Riverbed Survey: 92% Of Singapore Businesses Face Challenges in Adopting Digital Strategy

SINGAPORE – June 20, 2018 – Riverbed®, The Digital Performance Company™, today announced the results of the Riverbed Digital Performance Global Survey 2018, which found that nearly all (99%) of business decision makers (BDMs) in Singapore believe that optimizing digital performance is essential to business performance, and 98% agree that digital, including the delivery of digital services and applications, is critical to the future of their business. However, 92% of these same decision makers say that major barriers – including budget constraints, legacy networks and lack of visibility – are holding them back from advancing digital strategies and delivering the performance and customer experience required in today’s digital world.

The global survey, which includes responses from 1,000 BDMs at companies with USD $500 million or more in revenue across nine countries, also found that while Singapore BDMs recognize digital performance as a key business driver, 79% reported that critical digital services and applications are failing, impeding deadlines and diminishing productivity more than once a month. Additionally, 1 in 3 (32%) cited failures and slow-downs on a weekly basis.

For the full Riverbed Digital Performance Global Survey 2018 report that also includes regional and vertical insights, please visit https://www.riverbed.com/forms/digital-performance-global-survey-2018.html

“This survey underscores the tremendous opportunity that maximizing a digital strategy can have on the bottom line, while simultaneously highlighting the challenges companies face today,” said Bjorn Engelhardt, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific and Japan at Riverbed Technology. “The findings reinforce that forward-thinking companies are well-positioned to lead their industries in the race towards digital transformation by prioritizing investments in modernizing their networks and tools to measure and manage the digital experience for their customers and employees. 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.”

Awareness is High, Need is Immediate
The need for companies to provide a successful digital experience for customers, partners and employees is well recognized, and it continues to grow in importance. Some 89% of Singapore 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.

Likewise, BDMs in Singapore surveyed unanimously agreed their company would benefit from improving the performance of their company’s digital services and applications. They see this happening primarily through:

- Improved customer experience and satisfaction (53%)
- Increased revenue/sales and profitability (50%)
- Stronger brand (46%)

Hurdles to Implementing a Digital Strategy are Real
However, it is widely recognized that inadequately performing systems today are a key limitation to a successful digital strategy. In fact, of the 92% of BDMs who said they face significant challenges when it comes to achieving a more successful digital strategy, most cited multiple challenges, including:

- Budget constraints (49%)
- Overly complex or rigid legacy IT infrastructure (43%)
- Lack of full visibility across the digital or end-user experience (37%)

And of the nearly 79% reporting that critical digital services and applications are failing at least a few times per month and impacting productivity and the end user experience, nearly one in four experience failures at least several times a week. When critical digital services fail, every minute matters. Just over half (54%) of the survey respondents say the maximum acceptable time to resolve digital performance issues is within an hour, and nearly 20% said within minutes, recognizing a digital service failure can cost companies millions of dollars in lost revenue, and significantly impact customer loyalty and brand reputation.

Business leaders are well aware of the impact these failures can and are having on their businesses. The consequences expressed include:

- Loss of sales and revenue (44%)
- Delayed product launches (43%)
- Loss of customers (33%)
- Loss of brand loyalty (39%)
- Loss of employee productivity (32%)

Fast Movers Will Be Rewarded
Smart business leaders are looking to put greater emphasis on the management tools and infrastructure underlying digital services. In fact, 98% say that visibility across the digital experience is critical to measure and manage it successfully; and 98% of global business decision makers believe that a modern IT architecture that delivers greater agility is important to improving digital performance.

Businesses also say the time to act is now. More than 2 in 3 (68%) Singapore BDMs believing it is critical that their company invests in improving the digital experience for users or customers in the next 12 months. The key areas business decision makers see themselves making investments include:

- Improving service desk capabilities (62%)
- Modernizing networks and infrastructure to drive greater agility (57%)
- Accelerating development of applications (56%)

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 (98%) of the Singapore BDMs believe the use of cloud technologies is important to their company’s ongoing digital strategy. To further advance digital services in support of their strategy, BDMs would also like their companies to invest in emerging technologies such as:

- Data Analytics (55%)
- Internet of Things (55%)
- Blockchain Technology (51%)
- Artificial Intelligence (38%)
- Virtual Reality (30%)

Riverbed Digital Performance Platform
Riverbed is focused on delivering solutions to help organizations maximize digital performance. The Riverbed Digital Performance Platform brings together a powerful combination of Digital Experience and Next-Generation Infrastructure – Cloud Networking and Cloud Edge – solutions, delivering new levels of visibility to measure and manage the digital experience and operational agility to maximize digital performance and dramatically accelerate business performance and outcomes:

• Digital Experience (SteelCentral): Unifies device-based user experience, application, infrastructure, and network monitoring to provide a holistic view of a user’s digital experience. This provides clear insights into how customers are consuming apps, what their digital experience is like, and how that experience directly impacts revenue, productivity, costs, and other business KPIs.
• Cloud Networking (SteelConnect, SteelHead, Wi-Fi): Enables a next-generation network architecture with a comprehensive solution that includes SD-WAN, Wi-Fi, application acceleration, and network visibility. Riverbed greatly simplifies and unifies connectivity and management across the entire network, and provides operational agility so organizations can rapidly deliver new digital services or open new branch offices/stores in days versus weeks.
• Cloud Edge (SteelFusion): Centralizes islands of infrastructure to secure 100% of data—the lifeblood of any digital business—while still delivering superior, local-like experiences for users at the edge.