Research conducted for low-code application development platform, Toca, has found the extent of the challenges faced by IT teams in delivering these projects.

IT decision makers cited budget constraints, a lack of collaboration across the wider business, legacy systems, a shortage of developers and integration challenges as the top five.

Consequently, 88% of IT decision makers are facing costly project delays – with the average digitalisation delay lasting five months at a cost of £20,200 a day, totalling just over £3 million.

Mat Rule, Founder and CEO of Toca, said: “Organisations are focusing attention on digital transformation projects to drive new business opportunities and to meet the growing expectation for seamless customer journeys, which have been heightened by newer, digital-first competitors entering the market.

“This has placed IT teams under significant pressure, with issues like shorter timelines, tight budgets and legacy processes impacting the success of the projects. And with spiralling cost overruns and delays lasting months at a time, businesses are facing a growing issue as they try to deliver value with new applications and systems.”

Despite organisations making progress with digital transformation, almost all (94%) IT leaders confirmed that “building apps, connecting systems and automating processes faster is business imperative.”

To combat this, 89% of IT decision makers stated they would prefer to leverage legacy systems to speed up digital projects, rather than rewrite and platform them.

Additionally, 80% of IT leaders agreed that the need for speed with digital projects is increasing technical debt at their organisation.

This can impact other projects by creating a knock-on effect, with more than three quarters (76%) of IT decision makers saying that technical debt holds them back from taking on new projects.

Data revealed that this is hampering organisations’ ability to deploy digital technologies, with respondents reporting that on average they are only able to address one in four problems with digital transformation.

Around 79% of respondents added that processes aren’t automated because of time, cost, or complexity, despite the data revealing that automating manual tasks could save the average employee over five hours a week.

Recommended

• National Robotarium opens in Edinburgh
• Scottish startups in “resilient” mood despite economic fears
• ICO reprimands seven organisations over public data request failures

“Digital transformation projects are proving challenging for businesses, as they tackle delays and cost overruns,” Rule continued.

He said: “In order to drive quick digital wins and to solve more business problems, organisations need to empower their development teams to be more productive and to overcome the restraints of legacy technologies.

“To achieve this, businesses are increasingly looking at solutions like low-code development, which can enable IT teams to deliver flexible digital services in a matter of days, drastically reducing the cost and time of traditional development.

“Using low-code, businesses can build digital wrappers around their legacy systems and then integrate apps and portals to drive digital journeys.”

Get the latest news from DIGIT direct to your inbox

Our newsletter covers the latest technology and IT news from Scotland and beyond, as well as in-depth features and exclusive interviews with leading figures and rising stars.

To subscribe, click here.