How can businesses realize the true value of digital transformation?

Although 94% of ITDMs agree that the speed of digital transformation (DX) has accelerated over the last year, decision makers outside of IT departments fail to recognise the extent of change, Dae.mn finds.

Of the respondents that believe they have fully implemented their digital transformation strategy (35%), only 20% are decision makers outside the IT department and 80% are IT decision makers.

This disconnect continues when respondents were asked about the implementation of specific technologies:

• 79% of ITDMs agree that they have undergone significant DevOps adoption, compared to 61% of non-ITDMs.
• 79% of ITDMs agree that they have undergone significant adoption of cloud services, compared to 58% of non-ITDMs.
• 80% of ITDMs agree that they have undergone significant data analytics adoption, compared to just 42% of non-ITDMs.

The study canvassed the opinions of 200 decision makers across a range of industries including retail, manufacturing, financial services, professional services, energy, media and leisure in Q3 of 2021. It also found that 58% of respondents say that their organization is only in the very early stages of implementing their digital transformation strategy or has only partially implemented it.

Disconnect between ITDMs and non-ITDMs over the value of digital transformation

The data suggests that some organizations are further ahead with their implementation of a DX strategy, as well as internal misalignment. A recent IDC report predicted that direct digital transformation would total over $6.8 trillion between 2020 and 2023. As both the speed of DX investments and implementations accelerates, ITDMs are struggling to demonstrate the impact of DX despite it being a priority. Of the respondents, 92% consider “proving business value of IT services” a high or top priority.

“These revelations come at a time where businesses rely more on technology to streamline operations, as a point of differentiation, or even just to function at a basic level than ever before,” says Calum Fitzgerald, Co-Founder of Dae.mn.

“As a result, demonstrating ROI has never been more important, but is clearly proving difficult. If decision makers outside of IT are struggling to see the impact that investment is having, especially whilst technology is playing a pivotal role, then this could be down to internal communication.”

Fitzgerald continues: “Ultimately the solution lies in making sure that the objectives are agreed upon in the preliminary stages of any digital transformation project, and that they are measurable. Additionally, allowing leadership across the entire organization to maintain visibility over digital transformation and communicating with them in terms that they will understand is crucial in mollifying any concerns that they may over budgets, implementation, or general disruption.”