Key Roles of User Experience Monitoring (UEM) Solutions in Enabling Performance Management Strategies

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1 Key Roles of User Experience Monitoring (UEM) Solutions in Enabling Performance Management Strategies Market context TRAC's 2013 APM Spectrum shows that the quality of user experience for application performance is not a single metric, but a combination of performance indicators that include: 1) application availability; 2) application response times; 3) the business impact of application performance; 4) the impact of performance on application usage; and 5) visibility for each transaction. User experience monitoring (UEM) solutions are often considered to be a subset of application performance monitoring (APM) technologies, but TRAC's recent research shows that the value these solutions are providing goes well beyond traditional benefits of APM deployments. These solutions are likely to be leveraged by both IT and business professionals and are playing one of the key roles in addressing performance goals. Role of UEM solutions TRAC's research of more than 800 organizations shows that the value of UEM solutions has been predominantly shown in 5 key areas: Enabling customer centric approach for managing IT Providing true end-to-end visibility for application transactions Early notifications when there is a problem and more proactive management Correlating IT and business metrics Serves as a starting point for IT performance management strategies Enabling user-centric approach for managing IT TRAC's research shows that 81% of organizations have adopted, or are looking to adopt, a user centric approach for managing IT and business services (Figure 1). This represents a major shift from traditional ways, such as cost or infrastructure centric strategies, that organizations used to manage their IT in the past. Increased focus on user satisfaction comes as a result of changing the role that IT is starting to play in end-user organizations, where the focus is increasingly turning to creating a business value and the success is being measured by the achievement of key business goals. As a result, 64% of organizations reported that the impact of business users on IT purchases has increased over the last 12 months. September 2013

2 Figure 1: Goals for Managing IT Performance User satisfaction 32% 49% Service level achievements 22% 44% Cost reduction 17% 34% Infrastructure utilization/management 20% 31% Plans to deploy Currently use As organizations are becoming more focused on the user experience, many of them are realizing that they need new capabilities for supporting these strategies. TRAC's research shows that the key capabilities that organizations are looking to deploy to enable this approach are: Monitoring performance of Web Services Ability to record and replay user sessions for each transaction Visibility into user experience for mobile users Ability to identify issues with user experience caused by user errors UEM solutions integrated with Web analytics tools Ability to measure the business impact of issues with application performance Providing true end-to-end visibility for application transactions TRAC's research shows that the key challenge for monitoring application transactions is the inability to monitor a transaction from the point where end-users interact with the application to the point where the transaction is processed (Figure 2). Having end-to-end visibility into application performance results in measurable business benefits. The research shows that organizations able to effectively address this challenge are 89% more likely to prevent incidents from occurring where IT was not previously aware of an issue. Page 2

3 Figure 2: Key Challenges for Transaction Monitoring Monitor transaction from the point of user interaction to the point where transaction is processed 71% Management overhead 66% Track the transaction into 3rd party environment 52% Monitor transaction performance without modifying application code 42% Monitor transactions across multiple data centers 37% Source: TRAC Research, March 2013 User experience monitoring solutions are one of the key enablers of end-to-end visibility into application performance, as they allow organizations to measure how the performance of their IT domains impacts the effectiveness of their application deployments. Also, trends, such as an increased dependence on Web applications, more organizations using Web Services and APIs, and organizations increasingly accessing applications from mobile devices, are changing what the definition of true end-to-end visibility really is. That increases the amount of processing that is taking place closer to the point of the end-user's interaction with the application (Web browser, mobile device, etc.), which even further increases the role that user experience monitoring solutions play in enabling true end-to-end visibility into application performance. Starting point for creating effective IT performance management strategies TRAC's research shows that 72% of organizations are using UEM solutions to either: 1) close visibility gaps that other APM solutions are leaving, or: 2) leverage UEM solutions as a starting point for creating their overall APM strategies (Figure 3). This shows that UEM solutions are playing a unique role in enabling IT and business strategies, as organizations are deploying them to address some of the most strategic goals for performance management. One of the key findings of TRAC's 2013 APM Spectrum is that organizations find it difficult to justify deployments of new performance monitoring solutions because they feel that they already have enough performance monitoring capabilities in place. However, many of these organizations are still struggling to achieve their goals, as TRAC's research shows that 56% of organizations are not fully Page 3

4 satisfied with their visibility into the quality of user experience. What many of these organizations are lacking is a detailed assessment of performance visibility gaps when evaluating the value that different APM solutions can provide to them. Figure 3: Strategies for Deploying UEM Solutions 28% 34% 38% Deploying UEM to close visibility gaps left by other APM tools Using UEM as a starting point for addressing other APM challenges Deploying a single solution for both UEM and APM One of the key value propositions of UEM solutions is to point IT and business decision makers in the right direction when they are looking to improve the performance of business critical applications. For that reason, different flavors of UEM solutions very often serve as an effective starting point in enabling key application performance management strategies, while allowing organizations to make more educated decisions about additional APM capabilities, such as deep dive tools, transaction tracing or meeting their performance management goals. Enabling proactive management of IT performance Forty-five percent of organizations reported that reducing the number of incidents where IT is not aware of the problem is the key reason why they are deploying UEM solutions. The research also shows that the key management challenge is monitoring the quality of user experience in real-time (Figure 4). Page 4

5 Figure 4: Key Challenges for User Experience Monitoring Inability to monitor the user experience in real-time 40% Lack of visibility into impact of performance on application usage 39% Monitor impact of new technology rollouts on quality of end-user experience 29% Poor usability of data from user experience monitoring tools 28% Inability to identify performance issues before users are impacted 23% One of the key value propositions of UEM solutions is to monitor application performance from the perspective of business users and prevent potential issues before business users are impacted. The ability to monitor application performance from the perspective of the end-user and gather UEM data in real-time allows organizations to get a true understanding of how their IT initiatives impact business goals and allows them to mitigate the risk of potential disruption of their key business processes. Correlating IT and business metrics Forty-seven percent of organizations that participated in the research reported that their performance monitoring solutions do not meet their requirements when it comes to aligning their IT with business goals (Figure 5). From a business perspective, application performance strategies are assessed, not by how consistently an organization meets internal operational level agreements, but by how many users engage with the applications and how much they buy. For internal applications, it s about end-user adoption and enhanced organizational efficiency. For public-facing applications (e.g., banking, trading, finance, travel, shopping, sports and entertainment events, etc.) - success is about completing transactions and encouraging repeat business. UEM solutions play an important role of helping user Page 5

6 organizations understand the correlation between these metrics, which leads to a better alignment of IT and business goals and a more effective use of performance data. Figure 5: Vendor Satisfaction - Alignment with Business Goals 21% 26% 53% Fully Meets Goals Partially Meets Goals Does Not Meet Goals Summary The end-user experience is not only an integral component of end-to-end Application Performance Management; arguably, it is the most meaningful indicator of application performance. Additionally, TRAC's research shows that UEM is a class of technology that provides value to multiple job roles, both within business and IT, and it is relevant for all key use cases of performance management. UEM solutions are playing a unique role in enabling major technology initiatives and are becoming an essential element of effective IT and business strategies. Authors: Bojan Simic, Principal Analyst Anne Croft, Senior Research Associate Page 6