Half of UK enterprises delay digital transformation projects

Half of UK enterprises admit they delay digital transformation projects due to the fact there are too many barriers to overcome and too much existing pressure on IT.

That's according to new research by technology and services provider NTT, which found that the two most common barriers to digital transformation include concerns over security and regulation non-compliance (faced by 42% of surveyed enterprises) and the significant upfront investments required before companies are able to trial a new transformational concept (37%).

Other frequent obstacles included limited access to emerging technology skills, such as AI or blockchain and concerns about business disruption.

The new report by NTT on “The Hesitancy Gap”, which was based on a survey of 200 IT decision-makers in large UK enterprises with over 1,000 employees, found that IT teams spend over a quarter (26%) of their time just laying the groundwork for digital transformation projects. This, according to NTT, comes at a cost of roughly £2.01 million per year.

Companies are wasting time as well as money. According to the report, building a partner ecosystem and cloud infrastructure, as well as implementing connectivity, adds an estimated nine months to digital transformation projects. NTT recommends businesses look into new concepts in a vendor-neutral ecosystem before taking the digital transformation plunge.

“Having access to a full-scale, production-ready environment where a new project can be trialled ‘in the wild’ using a multitude of cloud platforms, connections, technologies and service providers, without the hassle of having to pull everything together from scratch, would undoubtedly be a significant boon for digital business,” claims NTT’s report.

Earlier this month, NTT also found that reducing security risks is the biggest challenge faced by IT teams globally, as well as the top reason for managed service provider (MSP) consideration.

Other popular reasons for considering MSPs were to aid the development of key IT skills and to help with updating and improving internal processes or operational efficiencies.

Sabina Weston

Having only graduated from City University in 2019, Sabina has already demonstrated her abilities as a keen writer and effective journalist. Currently a content writer for Drapers, Sabina spent a number of years writing for ITPro, specialising in networking and telecommunications, as well as charting the efforts of technology companies to improve their inclusion and diversity strategies, a topic close to her heart.

Sabina has also held a number of editorial roles at Harper's Bazaar, Cube Collective, and HighClouds.