Your Business Is Always On: Is Your Network Visibility?

Today’s consumers expect instant access to products and services, and they have little patience for network bottlenecks, intermittent mobile coverage, a weak Wi-Fi signal, or congestion at multiple “hops” in the cloud. If customers experience poor service levels, the business in question may encounter increased churn. To put it into context, churn could mean a subscription cancellation, account closure, non-renewal of contracts or client’s decision to shop at another store.

According to Analysys Mason, mobile network speed is the main factor that influences customers’ satisfaction with their mobile services in the Middle East, and their intention to leave a provider. In addition, Salesforce confirmed that more than three-quarters of customers would rather switch to a competitor after just one bad experience. In Europe, customer experience is fast becoming a legal matter. For larger companies, a human agent must always be available to help customers if they are going through an unsatisfactory experience with the automated system or chatbot.

Necessity in the new normal: Food, Water, Clothing, Connectivity

While food, shelter and water remain our basic human requirements, in today’s ‘always on’ digital environment you could argue that connectivity should be added to the list. After all, we depend on a digital ecosystem that includes and connects education, government services, entertainment, healthcare, and financial services, to name just a few.

The need for constant connectivity means that when problems arise, there are near immediate consequences. For example, if a hospital experiences delays in healthcare delivery due to network outages or congestion, patient care will be directly impacted. The same goes for manufacturers and supply chain delivery services, whereby any outages will disrupt operations and deliveries, again directly impacting the end consumer.

Such scenarios not only deal a financial blow to the organisations and businesses we rely on, but they can have a direct impact on our digital lifestyle. Reliance on uninterrupted connectivity has become the norm since the COVID-19 epidemic. This requires reconsideration of the level of visibility required for the network and IT infrastructure that underpin essential systems and services. Just as players use in-game analytics to adjust to the next play, we now require accessible, strong visibility to respond in real-time, ensuring customers have the best possible experience while using our digital services.

Organisations require accurate, real-time operational data on what is happening in every aspect of their application-centric, networked business. And there should be no limit to the capacity to scale this visibility as the organisation’s infrastructure grows.

Unleashing the Power of Visibility

If your business is totally reliant on uninterrupted connectivity, it is critical to have a 360-degree view of it around the clock. This can present a major challenge to organisations should they not have technical staff on hand to monitor network slowdowns or outages and quickly pinpoint where they are and what is causing them. Or they may just want to ensure that they see a strong return on investment (ROI) from their visibility investments, ideally in the form of always-on connectivity for their customers.

For many organisations, sharing the responsibility for visibility and connectivity with a service partner makes sense. A partner can provide “as-a-service” visibility features using best-of-breed tools, thus reducing the burden on IT and network operations teams. Getting there may require bringing senior leadership teams together and shifting the culture to a more unified view, but the right partner can help any operation think about total visibility as greater than the sum of its individual parts.

Having a complete view of your digital ecosystem is critical in today’s customer-centric landscape. Adopting such a mindset is directly linked to organisational and customer success in our ever-evolving, interconnected world.