Ethics, culture are key to choosing a tech vendor

The secret to successful digital transformation projects? Finding a technology vendor that shares your company’s cultural values, according to a recent study from enterprise software firm IFS.

The Swedish global software firm surveyed more than 3,000 executives in Europe, the United States, and Australia across a range of industries to determine their top priorities as they seek to implement new technologies and digitize business processes. Researchers found that cultural misalignment and poor advice from vendors are among the main reasons that digital transformation projects fail and that a company’s ethics rank higher than innovation when it comes to choosing a technology partner. Key findings include: 

• Ethics (29%) ranked higher than innovation (27 percent) among desired vendor traits.

• Poor vendor advice is the main reason digital transformation projects fail (37%).

• Industry expertise (32%) and long-term solutions (30%) are the most important traits when evaluating vendors.

“The fact that a non-tangible such as ethics is ranked among the top three vendor traits is inextricably linked to the fact that poor advice from vendors was rated as the top reason for failure,” IFS Chief Customer Officer Michael Ouissi said in a statement announcing the findings. “Companies investing in technology should expect their vendors to adhere to sound sales and marketing practices based squarely in actual customer value.” 

Other survey results include: 

• Successful digital transformation projects primarily hinge on finding the right technological fit (44%) and establishing clear objectives (50%). 

• The top-three vendor trust factors are: on-time delivery (44%), support before, during, and after project completion (41%), and delivering projects faster (35%).