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A Forrester Consulting Thought Leadership Paper Commissioned By SAP January 2017 Maximize The Impact Of Digital Transformation Enhance User Experience To Deliver Business Opportunities
A Forrester Consulting
Thought Leadership Paper
Commissioned By SAP
January 2017
Maximize The Impact Of
Digital Transformation Enhance User Experience To Deliver
Business Opportunities
Table Of Contents
Executive Summary ........................................................................................... 1
User Experience Is The Moment Of Truth For Digital Transformation ....... 2
Successful Mobile Strategies Balance Operational And User Experience
Drivers .................................................................................................................. 3
Challenges Emerge In Implementing A User Experience Strategy ............. 4
Mobile Strategies Empower Organizations And Drive Ease Of Use ........... 5
End Users Drive Transformation Initiatives ................................................... 7
Provide Contextually Relevant And Actionable Insights .............................. 7
Key Recommendations ..................................................................................... 9
Appendix A: Methodology .............................................................................. 10
Appendix B: Supplemental Material .............................................................. 10
Appendix C: Demographics ........................................................................... 10
Appendix D: Endnotes ..................................................................................... 11
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companies. For additional information, go to www.forrester.com. [1-1199D6W]
Project Director: Sarah Brinks, Market Impact Consultant Contributing Research: Infrastructure & Operations Professionals research group
1
Executive Summary
As mature enterprises undergo the crucial but daunting path
of digital transformation, technology leaders and business
executives must work together to ensure that business
operations and user experience are not impaired and fully
embrace all aspects of mobility as the face of their
transformation strategy. Organizations that fail to embrace
mobility in all of their facets risk being displaced in the
market and face declining user experience scores.
Mobility is a significant component of a firm’s overall digital
transformation strategy, which requires technology and
business leaders to partner with each other and work in
lockstep. Their shared goal should be identifying and
uncovering transformative business opportunities and
improving user experience.
In August 2016, SAP commissioned Forrester Consulting to
evaluate the impact of enterprise mobility and user
experience on digital transformation. To further explore this
trend, Forrester developed a hypothesis to test the assertion
that mobility is critical to digital transformation among
mature enterprises. To fully embrace mobile moments,
companies must enhance key aspects of mobility such as
user experience and cloud-based services.
In conducting an in-depth survey with 250 technology
decision-makers and influencers involved in enterprise
mobility and digital transformation, in IT and line-of-business
(LOB) roles in North America and EMEA, Forrester found
that these companies are embracing mobile as the face of
digital transformation and are learning how to balance their
strategies to achieve optimal results.
KEY FINDINGS
Forrester’s study yielded four key findings:
› Organizations are deploying multiple mobile
initiatives as part of their digital transformation
strategy. Digital transformation touches every aspect of
an enterprise and can benefit multiple roles in the
organization. As companies plan and implement these
strategies, they are deploying applications across many
roles and processes, ranging from sales to human
resources to supply chains. Many firms are planning to
implement these applications to address the needs of as
many as five additional roles. Deploying applications to
these varying roles requires a mobile strategy with
planned timelines, flexible applications, and a user
experience focus.
› Organizations are striving to find a balance between
operational and user experience business drivers.
Both operational and user experience business drivers
are key to a successful digital transformation strategy.
Organizations recognize the importance of balancing
initiatives to meet user needs and expectations while also
engaging in collaborative planning. An integrated
operations and user experience strategy keeps costs
down, improves process efficiency, and can lead to
increased revenues. Organizations that are unified
around improving user experience pursue a duel strategy
from the beginning of the planning process to the final
transformation target.
› Organizations face challenges to improving user
experience. Implementing a user experience strategy as
part of digital transformation must be planned with the
user’s perspective at the core, not as a series of bolt-on
projects. Many organizations do not have a process in
place to understand their users’ needs, making it difficult
to identify and meet those needs. Development can be a
challenging area for organizations as they struggle to find
qualified developers with the right skillset and experience
with mobile. A lack of alignment between business and IT
teams can cause roadblocks as well as misalignment
between stakeholders. Alignment among all parties
involved in the digital transformation strategy means they
are focused on delivering superior user experience in
order to win, serve, and retain users.
