Digital services’ failures widespread in India: Report

While almost all business decision makers in India agree that optimising digital performance is essential for the growth of their businesses, about two-thirds of them face critical digital services and applications failures at least a few times a month, a new global report revealed on Tuesday.

Budget constraints, legacy networks and lack of visibility are among the major factors that are holding the business decision makers back from advancing digital strategies and delivering the performance and customer experience required in today’s digital world, according to the report by digital networking solutions provider Riverbed Technology.

Over 90 per cent of Indian business decision makers agree that providing a successful digital experience is even more critical to the company’s bottom line than it was just three years ago, said the report titled “Riverbed Digital Performance Global Survey 2018”.

“There is a huge gap between digital aspirations of Indian businesses and their performance. One of the critical factors that is holding them back from achieving the desired scale of digital performance is legacy network,” Bjorn Engelhardt, Senior Vice President, Asia-Pacific and Japan, Riverbed Technology, told IANS in an interview.

In fact, of the 97 per cent of Indian business decision makers who said they face challenges when it comes to achieving a more successful digital strategy, most cited multiple challenges including budget constraints (51 per cent), lack of full visibility across the digital or end-user experience (41 per cent) and lack of available or appropriately skilled personnel (37 per cent).

“The findings reinforce that forward-thinking companies in India are well-positioned to lead their industries in the race towards digital transformation by prioritising investments in modernising their networks and tools to measure and manage the digital experience for their customers and employees,” Engelhardt said.

“Those who hesitate to embrace digital strategies and processes will quickly fall by the wayside and those who drive digital performance will see significant business outcomes,” he added.

The global survey includes responses from 1,000 business decision makers at companies with $500 million or more in revenue across nine countries including India.

When critical digital services fail, every minute matters, and Indian business leaders are well aware of the impact these failures can and are having on their businesses.

The consequences expressed include delayed product launches, loss of sales and revenue and loss of employee productivity.

Over 90 per cent of Indian business decision makers believe that a modern IT architecture that delivers greater agility is important to improving digital performance, the report said.

A significant number of business decision makers also identified Cloud solutions and emerging technologies as key drivers of the digital experience moving forward.

Nearly all (95 per cent) of India’s business decision makers believe the use of Cloud technologies is important to their companies’ ongoing digital strategy, and about 40 per cent of business leaders would like their companies to invest in emerging technologies such as Machine Learning, Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics, the report said.