correct training for new processes or systems. (Image: freestocks.org, Unsplash)

Interestingly, 70% of respondents in organizations felt that the companies they worked for had "a clear lack of digital skills," but when it came to a verdict on their own, personal digital skills, most thought they were up to scratch, with similar thoughts on the leadership of their companies.

Furthermore, despite four in five companies having a defined digital strategy, 73% of organizations polled report that this strategy wasn't related to the overarching business goals.

The full report can be found on Fujitsu's website.

— Phil Oakley, Site Editor, TechX365