› Organizations are addressing critical areas of their
mobile strategy to improve user experience with the
cloud. Cloud-based services help companies better
support mobile access to their applications and data.
Leveraging public and/or private cloud-based services
improves data availability and information security,
expands access to information for mobile information and
field workers, and enables firms to build more mobile
(smartphone and tablet) applications that improve user
experience. Cloud-based services also enhance access
via smart devices and increase security. Cloud platform
tools and services are being selected strategically to best
serve users’ needs and provide productive development
environments for employees, and they can be used to
support both developers and IT.
2
User Experience Is The Moment Of Truth For Digital Transformation
Enterprise decision-makers agree that digital transformation
has an impact on all aspects of business, and they believe
mobile is the face of digital transformation. Companies must
stay (at least) one step ahead of their customers’ digital
transformation initiatives.1 User experience is a vital
component that must remain top of mind. Enterprises can
reap many benefits by making a seamless and positive user
experience a necessary component of their strategy. Our
study results revealed the following:
› Mobile is the face of digital transformation; show it to
users. Many organizations are currently implementing,
expanding implementation, or upgrading their
transformation initiatives. Those organizations have made
mobile the face of their transformation strategy in order to
improve user experience. In fact, 80% of respondents
believe their entire organization is unified around
addressing user experience initiatives. This alignment is
essential to ensuring user experience stays top of mind
during digital strategy development. Seamless integration
of apps and platforms is essential for businesses and can
only be achieved through an aligned approach. Digital
transformation is changing more than the approach to
user experience. Nearly 90% of respondents agreed that
digital transformation is reinventing the overall experience
they deliver to their users. It is also motivating them to
reinvent the way their employees work and what their
company does.
› Mobile reach affects a wide range of roles and
applications. Firms design and deploy applications to
serve multiple organizational roles. Results show that
61% of respondents are deploying applications to support
three or more roles as part of their digital transformation
strategy, and 25% of respondents are deploying
applications to support five or more roles. In order for
applications to effectively serve five or more roles, they
must be agile and flexible as well as easy to use. Mobile
applications that check all these boxes show the best face
to users and can have an impact on user experience
scores. Applications that serve asset management,
supply chain, and manufacturing roles have been
deployed for longer than applications serving sales,
sustainability, and finance roles. Top application priorities
for the coming year focus on addressing the needs of
services, human resources, and procurement roles (see
Figure 1).
FIGURE 1
Digital Transformation Strategies Support Many Roles Following Carefully Planned Timelines
Base: 109 technology decision-makers and influencers involved with enterprise mobility and digital transformation
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP, October 2016
25%
25%
29%
Manufacturing
Supply chain
Asset
management
36%
40%
42%
48%
Marketing
Finance
Sustainability
Sales
29%
33%
37%
Sourcing and
procurement
Human
resources
Services
Plan to support three-
plus roles with their
digital transformation
strategy
Adopted and among
our longest-used
applications
Adopted and among
our newest
applications
Not yet adopted, but
planning within one
year
61%
“Please indicate which type of applications you are deploying to support your digital transformation strategy.”
3
Successful Mobile Strategies Balance Operational And User Experience Drivers
Many important business drivers fuel the need for digital
transformation, but successful organizations keep the big
picture in mind. Balancing operational and user experience
drivers while implementing a digital strategy provides a
strong foundation for successfully addressing relevant
mobile moments. Forrester defines a mobile moment as a
point in time and space when someone pulls out a mobile
device to get what they want in their immediate context.2
Digital transformation initiatives are similar to a complicated
machine with many moving parts. At the core of the
machine are operations and user experience. If any element
is out of sync, the whole machine could slow down or break.
A successful mobile strategy requires:
› Operations and user experience drivers to work
together to enable a superior transformation strategy.
