Enterprises are prioritizing customer experience initiatives, Rackspace says

Over 94% of enterprises have some form of user experience initiative underway within their organization, according to a new survey from multicloud provider Rackspace Technology.

Customer experience is overwhelmingly a strategic priority, ahead of IT security, strategy, and compliance, and technology applications are a key driver, Rackspace said in a survey of 1,420 IT decision-makers. Over half (55%) of survey respondents credited applications with enhancing customer experience, while also providing more availability to services (48%), security (45%), engagement with products and services (41%), and process improvement (39%).

Customer experience is a top priority, with only 6% of respondents having no customer experience strategies or initiatives in place.

When it comes to enhancing customer experience, 55% of survey respondents credited applications, such as those that can process customer data, simplify application submission, or deliver more immersive experiences. Applications can also provide mobile accessibility, which tends to be a necessity.

Tech knowledge in the C-suite

Beyond customer experience, application modernization, and future plans, respondents also answered questions about how well they believe their managers and executives understand key technologies. The findings revealed that while about half of CEOs (49%) and most CIOs and CTOs recognized the benefit of modernizing applications, awareness is much lower among other C-suite executives, like CFOs and COOs.

While a vast majority of respondents (88%) believe executives recognize the bottom-line benefits of applications, this applied mostly to CEOs, CIOs, and CTOs, with a noticeable drop-off across the rest of the C-suite.

According to the survey, about half of CEOs were particularly aware of the strategic importance of applications, along with CIOs (55%) and CTOs (53%), but only 22% of CMOs, 23% of COOs, 34% of CFOs, and 6% of CROs knew about the benefits apps offer their company’s business. But there are signs awareness is increasing: 90% of respondents reported that senior management has a better understanding of the benefits of applications in their business than they did just five years ago.

The survey also pinpointed some barriers organizations still face when it comes to adapting application technologies, including resistance to change, lack of buy-in to digital transformation strategy, lack of expertise, and lack of support from leadership. Among respondents, the most common barriers cited were fear of negatively impacting existing customer experience (28%), the use of legacy IT systems (26%), and limited budgets (24%).

The global survey, conducted by Coleman Parers Research, included responses from IT decision-makers at companies with $300 million annual earnings in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The respondents spanned industries including manufacturing, financial services, retail, government/public sector, and health care.

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