Failing IT systems a big barrier to DX, a new survey shows

Failing critical digital services and applications are negatively affecting productivity and customer experience, according to nearly 70% of respondents to survey by Riverbed, a provider of digital performance consultancy.

The Riverbed Digital Performance Global Survey 2018 also found that business decision-makers in Australia almost unanimously (99%) agree that optimising digital performance is essential to business performance.

The global survey, which includes responses from 1,000 business decision-makers at companies with $500 million or more in revenue, including 100 in Australia, also found 95% of Australian businesses acknowledge significant challenges when it comes to achieving a more successful digital strategy.

The most common barriers to advancing digital strategies and delivering the performance and customer experience required in today's digital world were budget constraints (55%), complex and rigid legacy IT infrastructure (41%) and lack of visibility (46%).

"Nearly all Australian business decision-makers we surveyed acknowledged the tremendous opportunity that maximising digital performance can have on the user experience and bottom line, while simultaneously highlighting the real challenges they face when it comes to making their digital visions reality," says Riverbed Technology ANZ VP Keith Buckley.

Of the nearly 70% 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 20% experience failures at least several times a week.

And when critical digital services fail, every minute matters.

Just under half (46%) of the survey respondents say the maximum acceptable time to resolve digital performance issues is within an hour, and nearly 15% 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.

Smart business leaders are looking to put greater emphasis on the management tools and infrastructure underlying digital services.

In fact, 97% say that visibility across the digital experience is critical to measure and manage it successfully, and the majority (97%) of Australian business decision makers believe that a modern IT architecture that delivers greater agility is important to improving digital performance.

More than half (57%) of Australian business decision makers agree time is of the essence and say it is critical their company invests in improving the digital experience for users or customers in the next 12 months.