Operational business benefits cannot be ignored for the
sake of user experience and, in turn, user experience
cannot be abandoned for the sake of operational
excellence. Using a dual operations and user experience
strategy means key business outcomes such as
improving process efficiency, lowering operational costs,
and increasing revenue can be achieved (see Figure 2).
For example, improving process efficiency can save users
time, which can increase customer loyalty; loyal
customers renew more often and spend more, which
leads to increased revenue. This dual strategy requires a
companywide agreement on key priorities and strategic
planning. Successful digital transformation strategy
implementation can also yield higher user and employee
experience scores, improve top-line revenue, and
generate new leads.
› Using mobile as the face of your digital
transformation strategy. Nearly one-third of
respondents sighted adding or improving mobile user
experience as a top anticipated business benefit of their
digital transformation strategy. Enterprises anticipate
creating a dedicated user experience group, enabling
simplified user support processes, and delivering
dynamic, personalized content to users across digital
FIGURE 2
Operational And User Experience Drivers Work In Tandem To Execute Digital Transformation Strategies Easier
Base: 250 technology decision-makers and influencers involved with enterprise mobility and digital transformation
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP, October 2016
Digital
transformation
User
experience
Operations
“What are the business drivers behind implementing mobile as part of your
firm’s digital transformation strategy?”
Increase
speed of
decision
making
31%
Lower
operational
costs
34%
Increase
loyalty
24%
Enhance
perception as
an innovative
company
28%
Improve
employee
experience
28%
Improve
process
efficiency
37%
Improve
user
experience
(end to end)
27%
Grow
revenues
30%
Enable
communication
and collaboration
with colleagues
and users
25%
Increase
employee
productivity
35%
Improve
lead
generation
20%
4
channels. Creating a flawless, contextual, and consistent
mobile service delivers benefits, including enhanced
employee productivity, improved brand association within
applications, improved productivity, and secured business
processes.
For example, a global coffee chain deployed a mobile
application that allows the retailer to own its customers'
mobile moments while they wait in line, sit and drink their
beverage, and even use their mobile device to order. This
mobile application allows customers to find the nearest
store location, send a mobile gift to their friends, listen to a
curated music playlist, and engage with a loyalty program.
The flexible and customizable application is also available
on wearable devices.3
› Incorporating mobile into the digital strategy to
achieve technology benefits. Nearly 60% of
respondents cited improved IT systems to support digital
technologies as the top technology benefit of digital
transformation. Organizations anticipate mobile
experiences to be more flexible and agile while also being
personalized and impactful to key areas of business. Less
obvious benefits include creating more “smart” and
digitally aware/connected products or services, improving
product/service design and ease of use, and offering
simple access to apps with a consumer-like user
experience. Other technology benefits include saving
users time, hassle, and risk. For example, that same
global coffee chain achieved these benefits and met user
needs by enabling customers to order and pay for their
drinks in advance with a no-wait, in-store pickup process.4
Challenges Emerge In Implementing A User Experience Strategy
Enterprises face various challenges while implementing a
user experience strategy as part of their digital
transformation initiatives. Forty percent of survey
respondents experience three or more challenges while
implementing their user experience strategy. The top three
challenges are: poor knowledge of user experience best
practices within development (cited by 24% of respondents),
difficulty in identifying or verifying end user needs (24%),
and not enough mobile developers (23%) (see Figure 3).
Our study found that organizations:
› Lack alignment and collaboration, which leads to an
uneven user experience strategy. Twenty-two percent
of respondents said that ineffective collaboration between
business and IT teams is a key challenge. Misalignment
extends all the way to the stakeholders and their inability
to agree on what needs to be built. A key reason why
business and IT teams and stakeholders cannot align is
due to a lack of properly defined processes to
implementing a user experience strategy as part of digital
transformation. Superior user experience can never be
achieved unless clear planning, goals, and processes are
defined.
› Experience development roadblocks to facilitating
deployment. Developers must keep the user experience
in mind while creating new applications. Misalignment at
the development stage makes course correction even
more difficult further down the line. A shortage of mobile
developers means the burden of development falls on a
few skilled shoulders, which can lead to employee fatigue.
