7 Trends in Digital Experience Platforms

What do you get when you listen to the voice of 300 business and IT executives across North America, Europe, and Latin America talking about digital experience platforms? No, this is not the start of a bad joke, you actually get a pretty good insight into what’s driving the digital experience conversation today.

And Digital Clarity Group did exactly this. In research sponsored by censhare, it undertook a major study of senior business and IT executives across eight industry verticals and over half a dozen countries to look beyond the industry hype. The research is designed to gauge the mood of the real people facing the challenges of delivering digital transformation, and more specifically, to lift the loid on the software solutions they are implementing to support this change.

The DCG whitepaper, which runs close to 40 pages, includes detailed research and case studies, identified seven key findings which we have summarized below.

1. New business models fuel DXP demand and investments

DCG uses the term “wrenching” to describe the disruption which some organizations are facing when serving customers through a mix of high touch physical and digital channels, and this is a challenge which is leading to significant change with an impact way beyond the software solutions which are being implemented, towards a transformation of entire process and business models.

2. It’s the C-suite and IT, and not marketing, leading DX technology decisions and strategies

Despite the many reports (like this in ADWEEK) suggesting that the decision making power when it comes to marketing technology is shifting from IT to the increasingly digital savvy CMO, speaking to the real folks on the front line, DCG have discovered the power still sits with the C-suite and IT.

3. Current DXP landscape models a federated architecture for platform assembly and a services layer for integration

Reflecting the logic that no single solution is going to solve an organization’s specific digital experience challenge, DCG’s research has identified six buying centers for DXP tech – contextual customer profile, e-commerce, content, cognitive, engagement, and the digital business process – with shared data sources and services as the hub.

4. Nearly 70% of buyers take heterogeneous approaches to their DXPs

In a continuation of point 3, the research reports that buyers choose a heterogeneous approach because they no longer believe that a single vendor can meet all of their needs. The paper also shares what the priorities are for these buyers.

5. Most buyers are skeptical about homogeneous approaches to DXPs

The trend of buying a mix of integrated solutions in order to build a platform, rather than single source is also driven by a view that sourcing from a single vendor would not deliver an end-to-end DXP. The report provides some really interesting opinions from buyers regarding the claims of large vendor when it comes to having integrated solutions.

6. Customer data technologies are the linchpin for DXPs

I’ve long argued that there are 3 C’s to Customer Experience (Customer, Content and Contecxt), but this research reveals that most executives are still very much focused on the first of these C’s – the Customer.

7. Buyers choose DX vendors based on near-term concerns

A lot that is written about DXP that is theoretical and academic, or which focuses on longer term transformational objectives, but this research hones in on the immediate practical concerns that buyers have, such as technical support, solution quality, ease of integration, partner networks, and partner expertise.

So, there you have it, a very quick summary of this incredibly detailed research which I have only scratched the surface of. You can download the entire research free here, which is packed with stats and great quotes.