CFO leadership can double the success rate of digital projects

Digitalisation has, in recent years, been one of the top investment priorities for Danish companies. In our CFO surveys over the past three years, digitalisation has consistently ranked as either the highest or second-highest priority for Danish CFOs. Additionally, 91% of CFOs believe their companies will undergo more digital transformation in the next five years than in the past five.

However, it is worth noting that studies find most digital transformation initiatives fail to meet initial expectations for value creation, cost spend and time to completion. In this year's Deloitte CFO survey, respondents pointed out five main reasons for these failures:

• Choosing inappropriate technology. Companies do in some cases choose technology platforms that do not align with their specific business needs, leading to lower value creation, higher costs and longer implementation times.
• Failure to adjust key business processes. Realising value from technology platforms typically requires aligning business processes across the organisation to global, best-in-class industry standards. Significant value is lost when solutions are customised to fit existing, non-standardised local processes.
• Limited availability of relevant skills. Digital transformation requires dedicated expertise in business, technology and change management. Many initiatives fail due to a lack of the right resources at the right time.
• Insufficient cross-functional collaboration. Most digital transformation programs do not operate within traditional organisational boundaries such as sales, finance, supply chain, operations and IT. Instead, they cut across business, functional and geographical areas to enable end-to-end business processes. Failure to ensure effective cross-functional collaboration and secure top-management sponsorship is a key reason why many digital transformation programs fail.
• Poor data quality. Inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated master and transactional data can undermine the efficiency and effectiveness of new technology platform implementations. Delayed or insufficient focus on critical data requirements often contributes to digital transformation programs falling short of initial expectations.

Equally notable are the significant performance gaps between top- and bottom-performing companies when it comes to digital transformation. Top-performing companies achieve nearly twice the success rate compared to lower-performing organisations. In other words, digital transformation can be the deciding factor that defines a company's competitive advantage or lack thereof.

Strengthening the CFO position

Given its high risk, significant financial impact and considerable resource allocation, digital transformation is a critical area for CFOs.

This doesn’t mean the CFO needs to be involved in every detail of digital transformation programs. In many cases, it makes more sense for others, such as the CIO or their direct reports, or those of the CFO, to take the lead. CFOs should focus on the critical business requirements that determine where value is created and ensure major risks are properly managed.
 

Five tips for success

The big question, of course, is how to achieve that in practice. While there’s no guaranteed formula for a successful digital transformation, there are some practical tips CFOs should consider, points that can help steer their efforts in the right direction.
 

1. Set clear boundaries
   Define and align the strategic, regulatory and ethical boundaries for digital transformation, securing explicit approval from both the Executive and Supervisory Boards. This includes making sure that digital transformation programs are directly linked to the corporate strategy and that technology platforms fulfil regulatory requirements. Furthermore, with the growing use of GenAI and the Agentic Workforce, it is essential to define how far automation should go in supporting critical workflows and decision-making – especially where human oversight is still needed. In leading organisations, CFOs play a key role in setting these boundaries.
   
   
2. Ensure rigorous preparation and decision-making
   Integrate a robust evaluation of digital transformation projects into your company's capital allocation framework and governance. This should capture the full potential of value creation across revenue, costs, capital, risk and compliance. Clearly define who, when and how value will be captured, alongside the necessary investments and resources required. Companies that fail to adopt this rigorous approach typically either bet on the wrong digital projects or spread resources too thinly, resulting in higher risk and increased failure rates, often leaving high-value projects underfunded. In leading organisations, CFOs play a major role in ensuring the capital allocation framework and governance captures the complexity of digital transformation programs.
   
   
3. Tightly manage performance and value capture
   Maintain transparency over the digital transformation program portfolio. Successful companies often have dedicated teams within the CFO organisation overseeing these initiatives. This involves the CFO and CFO organisation in developing value cases before project initiation, accurately tracking cost spend, creating reliable projections, managing ongoing fund allocation decisions and rigorously measuring value capture post-completion. Too little intervention or late intervention often results in lost value, highlighting the critical oversight role of the CFO and the CFO organisation.
   
   
4. Take ownership of business change when needed
   Champion business change where you, as CFO, are best positioned to lead. Frequently, CFOs are business responsible for significant portions of the IT infrastructure (e.g., ERP or finance systems) and lead departments critical to digital transformation, including Finance, Global Business Services, Legal, Procurement and Operations. Clear executive sponsorship and direction-setting from the CFO is essential, alongside ensuring capable executives manage day-to-day program operations. For broader transformation programs, CFOs are often ideally placed to drive and own the initiatives at the Executive Board level even for functional areas, which are not directly reporting to the CFO.
   
   
5. Partner effectively with the CIO
   Establish a robust partnership with your CIO. A strong partnership between the CFO and CIO is essential for achieving high success rates in digital transformation efforts. Collaborative CFOs and CIOs share an understanding of how technology impacts corporate financials and how financial management needs to adapt to support digital transformation. They help bridge mutual knowledge gaps. Companies where CFOs and CIOs work closely are more likely to secure funding, keep spending on track and achieve the desired business outcomes for digital transformation.