Equipping developers with the right skills may ease the
burden on developers in the long term.
› Lack continuous measurement and feedback to
optimize the user experience. Survey results show that
70% of enterprises do not use continuous feedback to
optimize user experience. These firms are not taking full
advantage of key user experience-centric processes that
can improve user experience scores and loyalty, grow
revenue, and increase alignment across the business.
They are not able to leverage digital data sources and
real-time analytics to optimize user experiences, and they
cannot personalize experiences for each user in their
moments of need.
5
Mobile Strategies Empower Organizations And Drive Ease Of Use
Many components are necessary to deploy a successful
mobile strategy. Timely, contextual, and comprehensive
mobile strategies can empower employees and users, drive
innovation, and provide secure and flexible applications.
The study showed that mobile strategies need to:
› Leverage cloud for simplified deployment. Many
enterprises are planning to better support mobile access
and expand availability of user-centric applications in the
cloud. Leveraging cloud access as part of a firm’s mobile
strategy can lead to improved user journey mapping.
Forty percent of respondents currently use cloud based
solutions to provide monitoring, metering, multitenancy,
and rolling software update functions as part of their
overall user experience strategy. This means a majority of
organizations are not using cloud to their full potential.
Cloud-based solutions allow for flexible, secure, and real-
time data access to users and employees. Cloud-based
solutions also allow big data analysis and post-
development maintenance and upgrades.
› Unlock potential by empowering users and employees.
Enterprises can empower employees by expanding access
to information and applications for mobile and field service
workers. Employees who receive superior support from
their employers are positioned to address user
requirements by building applications with customizable
user interfaces or creating a comprehensive multichannel
strategy (including mobile, tablet, web, and face to face) to
better serve users (see Figure 4). Users are savvy enough
to know when their expectations are not being met, and
they will seek out services to match those expectations.
For example, a US-based jewelry retailer launched its
mobile app in 2012 to combat long in-store waits that
frustrated both customers and employees. The
application allows customers to search for products by
style and type as well as find a retail location. The
application also helps the retailer optimize the inventory
management process. By using in-store data and online
analytics, the company can streamline the app and
simplify interactions to help employees remain customer
obsessed and improve user experience.5
› Enable easy-to-use mobile applications. Creating mobile
applications that are flexible and easy to use leads to better
user experiences. To do this, firms are rationalizing or re-
architecting traditional applications to better support mobile
apps, creating a set of APIs that allow mobile developers to
easily access data in business applications, and
implementing a comprehensive application management
solution that includes bring your own device (BYOD). These
mobility initiatives enable firms to enhance employee
communication channels, increase productivity, and provide
workers with the flexibility to remotely access corporate
information from their personal devices.6
› Showcase your organization as a technology leader.
Changes can be as intricate as re-engineering business
processes to better support mobile-based applications;
rolling out new mobile-based products and/or services,
including wearables; or expanding mobile commerce
initiatives or smart products/machine-to-machine (M2M)
technologies, AKA the internet of things (IoT). But these
changes cannot be made in a silo. Creating a fluid overall
user experience using IoT solutions requires a
combination of employee skills and capabilities that are
dispersed across many different roles in the organization,
including experts in network connectivity, software
development, user experience, and partner
management.7
FIGURE 3
Design And Development Of Apps Should Not Be Limited To Developers
Base: 250 technology decision-makers and influencers involved with
enterprise mobility and digital transformation
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
behalf of SAP, October 2016
“What key challenges/obstacles are you facing
when implementing your user experience strategy?”
13%
16%
23%
24%
24%
Developers have the
wrong skillsets
Inability of existing development
tools to scale mobile app
development
Not enough mobile developers
Difficulty in identifying or
verifying end user needs
Poor knowledge of user
experience best practices
within development
6
FIGURE 4
Use Mobile To Empower Employees And Create Top-Tier Applications
Base: 250 technology decision-makers and influencers involved with enterprise mobility and digital transformation
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP, October 2016
“Rate how important each of these components of your mobile
strategy are to improving user experience.”
