FLAWLESS DIGITAL EXPERIENCES: THE ULTIMATE GOAL

January 2024 | TAGS: DIGITAL EXPERIENCES, USER EXPERIENCE, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

It’s well understood that it is people who drive transformation. To this end, teams develop processes and protocols to ensure transformation is successful. These include connecting business and technology metrics to correlate, measure, and benchmark the performance of transformation initiatives. The job of the digital ecosystem is to work silently in the background to enable, enhance, and never, ever be a hindrance to individuals and teams as they collaborate and innovate to move their organization’s vision forward.

This holds doubly true for an organization’s engine of innovation and competitive advantage: the digital network that is arterial to the entire digital ecosystem as it facilitates and enhances collaboration between internal stakeholders and external stakeholders like customers, partners, and vendors.

Given the very crucial role played by the digital network, we’re puzzled by the rather weak tea of most SLAs. IT service management SLAs that go no further than “green”, “yellow”, and “red” are indicative of availability but provide little or no insight into user gratification. In fact, because of the SLA-centric approach to managing the digital network, the digital ecosystem is overseen by technology teams that are siloed and therefore fail to look at issues holistically. This oversight negatively impacts the experience and productivity of business users and end customers thus causing widespread dissatisfaction.

Are current SLAs IT Infra’s version of a “participation trophy”?

Clearly, these days performance is measured at its least ambitious state: the standard metrics of network availability, uptime, and mean time to detect, respond, and resolve issues (MTTD and MTTR) are basic indicators of performance. The story they tell is “infra is showing up consistently” / ”infra-availability and performance are as expected”/ ”everything is green and working fine”. It’s like getting a gold star for perfect attendance. What is left out of the storytelling is the impact (positive or negative) on business productivity, hybrid work environments, and user experience.

And that is why there is a growing demand for enterprises to focus on User Experience and not merely on “historical” IT service metrics that can be profoundly out of sync with user expectations of service quality and experience.

The modern measurement challenge: assembling the pieces to glean insight.

Any service within an enterprise travels through multiple infrastructure components like endpoints, enterprise networks, cloud, data centers, and applications. The conventional approach of measuring, monitoring, and reporting performance and availability in siloes across the entire stack of enterprise infrastructure and applications leads to serious inaccuracies and inconsistencies. To gauge the performance of endpoint devices like VDIs, laptops, etc., end-point agents measure device performance (boot time, crashes, disk space, memory, connectivity) and application performance (availability, response time, errors, freeze, load time, etc.). At the other end of the service chain, Application Performance Monitoring (APM) tools calibrate the experience delivered by local applications, web applications, or cloud-based applications by measuring response time, transaction time, reliability, and uptime of underlying compute infrastructure.

Individual endpoints are connected to applications over a network that cuts across siloed domains. Network management teams have traditionally focused on KPIs such as higher availability, lower latency, and faster resolution times. The agents and tools across the stack have dashboards that independently report user experience yet lack proactive or remedial triggers to solve any underlying issues cutting across technology towers.

With all these moving parts (AKA disjointed endpoint, network infrastructure, and application landscape) it can be challenging to pull disparate insights into a cohesive, actionable story about ongoing improvement. But full-stack management must rise to this occasion with alacrity – evolving from a technology-centric model to a business-centric model that focuses on KPIs of user experience and employee productivity over SLAs.

MWS and MNS collaborate to ensure seamless UX.

A big helpful step forward is that while Managed Workplace Services (MWS) and Managed Network Services (MNS) have quite distinct focuses—end-user environment vs. network infrastructure —these days they proactively seek to collaborate. This is particularly true in areas like security, performance optimization, and ensuring a seamless user experience. This intentional harmony can be a crucial component in the assurance of flawless digital experiences.

Increasingly UX informs Employee Experience (EX)

In her ISG Brief, How Does Focusing on Employee Experience Differentiate Leaders in Managed Workplace Services?, Sonam Chawla, senior analyst at ISG, affirms that employees — now at the center of the workplace — expect more personalized experiences and flexible benefits. They also expect more training and development opportunities for up-skilling and career advancement.

She also explores these trends:

• In response to these expectations, global enterprises are measuring EX metrics and KPIs such as employee productivity, satisfaction, and retention at a regular cadence.




• Productivity is being driven with unified communication and collaboration platforms, bringing teams together from across the globe.




• Intelligent Service Desk with Intuitive and personalized dashboards are providing real-time insights and virtual assistants/chatbots to rapidly resolve IT-related issues or execute service requests.




• Smart workplaces: In this post-pandemic world, enterprises must offer smart facilities and physical on-premises services that ensure employee comfort and safety while maintaining productivity.

ISG Brief: How Does Focusing on Employee Experience Differentiate Leaders in Managed Workplace Services? Figure 1

Smart platforms = insightful storytelling about experience evolution

Enterprises are going to need to dig deep to weave together performance metrics across networks, applications, and end-user devices. Clearly, we’re heading into a world of multiplying endpoints at odds with heightened expectations of seamless, flawless experiences. One coping mechanism is to deploy an intelligent platform capable of correlating data from multiple agents and tools and then serving up actionable insights to enable accurate diagnostics, faster resolution, and improved user experience.

Whatever the technology-based response to the evolving goal of flawless UX, it is important to remember the human aspect as well. It is nearly impossible to achieve a state of “flawless” immediately out of the gate. What’s important is to be able to tell the story of the goal, how user feedback will be incorporated, and how progress will be measured against that goal. You’ll likely find that doing so will inspire a nice bit of well-deserved goodwill.

A lesson learned: User Experience and security are both at odds and tightly interwoven.

This lesson is reinforced nearly daily as Microland technologists help our clients balance security with user experience.

