How execs use digital experience analytics (DXA) to optimize and maximize technology investments

The technology spending balancing act

Tech executives are caught between a rock and a hard place regarding digital technology spending.

On the one hand, the uncertain economic outlook means typical year-on-year increases in eCommerce sales have softened. Gartner’s recent The State of Digital Commerce report shows that only 27% of organizations are expected to exceed eCommerce performance expectations for revenue and profitability this year. As a result, spending on tech budgets has slowed. A TechCrunch report on 2022 spending trends states that spending will only rise 6.7% compared with last year, down from previous predictions (when 2022 IT budgets were being set) where growth expectations were 8.7%.

On the other hand, if there’s one lesson we must take from the consumer buyer “pull-back” during the pandemic, it’s that digital is increasing in importance and share. Last year, rapid digital maturity saved and enhanced many previously digitally immature businesses. Taking the right actions on digital transformation—specifically experience transformation—will continue to grow in importance in shaping the success of businesses this year and next.

What it all means

There is a spending dichotomy! While tech and program budgets are being questioned, tech execs cannot take their foot off the gas regarding analytics technology, which is critical to digital transformation. Indeed, Forrester’s Priorities 2022 Survey shows that analytics tech is highest on the technology purchaser’s agenda in 2022 and beyond. In fact, 61% of firms consider it either a high priority or critical to the needs of IT organizations.

Whatever the case, there’s no doubt execs must sharpen their pencils on their tech budgets. And while digital tech is a top priority, it’s not immune to scrutiny. DXA platforms are immensely valuable for informing short and long-term decisions on tech spending and related digital investments.

Four ways DXA helps execs optimize their current investment in technology and operations

DXA helps technology execs optimize their current investment in technology and operations by:

1. Focusing tech resources on what matters most and accelerating time to resolution

Modern DXA platforms provide a 360° perspective of engagement that includes experiential, behavioral, and technical performance insights. The consequence is a platform that provides considerable understanding of how a) the experience impacts key business metrics and b) how technical performance impacts experience. This not only enables DevOps and AppDev teams to quickly identify experiential issues, opporunities and their resolution, but also prioritizes resolutions based upon their impact on business outcomes.

2. Optimizing digital technology spend 

While Forrester’s Data and Analytics Survey shows that 70% of data and analytics decision-makers continue to invest in digital experience technologies, these investment decisions are now scrutinized like never before. Tech execs need reliable insights to help them re-balance this year’s budget between different technologies such as CMS, personalization, testing, DMS, and CDP. DXA platforms measure the engagement and business impact that these technologies have on the experiences delivered and, ultimately, the business. These insights are invaluable to support decisions on which tech to direct—and divert—budget from.

3. Deriving more value from existing digital technology investment

A tactic execs use to optimize existing investment is prioritizing approaches that squeeze more value out of their already implemented tech. DXA helps execs refine the implementation, configuration, and value generated by digital technologies.

Take the well-known use case of accelerating A/B testing programs with deep experiential insights as an example. Or where Voice of Customer (VoC) technology is boosted by knitting together what customers say with what they do. Or refining the configuration of recommendation engines by providing insights on ideal placements on product pages. The list goes on.

4. Enabling tech and business teams to work better together

Modern DXA platforms (such as Contentsquare’s DXA cloud) are designed from the ground up to be intuitive, while at the same time providing common insights for different technologies and business teams. Powerful and easy-to-interpret visualizations allow organizations to break down barriers between departments, quickly aligning them on efforts to implement operational changes and technical errors that deliver the biggest business impact.

In summary

Executives face a conundrum. Due to the uncertain economic outlook, they’re pressured to refine and adjust technology budgets while ensuring they’re set for a world where digital has become more critical to business success.

When it comes to digital technology, executives need data-derived insight to guide them as they balance long and short-term investments. DXA is the system of insight they need to balance and maximize the ROI of their technology investments.

Finally, DXA helps executives optimize their investment in tech and operations by 1) deriving more value from existing tech investments, 2) refining digital tech spending, 3) focusing tech resources on what matters most, and 4) enabling tech and business teams to work better together.

Want to learn more about Contentsquare and consumer trends in the DXA space? Check out Contentsquare’s 2022 Digital Experience Benchmark Report.