Build more mobile
(smartphone and tablet)
applications
Leverage more
cloud-based
services to better
support mobile
access
Expand and improve
user-centric applications
in the cloud
Rationalize/re-architect
our traditional
applications to better
support mobile apps
Create a set of APIs that
allow mobile developers
to easily access data in
business applications
Implement a
comprehensive
application
management solution
that includes BYOD
Expand access to information and
applications for mobile information workers
Improve security of information/data available
to employees through mobile devices
Expand access to information and applications
for field service workers
Create a comprehensive multichannel strategy
(mobile, tablet, web, face to face) to better serve
our users
Build applications with customizable interfaces
to ensure end user efficiency
Empowered employees and users
Applications
7
End Users Drive Transformation Initiatives
Users are in the driver’s seat as enterprises plan and
implement their digital transformation strategies. These
strategies require internal alignment between teams and a
balance between operational needs and end user
experience. Enterprises must incorporate digital experience
into their comprehensive strategy based on the user’s
perspective and not as a series of bolt-on projects. This
approach enables firms to enhance users’ experience as
well as gain deeper insights into their needs and
preferences. The study confirms that:
› User experience tools help identify opportunities to
use digital solutions. Survey results show that 40% of
respondents use tools including design thinking, user
journey maps, and touchpoint analysis to examine the
entire user experience process. The next step in the
process is to optimize this practice through continuous
measurement and feedback across the business, but less
than a third of respondents said they are doing this.
Measurement and feedback are needed to provide a
complete view of user journeys, needs, and potential
gaps.
› Organizations should design products and services
with the user in mind. Fully embracing a user
experience strategy as part of your digital transformation
process requires you to think like your clients.
Developers, marketers, and architects must approach
product design from the user’s perspective and design
digital extensions to products in order to create new value
for users. Forty-two percent of respondents said their
company’s business strategy is focused on creating a
world-class experience for their users. Such strategies
include creating fully customizable experiences,
leveraging cloud-based services, and leveraging digital
data sources and analytics.
Provide Contextually Relevant And Actionable Insights
Delivering real-time data and creating contextually relevant
and actionable user insights can improve user journey
mapping and understanding. Connected customers expect
contextual, relevant experiences. Customer data and
analytics help personalize marketing, to enhance product
development, merchandising, and customer service, as well
as improve the customer experience.8 The study showed
that when it comes to real-time data and analytics:
› Few firms use the full benefits of real-time data and
analytics. Less than a third of companies use real-time
analytics and context awareness to customize individual
experience and help users feel more valued. Less than a
quarter of companies are creating fully customizable
mobile experiences for their users, despite over three
quarters (77%) of respondents stating that customized
application interfaces are one of the top five most
important components of their mobile strategy to improve
user experience. Methods to incorporate measurement
into user experience practices include using analytics
combined with contextual awareness to customize the
individual’s experience and help users feel more valued.
› Analytics insight helps balance user experience and
operations requirements. Operational benefits from
real-time data and analytics include streamlining decision-
making processes, improving business processes,
managing inventory/orders, and allowing more time and
budget to be allocated to innovation and user experience.
Using the operational benefits of real-time data and
analytics positions your enterprise to maximize the
benefits of a digital transformation strategy. User
experience can improve by using real-time data for user
journey mapping, creating contextually relevant and
actionable insights for users, and delivering data in real
time (see Figure 5).
8
FIGURE 5
Real-Time Data And Analytics Help Balance User Experience And Operational Drivers
Base: 246 technology decision-makers and influencers involved with enterprise mobility and digital transformation
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of SAP, October 2016
13%
17%
18%
21%
21%
24%
39%
52%
52%
52%
43%
43%
44%
24%
28%
24%
35%
25%
Improve business processes
Manage inventory and/or order
Deliver real-time data to users
Create contextually relevant and
actionable insights for users
Streamline decision-making process
Do user journey mapping
Nice to have Important requirement Critical requirement
“Please indicate how important the following motivators are to incorporating real-time
data and analytics into your mobile digital transformation strateg y.”
