Nearly half of all digital initiatives still fail – here’s how you can learn from the ‘digital vanguard’ and deliver success

Fewer than half of digital initiatives hit their business outcome targets, according to research from Gartner, with only a small proportion doing much better.

A survey of more than 3,100 CIOs and technology executives - and over 1,100 executive leaders outside of IT (CxOs) - by the consultancy found it's only among the 'digital vanguard' that the majority of digital initiatives meet or exceed business outcome targets.

"This digital vanguard distinguishes themselves from the rest of CIOs and CxOs because they co-own digital delivery," said Raf Gelders, VP of research at Gartner.

"CIOs and CxOs are equally responsible, accountable and involved in delivering the digital solutions their enterprises need. This is a radical departure from the traditional paradigm of IT delivery and business project sponsorship that predominates in most enterprises."

More than 80% of EMEA CIOs said they expected to increase their investments in cybersecurity, AI or generative AI, and business intelligence and data analytics in 2025, Gartner noted, underlining the continued appetite for digital transformation and emerging technologies.

But the difference between success and failure is how the organization views the adoption of these technologies and what they can deliver, Gelders noted.

"Digital vanguard CIOs do not invest in these technologies to be used by their IT staff only. They also make them easy to use for potential or actual technologists outside of IT," said Gelders.

"On average, there is 26% of business/corporate area staff outside of IT dedicated to building, implementing or managing technology. Many of these technologies naturally lend themselves to easing the burden of work enterprise-wide, accelerating time-to-market and time-to-value, and fostering the accountability of CxOs."

Meanwhile, 43% of EMEA CIOs said they expect to decrease their investment in legacy infrastructure and data center technologies - a trend that's become more common in recent years, mainly thanks to migrating to cloud-based solutions.

One-third, however, are planning to increase investment in this domain. The majority of this investment will be among organizations that are using on-premise infrastructure to experiment and produce generative AI solutions.

Perhaps surprisingly, skills development doesn't seem to be much of a priority.

Only 14% of EMEA CIOs said they prioritize building an enterprise-wide technology workforce - beyond their own IT departments - and just one-in-five are prioritizing sharing technology leadership with other business areas.

Cross-functional collaboration and knowledge exchange is critical to delivering success in any digital transformation program, according to Daniel Sanchez-Reina, VP analyst at Gartner.

Therefore, businesses that lack synergy across different business areas could encounter significant problems. The digital vanguards, however, excel at this.

"Digital vanguard CIOs nurture their peers to become digital vanguard CxOs. Those CIOs make it easier for their CxOs to lead digital with them and for business area staff to build digital solutions together with IT,” said Sanchez-Reina.

“CIOs' success now depends on their CxOs’ success," he added.

To become a digital vanguard, Sanchez-Reina said there are four key areas that CIOs must prioritize. These include:

• Making digital platforms easy for the workforce to build solutions
• Teaching them the interdependencies between technology and business
• Helping business leaders become “innovation leaders” in digital
• Expanding digital skills beyond the IT department