According to new research conducted by AppLearn, almost half (48%) of executives say they entirely agree that successful adoption of cloud-based technology is a priority, but despite this, 90% cannot easily measure against business outcomes.
The data comes from AppLearn’s Digital Adoption Pulse report, which canvassed the views of 500 senior executives of large businesses across the U.S. and UK to understand current trends, priorities and barriers to true digital adoption of enterprise software.
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In the last year, 73% of businesses have rolled out new enterprise Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions, and despite a challenging global economy, over half (53%) said their budget for software initiatives would increase in the next year, signaling an ongoing appetite for tech investment.
However, when it comes to showing a return on this significant investment, only 45% have digital KPIs in place for all applications – making measuring successes against business outcomes a common challenge.
The business outcomes driving this investment in the current climate are: IT support ticket reduction (33%), followed by cost savings (21%) and user satisfaction (20%). But showing the impact of the investment against these drivers is an ongoing struggle for executives, with 42% confirming that showing a reduction in IT support tickets was the most difficult factor to measure.
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Organizations are also failing to measure the success of their software investments beyond the initial 12 months of implementation, with only 12% measuring success after one year, falling to 5% after three years. Long-term measurement is even lower in organizations from the U.S., with just 8% measuring between one and two years after implementation, compared to 15% in the UK.
The results of the research also indicate that many businesses are still struggling to engage their employees throughout the digital adoption process, with 38% of executives highlighting changing employee processes and habits as the biggest barrier to successfully implementing new cloud-based solutions.
