User experience has become more crucial than ever in today’s age of the customer, where high-quality services are expected, rather than appreciated, writes Michael Allen VP & CTO EMEA, Dynatrace.
Michael Allen
To keep pace with customer expectations and demands, today’s organisations have become software driven, with applications forming the backbone of the services they offer. Everything from taking out a loan, to checking in at the airport, streaming a movie or booking a restaurant is powered by applications and the enterprise cloud that underpins them.
But as this software is increasingly built, deployed and operated in hybrid, multi-cloud ecosystems to provide the agility that businesses need to succeed, the complexity behind user experiences is increasing exponentially.
Research shows that the average transaction now crosses 37 different technology systems or components, making it harder for line of business and IT teams to manage performance. However, poor digital experiences can leave users enraged and ultimately impact revenue and reputation, so businesses must find a way to tackle this complexity and make user experience a first-class citizen.
User-Centricity in a Digital Age
As the old adage goes; the customer is always right, and in today’s always on, connected culture, users expect digital services to work every time. If they don’t, then our social media-driven culture means users both inside and outside the business can instantly vent their outrage and share poor experiences online.
Defects in the experience, such as a systems failure at the airport check-in desk that delays a flight from taking off, or a payment gateway failing to process a restaurant booking fee, is a sure-fire way to leave customers and users alike hot under the collar. With legislation and comparison sites to make changing bank accounts, mobile phone providers and energy companies much easier, switching allegiances can happen at the click of a button, meaning user experience is a top priority.
However, as businesses strive to provide this world-class user experience, the complexity behind today’s digital services has made it much harder for IT teams to do so for a number of reasons. Most lack the visibility they need to clearly understand how changes in their dynamic, enterprise cloud environments will impact the user experience.
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This lack of visibility also makes identifying the root cause of performance problems much more difficult when something fails to work as expected. Trying to find the source of performance problems is almost like trying to find a needle in a haystack, among a swirling vortex of other haystacks.
It’s clear that this lack of visibility into the digital experience could be putting bottom lines and reputations at risk, so it’s high time for organisations to make tackling rising IT complexity a top priority. To do so, they need real-time intelligence into the performance of the entire software stack, giving line of business teams insights that allow them to understand the factors impacting IT performance and how that relates to user experiences.
Keeping your Cool Amidst Confusion and Complexity
It’s important for businesses to realise that this level of insight can’t be achieved by throwing more manpower at the problem. They need deterministic AI that can provide real-time intelligence into application performance to help IT and line of business teams to make sense of rising IT complexity. This intelligence can provide insight into everything from the general performance of applications and services across web, mobile and the internet of things, to the precise root cause of problems facing customers at any given time.
It also helps them to understand the full context of the problem; for instance, with the ability to filter out customer ‘rage clicks’ from a fault with the application that led to a high volume of transaction requests being made in quick succession. Rather than churning out more data on glass that needs careful analysis, deterministic AI can point to the answers, so business teams can jump into resolving problems before the user experience is impacted.
No organisation wants to bear the badge of offering a poor digital experience, so it’s important that in the age of the customer, businesses are able to understand their enterprise cloud environments, to help build a complete picture of user experience.
Having this visibility allows organisations to see exactly what’s going on from the user’s perspective, enabling them to truly understand what’s going wrong and optimise experiences across all applications, using AI to help deliver perfect experiences. Having this level of visibility and the ability to resolve issues proactively is vital, especially if organisations are serious about making user experience a first-class citizen.