9
Key Recommendations
Enterprises must show their best face to their customers by building a successful digital transformation strategy that
drives innovation and exceeds user expectations. Forrester’s in-depth surveys with technology decision-makers and
influencers involved with enterprise mobility and digital transformation yielded several important observations:
› Create a digital transformation strategy that uses mobile first to support and enable multiple employee
roles. Firms design and deploy applications to serve multiple organizational roles that have varying needs.
Deploy applications to support a wide variety of organizational roles, and take a mobile-first approach where
appropriate. Priority roles should include asset management, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, and finance.
› Make sure user experience does not take a back seat to operations. Focusing on user experience as part of
digital transformation provides myriad benefits, including cost savings and more satisfied users. Companies that
balance operations and user experience requirements across all teams will reap the benefits of a strong digital
transformation strategy, including increased user loyalty, lower operational costs, and revenue growth.
› Continuously improve to align with your firm’s priorities and plan for the future. Keep user requirements
and experience at the center of your strategy. Stay on top of continually changing mobile trends as they evolve
beyond smartphones and tablets to include wearables and IoT solutions. This may also include evaluating how
contextual applications and technologies will have an impact on the user’s experience. Use real-time data and
analytics to not only meet current users’ needs but also plan for future needs. Continuous feedback and
measurement can drive development of new, innovative applications that save users time, are contextually
relevant, and differentiate you from the competition.
10
Appendix A: Methodology
In this study, Forrester conducted an online survey of 250 technology decision-makers and influencers involved with
enterprise mobility and digital transformation organizations in North America, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany to
evaluate user experience as part of digital transformation mobile strategies. Survey participants included decision-makers in
C-level executive, VP, director, and manager roles. Questions provided to the participants asked to discuss their plans
around digital transformation as it pertains to mobile and user experience. The study began in September 2016 and was
completed in October 2016.
Appendix B: Supplemental Material
RELATED FORRESTER RESEARCH
“Create Your Digital Experience Delivery Strategy,” Forrester Research, Inc., July 2, 2014
“Seven Steps To Create And Sustain A Customer-Centric Culture,” Forrester Research, Inc., October 6, 2016
“Re-Engineer Your Business For Mobile Moments,” Forrester Research, Inc., January 24, 2014
“Improve Skills And Staffing For A Better Employee Tech Experience,” Forrester Research, Inc., April 4, 2016
“Ten Ways Technology Will Drive Workforce Success In 2015,” Forrester Research, Inc., November 5, 2014
Appendix C: Demographics
In this study, we surveyed 250 technology decision-makers and influencers involved with enterprise mobility and digital
transformation.
Respondents were from the following regions:
› North America: 40%.
› UK: 20%.
› Europe: 40%.
They also had the following roles and worked in the following departments:
› Manager: 33%.
› Director: 32%.
› Vice president: 12%.
› C-level executives: 23%.
› IT: 86%.
› Operations: 6%.
› Sales: 5%.
› Marketing: 2%.
› HR: 1%.
11
Appendix D: Endnotes
1 Source: “How To Unlock Tech Industry Digital Transformation,” Forrester Research, Inc., August 26, 2016.
2 Source: “Winning In The Age Of The Customer,” Forrester Research, Inc., April 6, 2015.
3 Source: Ted Schadler, Josh Bernoff, and Julie Ask, The Mobile Mind Shift. Groundswell Press, 2014.
4 Source: Ted Schadler, Josh Bernoff, and Julie Ask, The Mobile Mind Shift. Groundswell Press, 2014.
5 Source: Ted Schadler, Josh Bernoff, and Julie Ask, The Mobile Mind Shift. Groundswell Press, 2014.
6 Source: “Evolve Your Customer Analytics Capability,” Forrester Research, Inc., January 14, 2015.
7 Source: “Prepare I&O for the ‘Internet of Things,’ Forrester Research, Inc., April 11, 2013.
8 Source: “Building The Business Case For A Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) Program,” Forrester Research, Inc., December 4, 2014.
