Exclusive insights from last week’s DACH executive roundtable
Digital transformation budgets in 2025 are bigger than ever. Gartner estimates that enterprises in Europe will spend over €900 billion on IT this year, with Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (the DACH region) leading the charge. And yet, despite these record outlays, most leaders admit an uncomfortable truth: the majority of digital transformation efforts are still falling short.
At our exclusive roundtable last week with senior DACH executives, participants were remarkably candid about the root causes of failure. Despite substantial investments, transformation projects are derailed by cultural resistance, fragmented vendor support, poor change management, and unclear ROI measurement.
For IT vendors, these insights are gold dust. They reveal not only where enterprises are struggling but also how vendors can position themselves as the partner who ensures success.
Digital transformation: the paradox of rising spend and persistent failure
It’s a paradox that frustrates both executives and vendors:
- Global IT spend: forecast to exceed $5.1 trillion in 2025.
- Transformation failure rate: still around 70% (McKinsey).
- DACH enterprises: on average, allocate 25–30% of IT budgets to digital transformation projects.
Despite unprecedented resources, leaders say success is rare. One CIO at the roundtable remarked:
“We don’t have a budget problem, we have an adoption problem.”
This disconnect highlights a crucial vendor blind spot: winning the contract isn’t enough. Vendors must help clients tackle the underlying cultural and operational challenges that determine whether projects succeed.
The top five reasons digital transformation fails in DACH enterprises
1. Cultural resistance and weak adoption strategies
Every executive agreed that the biggest barrier is not technology but people. In one survey of German enterprises, 62% of leaders cited cultural resistance as the main reason for stalled digitalisation.
Roundtable insights:
- Staff revert to legacy tools (like Excel) even when new systems are available.
- Middle management often acts as a blocker, prioritising stability over change.
- Enterprises that underinvest in communication and training see up to 40% of digital tools go unused.
Vendor takeaway: IT vendors must package change management into their offers. Training, communication templates, and internal “champion” programmes can turn resistant cultures into adopters.
2. Unclear ROI metrics and business alignment Executives admitted that many digital initiatives are launched without clear success criteria. One transformation leader confessed:
“We’ve deployed tools without ever agreeing what success would look like. Adoption is low, but technically the vendor has ‘delivered’.”
Stats:
- 49% of DACH enterprises say they lack proper ROI frameworks for digital transformation (Bitkom, 2024).
- Projects with clearly defined KPIs are 2.3x more likely to deliver measurable business outcomes.
Vendor takeaway: Vendors that present a ROI model upfront, with baseline metrics and projected impact, are far more likely to win enterprise trust.
3. Fragmented vendor ecosystems and tool sprawl
Many DACH organisations are actively cutting their IT stacks by 20–40%. Executives noted that too many vendors create overlap, integration headaches, and diluted accountability.
Roundtable insights:
- One CTO shared that they had reduced their cybersecurity tools from 43 to 19 over the past 18 months.
- “Best-of-breed” is being replaced by “best-integrated.”
- Vendors that cannot demonstrate ecosystem compatibility are being deselected.
Vendor takeaway: Position your solution as a consolidator, not a contributor to sprawl. Integration and simplification are now stronger selling points than innovation alone.
4. Talent shortages and project fatigue
Even with high budgets, enterprises lack the people to drive transformation. In the DACH region, 57% of executives report a shortage of skilled digital talent.
Roundtable insights:
- AI and cloud projects stall because staff with the right blend of technical and business skills are scarce.
- Existing IT teams are stretched thin, managing both legacy systems and new deployments.
- This fuels “project fatigue”, enthusiasm at launch fades as overworked teams struggle to deliver.
Vendor takeaway: Vendors that offer embedded expertise, co-creation models, or managed services can bridge the talent gap and win long-term loyalty.
5. Leadership ownership and accountability gaps
Finally, executives admitted that too many projects fail because senior leadership abdicates responsibility once the budget is signed.
Stats:
- Projects with strong board-level sponsorship are 3.5x more likely to succeed (PwC, 2024).
- Yet, 46% of DACH executives admit they have failed to assign clear ownership for digitalisation initiatives.
Roundtable insights:
- Some leaders delegate responsibility to project teams without follow-up.
- In other cases, KPIs are so vague that accountability cannot be enforced.
Vendor takeaway: Vendors must hold leadership to account, by offering progress dashboards, governance frameworks, and measurable milestones that keep senior sponsors engaged.
Visualising the challenge
IT budget allocation vs. adoption success
| Category | % of Budget Allocated | % Reporting Success |
|---|---|---|
| AI & Automation | 17% | 32% |
| Cloud & Infrastructure | 22% | 48% |
| Cybersecurity | 27% | 67% |
| Data & Analytics | 19% | 41% |
| Change Management | 15% | 59% |
Key takeaway: Even categories with the highest budget allocation (like cybersecurity) don’t guarantee success, adoption, culture, and governance are the real differentiators.
The vendor blind spots, and how to overcome them
The executives last week highlighted several blind spots vendors consistently overlook:
- Selling features, not outcomes. Enterprises don’t want tools; they want measurable business impact.
- Ignoring cultural barriers. Most vendors underestimate the resistance inside large organisations.
- Overloading clients with tools. More isn’t better; simplification and integration win.
- Failing to offer governance. Enterprises want frameworks, not just deployments.
- Not aligning with DACH-specific pressures. Regulatory scrutiny and risk-aversion are higher in this region than in many others.
Action for vendors: Success lies in moving beyond technology delivery to become partners in governance, change management, and ROI measurement.
From supplier to strategic partner
The insights from last week’s DACH executive roundtable underline a clear reality: digital transformation doesn’t fail because of a lack of budget, it fails because of overlooked human, cultural, and strategic factors.
For IT vendors, the opportunity is to bridge that gap. Enterprises are actively seeking partners who can:
- Prove ROI.
- Reduce tool sprawl.
- Embed change management.
- Provide governance frameworks.
- Support adoption with talent and co-creation.
Those who can deliver on these needs will transform their role from supplier to strategic partner, positioning themselves at the heart of enterprise transformation in 2025 and beyond.