This was revealed in a survey of 450 heads of digital transformation for enterprises across the US, UK, France, and Germany. It found that 52% of digital leaders feel that the fixation on digital transformation had increased the risk of rushing into ill-thought-out projects, meaning that much of the average planned spend of $28 million in the next 12 months could be wasted.

According to the study, digital leaders feel growing pressure to invest in digital projects, with 85% of respondents believing that disruption in their industry has increased in the past 12 months.

>See also: Business and IT strategy change needed for transformation success

However, 95% believe that digital transformation can seem an insurmountable task, while 88% of organisations have had a digital project fail, reduce in scope, or suffer significant delays because their legacy technology couldn’t support it.

At the same time, 87% of organisations find they have to scale back ambitions for new applications and services so that they will work with IoT or mobile devices – since these devices cannot match the data processing power of larger servers, and cannot guarantee a consistent connection.

>See also: 7 trends driving enterprise IT transformation in 2018 

Matt Cain, CEO of Couchbase, said: “We are entering the era of the massively interactive enterprise where every part of an organisation, from sales and marketing to HR, finance and logistics, is built around engaging digital experiences.”

“The revolutionary potential of digital transformation will have a hugely positive impact for those organisations that can do it well.”

“However, the pressure to transform at speed means organisations have a higher risk of taking a rushed, reactive approach, driven by the fear that the organisation will lose relevance, that results in substandard experiences and wasted investments. Transformation is not a destination.”

>See also: IT environments require transformation to meet business needs

Nominations are now open for the Women in IT Awards Ireland and Women in IT Awards Silicon Valley. Nominate yourself, a colleague or someone in your network now! The Women in IT Awards Series – organised by Information Age – aims to tackle this issue and redress the gender imbalance, by showcasing the achievements of women in the sector and identifying new role models