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Tim’s Take: TLDR Executive Summary

According to McKinsey, a staggering 70-80% of digital transformation initiatives fail to meet their objectives, often because of misaligned technology choices or underestimating legacy complexity.

Additional research indicates that companies burdened with high technical debt are 40% more likely to experience delays, derailments, or cancellations of major IT modernization projects and end up spending almost half of their IT change budget on systems they’d prefer to retire.

These figures highlight a painful truth: choosing safe or familiar technology can cost far more than expected when technical debt goes unquantified and systems fail to deliver long-term value.

About me

I’m Tim Banting, Head of Market Analysis and Business Intelligence at Today Digital and the voice behind Techtelligence.

I help enterprise tech buyers make smarter decisions with data rather than buzzwords. After years in UC, CX, and the research industry, I’ve learned that technical debt is more dangerous than most vendors admit, and that “safe” choices often come with the highest long-term cost.

This newsletter is my way of sharing what I’ve learned, asking better questions, and challenging the status quo, without the fluff. If that sounds like your kind of thinking, stay tuned!

Making the Right Technology Choices

In this launch issue of Techtelligence, we introduce the Four Pillars of Vendor Risk, a structured framework designed to help enterprise IT and procurement leaders avoid hidden costs associated with tech debt and vendor misalignment. Choosing the wrong technology or ignoring vendor risk factors can leave organizations stuck with outdated platforms, integration challenges, regulatory risks, and stalled innovation. Our framework empowers decision-makers to evaluate and compare vendors across:

• Financial Risk: Are your vendors investing in innovation, or are they slowly draining your budget through legacy maintenance?

• Technology Risk: Do platforms scale and integrate properly, or do they trap you in fragile architecture?

• Legal & Regulatory Risk: Can suppliers adapt to changing laws, data residency requirements, and compliance shifts?

• Social & Environmental (ESG) Risk: Do their purpose and ethical practices align with your culture, reputation, and user adoption needs?

Additionally, you get this Vendor Risk Scoring Model that uses weighted criteria to evaluate unknown liabilities and support ongoing monitoring, beyond simply procurement or renewal.

Visual Assets Include

• Pillar‑by‑pillar risk breakdown with observable indicators

• Weighted scoring worksheet to compare vendor risk

• Sample vendor risk dashboard for ongoing oversight

Why It Matters

In a world where dozens or hundreds of vendor integrations exist and committees become increasingly cross‑functional, the focus must shift from merely checking features to intentionally aligning technological resilience and long-term value.

• Read the full breakdown here: [4 Pillars Link]

• Join the Enterprise Tech Buyers Circle on LinkedIn to discuss how your organization assesses vendor risk and other key topics as they develop.

• Next Monday: “What Cars Can Teach Us About Vendor Strategy (Or, Why Do I Sort Vendors Into “Strategic Clusters”?)

Thanks for reading. If this sparked a new way of thinking (or confirmed something you’ve long suspected), then Techtelligence is fulfilling its purpose.

See you next Monday with more data, fewer assumptions, and the occasional uncomfortable truth. Until then, all the best.

Tim

AI Use and Research Integrity Statement

AI tools are used solely to support research and data synthesis. All insights, conclusions, and opinions are my own, based on critical analysis of public sources. AI contributes only as an assistant, never the final authority.