TRENDING

for their customers and employees. Those who hesitate to embrace digital strategies and processes will quickly fall by the wayside and those who drive digital performance will see significant business outcomes.”

Awareness is high, need is immediate

The need for companies to provide a successful digital experience for customers, partners and employees is well recognised and it continues to grow in importance. Some 91 % of global business decision makers agree that providing a successful digital experience is even more critical to the company’ s bottom line than it was just three years ago.

Likewise, 99 % of global business decision makers believe their company would benefit from improving the performance of their company’ s digital services and applications. They see this happening primarily through improved customer or user experience and satisfaction( 53 %); greater market agility( 49 %); increased revenue, sales and profitability( 49 %); increased employee productivity( 49 %) and faster time to market( 48 %).

Hurdles to implementing a digital strategy are real

However, it is widely recognised that inadequately performing systems are a key

Subbu Iyer, CMO, Riverbed Technology

limitation to a successful digital strategy. In fact, of the 95 % of global business decision makers who said they face significant challenges when it comes to achieving a more successful digital strategy, most cited multiple challenges including budget constraints( 51 %); overly complex or rigid legacy IT infrastructure( 45 %); lack of full visibility across the digital or end user experience( 40 %); lack of available or appropriately-skilled personnel( 39 %) and lack of buy-in from leadership on prioritising digital initiatives( 37 %).

And of the nearly 80 % reporting that critical digital services and applications are failing at least a few times per month and impacting productivity and the end user experience, nearly one in four experience failures at least several times a week. Half of the survey respondents said the maximum acceptable time to resolve digital performance issues is within an hour and nearly 20 % said within minutes, recognising a digital service failure can cost companies millions of dollars in lost revenue and significantly impact customer loyalty and brand reputation.

Business leaders are aware of the impact these failures can and are having on their businesses. The consequences expressed include loss of sales and revenue( 42 %); delayed product launches( 41 %); loss of customers( 41 %); loss of brand loyalty( 41 %) and loss of employee productivity( 40 %).

Investing to maximise digital performance

Smart business leaders are looking to put greater emphasis on the management tools and infrastructure underlying digital services. In fact, 99 % say that visibility across the digital experience is critical to measure and manage it successfully and 98 % of global business decision makers believe that a modern IT architecture that delivers greater agility is important to improving digital performance.

Businesses also say the time to act is now. More than three out of four, or 77 % of global business decision makers, say it is critical that their company invest in improving the digital experience for users or customers in the next 12 months. The key areas business decision makers see themselves making investments in the next 12 months include modernising networks and infrastructure to drive greater agility( 60 %); ability to better monitor and manage the end user’ s digital experience( 59 %); improving service desk capabilities( 59 %) and accelerating development of applications( 58 %).

A significant number of business decision makers also identified cloud solutions and emerging technologies as key drivers of the digital experience moving forward.

Nearly all, 99 %, of global business decision makers believe the use of cloud technology is important to their companies’ ongoing digital strategy and business leaders would like their companies to invest in emerging technologies such as: Data Analytics( 60 %); Internet of Things( 59 %); Blockchain Technology( 48 %); Machine Learning( 47 %); Artificial Intelligence( 47 %); Virtual Reality( 36 %) and 5G Networks( 21 %). •

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