A significant minority of UK enterprises do not have enough tech investment to realise their plans for digital transformation, according to a survey released today.

Conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Contentstack, the survey found that 42% of enterprises with over 1,000 employees need “substantial” further investment in order to realise digital transformation plans.

Furthermore, in a fifth of cases (21%), the challenge surrounds legacy technology, which is a direct obstacle to such projects and requires significant expenditure to replace.

For one in ten UK enterprises, however, current investments their company is making in tech are proving to be a barrier to digital transformation.

By contrast, just under a third believe the technology they have now is adequate for such plans, despite a renewed focus on transformation amid the pandemic.

“Even before the pandemic, digital transformation was heralded as the saviour of many businesses and industries, and since Covid this expectation has only increased,” said Sonja Kotrotsos, product marketing, Contentstack and VP, Mach Alliance.

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“But in stark contrast, our research shows that just 27% of companies say their current technology is enough to realise their digital transformation ambitions. To be frank, we had expected to see much higher investment, more plans underway and a corresponding level of increased confidence.”

UK tech investment in digital transformation: “Broad consensus” provides hope for change

While Contentstack was surprised by the findings, it sees the widespread nature of the issue as a promising sign for future UK tech investment.

“We are encouraged by the findings that there is broad consensus across business, IT and marketing leaders,” said Kotrotsos.

“Approximately a quarter of the respondents in each group (26%) say current technology and future ambitions are not aligned at all. This would suggest that there will be a consensus of change and it could soon be open season on how enterprises look to realise their digital transformation ambitions as they explore new options when it comes to investing in enterprise software.”


Read more: From construction to engineering, the pandemic shows why digital transformation is more important than ever