Research from Forrester and VMware shows applications are key to customer

experience 48% of organisations admit its been more than a year since they made any improvements to their application portfolios

By ; Nahla Makled 

Global executives recognise the vital importance of customer experience to business performance, with 82% directly tying customer experience to revenue growth. And it is applications, the way businesses deliver their services and engage their audiences, that are critical: 88% believe customer experience will be improved by enhancing their application portfolios.

As a result, more than three quarters (78%) of executives consider improving their applications a top business priority, according to findings from a recent commissioned study, conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of VMware. However, despite this recognition, many organisations find themselves behind the curve.

Forty-eight per cent admit it’s been more than a year since they made any improvements to their application portfolios, while a third (34%) have either not started or are unsure whether work has begun. As a result, 46% of the 600 CIOs and SVPs* studied admit they are only moderately effective - or worse - at delivering positive customer experiences.

Multiple challenges are cited by executives as to why application modernisation has not been prioritised. Funding was highlighted by 76% of them – as well as the difficulty of aligning strategy across multiple departments (72%), and resistance to change from IT teams (70%).

These are exacerbated by IT-specific roadblocks, including too great of an existing investment in legacy applications, the difficulty of securing sensitive data and a significant lack of staff expertise in cloud and edge computing.

Yet the business impact from application improvements are significant: 40% of executives that have enhanced their portfolios identify increased revenue generation, while 37% note increased customer satisfaction and 32% the acquisition of new customers.

“An organisation’s ability to adapt has most certainly been put to the test in 2020, and those that have found ways to use new apps to engage customers to maintain, if not boost, performance have become a differentiator,” says Rasheed Al Omari, Principal Business Solutions Strategist, SEMEA VMware.

“To move at the speed required, a digital foundation remains essential; to create, run, manage, connect and intrinsically protect those apps critical to adapting to 2020’s seismic business and employee shifts. The simpler it is to connect these dots, the more effectively businesses can drive relevant new services and customer experiences to adapt, survive and even thrive.”

*The Improving Customer Experience and Revenue Starts With the App Portfolio, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of VMware, interviewed a total of 614 respondents, consisting of Chief Information Officers and Senior Vice Presidents from North America, EMEA and APAC.

Survey respondents were from companies of over 2,500 employees across financial services, healthcare, government, telco and retail.