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is an advanced network security framework that enforces strict authentication and authorization protocols for both users and devices seeking access to network resources. This approach applies to every user and application within the network, regardless of the specific resource being accessed, whether it's an internal application or platform. By adhering to the Zero Trust principles, the ZTNA model provides a robust and highly secure environment for network access.

On the other hand, as we’ve all experienced, a mashup of different security protocols can have a dauntingly negative impact on user experience.

To implement ZTNA effectively, organizations must be mindful that specific solutions may introduce different security mechanisms enforced at the endpoints, networks, or applications. For example, endpoint security measures, such as secure remote access clients, host-based firewalls, or endpoint protection software can be implemented to secure user machines. Network segmentation, identity-based authentication, or software-defined perimeters (SDPs) can be utilized to protect the network infrastructure. Similarly, application-level authentication, secure APIs, or firewalls can be deployed to safeguard the application layer.

Threading this needle well is truly critical to achieving a secure, high-performance, hybrid organization.

While these security mechanisms are in place, it is vital to configure them appropriately to ensure seamless user access to applications. Inadequately configured security controls can result in usability issues, excessive authentication challenges, or access restrictions that impede user productivity and experience. All certain to negatively impact DEX (digital employee experience) scores.

By striking a balance between usability and security, ZTNA aims to enhance the overall user experience while maintaining high protection. With each deployment, best practice to reduce the risk of non-compliance or circumvention becomes more crystal clear.

-- Integrating UX into ZTNA implementation fosters a culture of security awareness and user cooperation.

-- Seamless integration of security measures into workflows makes users more likely to embrace and adhere to them.

-- Gathering constructive feedback on security mechanisms before implementing them is quite beneficial.

-- Sometimes it makes sense to test security measures with a specific group of business users to gather feedback before rolling it out across the organization.

Organizations that put the effort into finding the right equilibrium between security and user experience, improve compliance and cultivate a stronger security posture.

What’s inspiring us right now.

Kumaran Rangaswamy, Microland’s VP & Global Head of Marketing, Growth & Alliances, shares what he’s finding inspiring right now.

I’m inspired by this second wave of tech innovation we’ve been immersed in since November of 2022 — one that is currently more useful and delightful to consumers than even for businesses.

Of course, I’m talking about Generative AI!

The first wave of tech innovation that facilitated a deeply consumer-oriented immersion in technology was heralded by the introduction of the smartphone with the iPhone in 2007 — nearly 20 years ago. (Thank you, Steve Jobs, and Apple.)

This second wave is proving to be equally — if not more — potent. Instead of apps, we’re discovering personalized use cases that productively and creatively augment an individual’s unique skills, curiosity, and motivations. I believe we’re just now comprehending what regular people around the world can and will do with generative AI.

Humans are so creative: I’m amazed by the personalized use cases being innovated. For instance, I am moving into a new home and am not quite ready to commit to hiring an interior designer. What I am enthusiastic about is using generative AI to explore interior design ideas informed by my personal style. The more the model learns about my preferences, the more delightful and inspiring the choices I’m being shown.

The high return on what is quite a minimal effort on my part is astonishing. And immensely inspiring when I extrapolate what is broadly possible when individual agency and curiosity are turbo-charged.

Let’s consider the realm of education and learning: AI can create custom materials adapted to an individual’s unique learning pace and style. Multiplied by billions, the impact of access to such richness of content is almost unknowable. Google and other search engines have provided wide access to knowledge — but the missing piece has been generative AI’s more interactive and engaging experience — potentially making the learning of any type more effective.

Then consider the usefulness of personalized AI chatbots and virtual assistants in providing personalized customer support, answering queries, and proactively offering guidance and recommendations based on one’s past interactions and preferences.

I’m not blind to AI’s potential challenges to humankind and approach generative AI with a balanced consideration of both potential and its threat. However, at the end of the day, I trust that when humanity is given new ways to explore creativity, solve problems, be more productive, and learn more effectively — we will be immensely more capable of harnessing AI's benefits while mitigating its threats.

Now, that’s inspiring!

You heard it here, first.

Small Acts, Big Impact: Microland Foundation and TIDE Applaud First Cohort of Digipreneurs (November 17, 2023)

The Microland Foundation, in collaboration with its implementation partner, Technology Informatics Design Endeavour (TIDE), hosted a ceremony to celebrate the first cohort of 20 fellows who successfully completed a digital empowerment program. The talented young people from the rural village of Tumkur, India were each given the title of “Digipreneur” in recognition of their efforts to empower their community by acting as a bridge to the dream of Digital India. Distinguished dignitaries from government and private sectors graced the occasion, highlighting the collective commitment to transforming communities through digital empowerment.

The Digipreneur program aligns with India’s digital transformation goal of ensuring no one is left behind by leaving no one offline. The inaugural group of Digipreneurs from Tumkur is a spectacular proof of the concept. Microland and TIDE look forward to expanding the program into different locations to increase its impact while also strengthening each Digipreneur’s capacity to address the community’s priorities and inspire local support for long-term success.

The program is designed to prioritize the self-reliance of fellows as a critical aspect. Each fellow is supported through different certifications and online courses to nurture entrepreneurial and interpersonal skills. The Digipreneurs have embraced the ethos of "each-one-teach-one", giving rise to Buddy Digipreneurs, who, under the program's comprehensive support framework, assist fellow Digipreneurs in day-to-day operations.

The vision and passion supporting the program were evident at an inspiring panel discussion during the ceremony. The discussion delved into the program's alignment with Digital India, the challenges faced by Digipreneurs, and the significance of leveraging technology and digital literacy for positive community impact. A key takeaway was how the richness of data can serve as a model for understanding and uplifting communities. The panelists included representatives from The Microland Foundation, TIDE, Haqdarshak, local community leaders, and Digipreneurs.