Applications may not be a novelty these days, but not everyone is equipped with an understanding of their importance to businesses.
According to a new report from managed cloud computing firm Rackspace, less than half of CEOs (49 percent) recognize the bottom-line benefits of applications, slightly below CTOs (53 percent) and CIOs (55 percent).
The report is based on a poll of more than 1,400 respondents in IT and non-IT business units, from companies with $300M annual earnings and above, including both decision-makers and application users.
Rackspace claims that organizations that adopt an “experience-led” focus have higher brand awareness, more satisfied employees, and higher customer retention rates, as well as more repeat purchases and larger average order values. It concludes that businesses that want to improve their customer experience (CX) should modernize their applications.
But while CX is a strategic priority for many businesses (48 percent), many executives don’t seem to understand that applications should be at the very core of their CX improvement efforts.
Some of the benefits include simplifying application submission, processing customer data, and delivering immersive experiences, as well as providing superior availability to services, security, and engagement with products and services.
“The results of our survey are further evidence that modernizing applications through a user lens is not just a ‘nice to have’ from a customer satisfaction perspective, but also delivers a wealth of tangible, quantifiable benefits to organizations,” said Jeff DeVerter, CTO, Rackspace.
“Applications are a foundation of customer experience, and it is encouraging to see an increased focused on and rising enthusiasm for customer experience improvements.”
