App Performance Is Key to Business Performance: Riverbed Survey

Application performance continues to be important, but the rapidly changing nature of business and technology poses new challenges.

Optimal application performance is critical to optimal business performance, according to 99 percent of the 900 executives surveyed. That said, 89 percent said poor app performance has hurt their work, and 58 percent said it impacts their work at least weekly.

Fifty-one percent of executives pointed to improved employee productivity, while 50 percent said it saves time. Other benefits: cost savings, improved customer satisfaction, faster time to market for products and higher employee morale.

At 41 percent, dissatisfied customers top the list of negative impacts—followed by contract delays, at 40 percent, and missed deadlines, at 35 percent. Other problems are lost customers, lower employee morale and damage to the company brand.

Thirty-three percent of executives said they’d give up their full lunch break, while 32 percent said they’d sacrifice their program budget. Twenty-nine percent would ditch caffeine, while 27 percent would give up chocolate.

There is a disconnect between IT and executives. Worldwide, 71 percent of respondents said they frequently have no idea why their enterprise apps are running slowly.

Across Asia, 75 percent of executives said they often don’t know the source of the problems. In the Europe, the Middle East and Africa region, that number hits 76 percent.

Sometimes workarounds make problems worse. Thirty-seven percent of executives said they have used unsupported apps when corporate software runs slowly or stops working, adding to the problem of “shadow IT.” Others have complained to colleagues, taken extended lunch breaks, used the problems as an excuse for missing deadlines or left work early.

Almost all executives—96 percent—said they use cloud-based enterprise applications in their work, and 84 percent said their company’s use of cloud-based apps will increase over the next two years.

When asked about the benefits of apps in the cloud, 58 percent pointed to increased flexibility, while 53 percent noted increased productivity and 46 percent said cost savings. Other benefits included agility and increased collaboration.

Eighty-three percent of executives said troubleshooting issues around application performance is more difficult in a hybrid IT environment.