Can Applications save business survival
In his last customer conference keynote speech as CEO, John Chambers, now Executive Chairman at Cisco, predicted that more than one-third of businesses at that time (2015) would not survive the next 10 years. Why? His answer was ‘The only ones that will survive will turn their companies into digital, techie versions of themselves, and many of will fail trying’.
To succeed in the ‘techie’ transformation, businesses will need to start relying on applications to do more than just play the supporting role in helping other products perform better. Applications will need to take the leading role as the fundamental enabler in business survival. However to ensure success and reduce any associated risk with this shift in responsibility and reliance, much more focus must be given to application quality and performance.
Investment in QA and testing is on the increase
Statistics from the World Quality Report 2015/16 show that the business world recognises this and is responding with the average IT spend allocated to QA and Testing jumping from 23% in 2013, to 35% in 2015 and to a predicted 40% by 2018. Based on Gartner’s IT spending forecast, in financial services this equated to $180bn on QA and Testing in 2015. A significant investment and evidence that testing has warranted a seat at the IT board room table. Despite this however, failure is still commonplace, even for those already well invested in the digitalization process.
A recent British Airways IT glitch resulted in baggage tags and boarding passes being handwritten, large flight delays, the cost of 100s of lost business hours and a big dent in their brand image. Retailers who experienced failures in the past are busy learning from mistakes in 2015 where ‘unexpected traffic’ caused website failures and cost the sector billions in lost revenue potential. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner failure is not an option.
What can be done to make companies future-proof?
So for those who are just starting out on the digital journey, how can you succeed and avoid becoming just a distant memory? Take advantage of the lessons learnt from those who have already tried and tested the path to becoming a ‘techie’ version of themselves. Recognise that applications will become a backbone of business and set out a clear strategy for development and implementation so that any areas of risk are highlighted early on. This will help with budget allocation and the set up of a robust testing programme to provide assurance on application quality and performance. The risk will be reduced along the digital journey and the business will be on track to become one of John Chambers’ survivors.
Learn how JAR:TestLab can help you check your application performanceHere and ensure they are putting you on the track for survival on the digitalization journey.
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