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New research from Accedian reveals scale of the CIO dilemma – 95% feel responsible for customer service excellence but less than two-thirds have the right tools to deliver

  • CIO role shifts towards delivery of customer experience research finds
  • 61% of CIOs feel entirely responsible for customer service; less than 1% think this is not in their job description
  • 35% don’t have the tools they need to deliver agile, high-performing digital customer experiences via the cloud, rising to 75% in the UK
  • Almost half (46%) of all CIOs say that migrating IT environments to deliver industry-leading performance and customer experience is top priority for the coming two years
  • Data based on survey of CIOs based in U.S., UK and France

MONTREAL, Canada – June 25, 2019Accedian, the leader in performance analytics and end-user experience solutions, today revealed new research findings highlighting the scale of the ‘Digital Deadlock’1 CIOs face in their struggle to evolve and keep up with the pace of digital transformation and to deliver against new customer experience KPIs.

Research commissioned by Accedian and conducted by Vanson Bourne surveyed CIOs across the United States, France and the United Kingdom. Respondents were asked about their emerging and increasing responsibilities for delivering against customer experience expectations, and their readiness for this new challenge in an era of technology migration to cloud services.

Of those surveyed, the vast majority of CIOs (95%) believe their teams to be at least partially responsible for delivery of excellent customer experience, representing a significant shift in focus and expertise for the CIO office. However, only 64% of these same CIOs believe they are prepared and equipped with a full complement of tools, resources and capabilities required to meet this challenge and deliver agile, high-performing and personalized digital customer experiences via the cloud.

Dion Joannou, CEO, Accedian explained: “Cloud migration of previously on-premises technologies has changed the picture for many organizations, leaving CIOs feeling that control has been relinquished and complexity has been increased. Yet, the need to delight and retain customers by exceeding their expectations remains the constant competitive battle, all while keeping performance, security and cost in tight focus.” 

Almost half of all respondents surveyed (46%) believe that transforming and migrating the IT environment to support business-critical applications in the cloud is a key priority. They believe their organization has to tackle this in the next two years if they are to deliver the industry-leading performance and experience demanded both internally and by their customers.

The data reveals two very different environments on each side of the Atlantic. Seventy-five percent of British tech leaders say they need greater access to tools to deliver against these new responsibilities, in contrast to just 21% of American and 26% of French tech leaders. Equally, just 40% of British respondents take full responsibility for customer service compared to 72% of American and 60% of French respondents. For global businesses, this disparity poses an additional challenge and paints a picture of divergent responsibilities and requirements.

The host of tools and capabilities now required by CIOs includes an understanding of customer experience at the deepest application level, as well as the broad spectrum of performance data needed to monitor the health of their physical and virtual digital environments. Furthermore, IT teams need to know which alerts to respond to and which data points to monitor—and many are expected to rise to these new challenges with fewer resources, greater pressures to deliver, and at a faster pace than ever before.

In response to the changing needs of CIOs and IT teams in the digital economy, Accedian has re-imagined its platform and positioning, providing both the micro detail and macro intelligence CIOs need to win in the customer-centric environment in which they now find themselves. 

Joannou concluded: “Following strategic development over the past two years, Accedian has evolved and positioned itself to help solve the new problems generated by the digital transformation era. Our full-stack solution to these problems delivers unbeatable lines of sight to CIOs and IT teams whether the data exists on-premise or in their private or third-party cloud environments. We are enabling CIOs to regain control and simplify their entire digital landscape, to take performance and customer experience to new heights.”


1 “Digital Deadlock” – a term coined by IDC to describe the digital transformation challenges faced by CIOs. Source IDC – https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS44014818

About Accedian

Accedian is the leader in performance analytics and end user experience solutions, dedicated to providing our customers with the ability to assure their digital infrastructure, while helping them to unlock the full productivity of their users.

We are committed to empowering our customers with the ability to see far and wide across their IT and network infrastructure and a microscopic ability to dive deep and understand the experience of every user, helping them to delight their own customers each and every time.

Accedian has been delivering solutions to high profile customers globally for over 15 years.

For more information, visit accedian.com.
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Media Contact
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