{"id":2415,"date":"2019-05-27T10:50:09","date_gmt":"2019-05-27T10:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devbloglavaprotocols.nityo.in\/top-5-customer-experience-initiatives-it-leaders-need-to-focus-on\/"},"modified":"2019-05-27T10:50:09","modified_gmt":"2019-05-27T10:50:09","slug":"top-5-customer-experience-initiatives-it-leaders-need-to-focus-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavaprotocols.com\/the-cloud-blog\/top-5-customer-experience-initiatives-it-leaders-need-to-focus-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 5 Customer Experience Initiatives IT Leaders Need To Focus On"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Shannon Duffy, SVP, Product Marketing, Salesforce<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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With so much on their plates every day, IT leaders may not have the opportunity to take a step back and examine the broader trends that are impacting \u2014 even transforming \u2014 their organizations, either now or in the future. We decided to do the work for you by surveying over 100 IT executives at enterprises worldwide about their prioritization<\/strong>, preparedness<\/strong>, and skill levels<\/strong> around 10 key IT initiatives, as well as their forward-looking views on the topics.<\/p>\n

Here are some highlights of our findings:<\/p>\n

Customer experience is job number one<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Readers of a certain age will recall when IT was a solidly back-office function, with clear and persistent partitions between customer-facing matters and technical capabilities that made the business run. Those days are decidedly over. Today, IT leaders rank customer experience as their top priority, and 77% of them are increasing customer experience investments.<\/p>\n

When it comes to which initiatives are most important, IT leaders are particularly focused on system and data integration<\/strong>. Integration\u2019s prioritization reflects a conundrum:\u00a0customers expect connected experiences<\/a>\u00a0in which their information is known and quickly accessed across touchpoints, but the average enterprise uses\u00a0900 disparate applications<\/a>, only 29% of which are integrated. Just as important is security and identity technology<\/strong>, which ties for IT\u2019s most important customer experience initiative. This is perhaps unsurprising, given that 95% of IT leaders have increased security investments due to public concerns over data privacy.<\/p>\n

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A related topic \u2014 the employee experience \u2014 is also getting significant attention from IT; 54% of IT leaders are prioritizing it, given that just 21% believe their current technology maximizes employee engagement.<\/p>\n

IT is struggling to catch up to mobile-first expectations<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

The mobile-first mindset is firmly entrenched in customers and employees alike.\u00a0One study\u00a0<\/a>found that 63% of the workforce uses their mobile devices for work as much as they do for personal tasks. But, as Gartner\u00a0recently noted<\/a>, the mobile app development has been plagued by a lack of resources \u2014 notably worker hours and skill sets.<\/p>\n

A whopping 99% of IT leaders believe businesses must be mobile-enabled to thrive in the future. At the same time, 74% believe a lack of mobile access to apps, data, and content will slow business productivity \u2014 perhaps because only 29% of them have advanced mobile development skills on staff.<\/p>\n

One method of reducing the complexity of mobile app development and bridging demand with supply \u2014 standardization \u2013 may be the savior. Sixty-nine percent of IT leaders expect nearly all mobile apps to be built on a common set of frameworks and standards by 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Skill gaps are persistent<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

For years<\/a>, IT organizations have contended with waning gaps between the skills they need for innovation and what their staff can bring to the table. As technology has evolved at breakneck speed and in-demand skills have shifted, the situation has become even more dire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201c<\/span>Just 24% of organizations have a fully defined IT staff learning and development strategy\u201d<\/p>\n