By 2022 something like 65-70% of global GDP had gone through some form of digitization driving more than $6.8 trillion in digital transformation and data integration investments between 2020 and 2022 alone. And yet, many organizations are no better off with regards to the data they are generating and ostensibly capturing. In some cases, they are actually worse off. Our team individually and collectively has consulted with dozens of organizations in varying states of digital integration, from nascent to programs well underway. These are not inexpensive endeavors, and the rate of failure along the continuum of digital transformation remains high. Why? Some observations based on our experience:

  •  The process of digital transformation and data integration is slow, expensive and very difficult to scale due to complexity. These together undermine executive team confidence in the effort and can call into question the priority and/or efficacy of the initiative.
  • These efforts require specific skillsets and expertise that are uncommon outside of an organization’s core functions, something we recently wrote about, and they are a highly sought out and recruited role and as such are subject to a high level of churn. Losing that key expertise can bring digital transformation and data integration efforts to a stop and the time then needed to re-recruit and onboard new expertise can create lethargy and a lack of sustained focus and priority within the org.
  • Legacy technology stacks aren’t actually stacks, they are siloed applications that have never historically talked to each other and/or were never designed to integrate and the initiative is deficient of the leadership and investment to overcome this reality. The distance between “just make our systems work” and standing up a net new tech stack is a chasm.
  • Executive leadership changes that bring with them different focus and priorities and the inability to understand the longterm value for the organization in sustaining the effort.
  • Limited understanding and capabilities across the organization with regards to data quality, data use and application, analysis and analytics capabilities.

There are many, many reasons organizations and teams struggle with digital transformation and data integration, but these observations have been the most frequently witnessed in our experience.