IDC Future Enterprise
Resiliency and Spending Survey Highlights Key Findings
in the Areas of Customer Experience, Enterprise Intelligence, and Digital
Sovereignty
Recent results from the International Data
Corporation (IDC) Future Enterprise Resiliency and
Spending (FERS) survey shed light on several key areas of digital
transformation. In this global survey, respondents were asked to identify their
digital resiliency investment plans, as well as the challenges and benefits of
these initiatives.
Future of Customers and Consumers:
Customer Experience
According to the FERS survey data,
improving the customer experience (CX) directly impacts the organization's
bottom line. More than a third of respondents globally (34%), reported improved
profit margins as one of the top five benefits arising from their CX
initiatives. Organizations attributed these higher profit margins to increased
revenue (27%), cost reductions in personnel (25%), marketing (22%), and
customer acquisition (18%).
The benefits also extended to
customers. Companies reporting improved customer experience pointed to their
efforts to reduce customer pain points (22%) and friction in customer
engagement (19). As customers navigate a technology-driven world, they seek out
hyper-personalized contextual experiences that enable them to engage when and
where they want while satisfying their need with the least effort.
For future enterprises to anticipate
customer intentions and respond with empathy – at scale – will require a
thorough understanding of customer data orchestrated by the right technology
solutions. The FERS survey provides overwhelming evidence that technology and
knowledge of customer data are critical in how organizations deliver customer
experience.
- 78% of enterprises reported that data from and
about the customer is critical for CX delivery – 21% indicated that customer
data plays an extremely significant role.
- 79% of respondents reported that technology is
critical in how they deliver CX.
Future of Intelligence: Enterprise
Intelligence
Modern infrastructure is foundational
to building enterprise intelligence, which in turn builds greater digital
resiliency. Organizations that have increased – and accelerated – investment in
technologies that drive the synthesis of information will be more digitally
resilient in a post-pandemic world. Learning and knowledge sharing are also
necessary for building enterprise intelligence and digital resiliency.
According to FERS survey data:
- Business investments in enterprise intelligence
continued or accelerated in 76% of survey respondents in response to the impact
of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Top factors that helped organizations be resilient
in the face of the pandemic were the ability to adapt quickly (33.7%), learn
continuously (32.6%), and have cloud infrastructure to support enterprise
intelligence (37.5%).
- Enterprise intelligence skills are highest rated
among the skills that enterprises are looking to hire in the next six months.
Future of Trust: Digital Sovereignty
Regulations that enforce territorial
data boundaries present obstacles and potentially limit the flexibility of
global digital platforms and public cloud services. As the pace and scope of
these regulations continue to expand, organizations are increasingly looking to
digital sovereignty as a way to gain greater self-determination in their
efforts to shape their digital transformation efforts. IDC defines digital
sovereignty as the capacity for digital self-determination by states,
companies, or individuals. It focuses on the control over data, infrastructure,
and software that are relied upon to operate in the digital world.
FERS survey results highlight several
key findings:
- 67% respondents agree or strongly agree that
digital sovereignty improves their ability to shape digital transformation
efforts in a self-determined way.
- 75% of respondents believe that the top regulation
or guideline for digital sovereignty is to ensure providers adhere to
geographic specific measures to not monetize, sell and/or use their customers'
data without intentional and expressed consent and compensation.
- 48% of respondents indicated that their top challenge
is to protect and maintain visibility of data in public cloud providers'
facilities in accordance with regulatory requirements.
- 31% U.S. respondents believe that government
involvement will influence investments in digital sovereignty initiatives.
Source: IDC media announcement