A Custom Technology

Adoption Profile
Commissioned By BMC Software

Digital Business Requires

Application Performance
Management
Introduction
Digital is transforming the rules of business success. Today, every business
must transform into a digital business by exploiting digital technologies to
provide external services that create new value for customers and internal
services that optimize employee productivity. Applications are core to digital
service delivery but increasingly complex to deliver and proactively manage.
Multiple code platforms, hybrid cloud architectures, faster release cadences,
and mobile requirements mean that guaranteeing application performance,
availability, and experience is increasingly difficult for enterprises.
Unfortunately, current digital service management approaches are insufficient
to solve these rising complexity challenges. Today, enterprise approaches are
too reactive, tactical, and fragmented, leading to a high frequency of
application problems that have a direct impact on employee productivity and
lose the business customers. The solution is an application performance
management (APM) strategy that safeguards digital service performance and
optimizes end user experience. The result is that the business brand is
protected, while IT operations increases its reputation as a key partner in
digital business transformation.
This BMC Software-commissioned profile of US, UK, and German IT
operations decision-makers evaluates the need for and use of application
performance management solutions, based on Forresters own market data
and a custom study of the same audience.

January 2015

Digital Transforms The Rules Of

Business Success
Today, the priorities for business success remain clear (see
Figure 1). Firstly, improve customer experience and make
sure that interactions, products, and services are easy,
enjoyable, and meet needs from a customer perspective.
Secondly, grow revenues by providing great products or
services, and thirdly, control costs. While these priorities are
clear, achieving success is becoming increasingly
challenging as digital begins to permeate every aspect of
business operations and redefines the rules of business
success. This means that every business must transform
into a digital business that continuously exploits digital
technologies such as mobile and social to both create new
value for customers and increase operational agility in the
service of customers. Digital business operation means that:

Your customers are digital. By 2017, 74% of the US

adult online population will own smartphones and 46% will
1
own tablets. Digital technology powerfully changes how
customers experience products and what they value.
Mobile technologies mean that customers expect to be
able to interact with your business at the swipe of a
smartphone and touch of a mobile app in their moment
of need.

Your employees are digital. Employees' experiences as

consumers shape their expectations in the workplace.
They see access to mobile, social, and other applications
as critical to efficiency, changing how they interact with
each other, customers, and outside suppliers. Today,
every business function is fueled by applications, meaning
that digital technologies are key to workforce productivity.

Your products are digital. Digital technologies create

opportunities to add new services to physical products,
opening doors to new experiences and revenue streams.
Using real-time data from sensors, businesses are able to
understand their customers and employees in greater
detail than ever before. The result is that new business
services can be delivered in context, creating a deeper
personal relationship.

Applications Are Core To Digital

Services But Increasingly Complex
To Manage
Ultimately, the important aspect of digital services is not the
smartphone, tablet, or wearable its the application and
its usability, performance, and availability. Applications fuel
the digital channels that customers and employees use to
access products or services. Today, websites and mobile

FIGURE 1
Top Business Priorities Are To Improve The Customer Experience, Grow Revenue, And Reduce Costs
Which of the following initiatives are likely to be your organizations top business priorities over the next 12 months?
Critical priority

High priority

Moderate priority

Improve the experience of our customers

32%

Grow revenues

32%

Reduce costs

Prepare our business for the impact of digital disruption

Improve corporate environmental sustainability

40%
43%

19%

34%

16%

32%

14%
12%

Not on our agenda

Dont know

44%

26%

Better comply with regulations and requirements

Improve differentiation in the market

Low priority

27%
28%

Base: 4,003 US, UK, and German enterprise technology decision-makers

Note: Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding.
Source: Forresters Business Technographics Global Priorities And Journey Survey, 2014

17% 5%

16% 6% 5% 1%
1%
24% 6% 1%
30%

29%
31%
33%

2%
1%

12% 4% 1%
13%
17%
18%

8%

2%

9%

2%

7%

2%

apps are central to this; therefore, the application choices

that businesses make are not only central to revenue
generation but fundamental to brand reputation. The
challenge is that digital service delivery brings rising
application complexity caused by the following:

Multiple code platforms. Todays web apps are visually

rich and provide interactive experiences, which enables
digital businesses to deliver services and products in
innovative ways. The issue is that web apps are being
developed using an increasing array of programming
languages (see Figure 2). Whats the result? Multiple
languages equal more code issues that can cause
performance, availability, and usability problems.
Mobile-first necessity. Today, customers and
employees take mobile devices with them as they would a
watch, wallet, or handbag. Therefore, its no surprise that
Forresters Business Technographics mobile IT survey
shows that over half of IT decision-makers expect that
their firm will deploy six or more mobile apps for
customers, employees, and business partners over the
next 12 months (see Figure 3). But managing the
availability and performance of mobile apps is difficult
because of multiple types of hardware, OSes, and
network carriers. Also, user behavior in regards to mobile
is not predictable, as users have the choice of whether to
FIGURE 2
Web-Based Applications Are Becoming
Increasingly Complex From A Code Platform
Perspective

upgrade to the latest mobile app or stick with their existing

one, meaning multiple app versions need to be supported.

Hybrid cloud architectures. An applications

performance, availability, and usability are greatly
dependent on the infrastructure workload (server, storage,
and network) that it sits on. But new cloud-based
architecture techniques for infrastructure are leading to
rising complexity. In a typical hybrid cloud environment,
highly distributed application components may be running
in environments not fully controlled by the business,
resulting in difficulties managing application quality.

Faster release cadence. All businesses in all industries

are transforming into digital businesses. This shift is
forcing businesses to stay ahead of their competition in
regards to digital services. This means that Agile software
development practices are a priority for faster and more
frequent releases. More changes to a production
environment means an increased possibility of application
code or underlying infrastructure issues.
FIGURE 3
Mobile Applications For Both Customers And
Employees Are On The Rise
How many new smartphone and tablet apps do you expect
your firm will deploy for customers/business partners and
employees over the next 12 months?
8%
9%

26 or more apps

8%
10%

16 to 25 apps

13%
11%

11 to 15 apps

How do you allocate the time you spend writing code

across the following programming languages?
(Mean % of time spent)
HTML/CSS

12%

Java

10%

C++

10%

PL/SQL
C#

9%
8%

Base: 464 US, UK, and German enterprise developers

Note: top five responses shown
Source: Business Technographics Global Developer Survey, 2014,
Forrester Research, Inc.

22%
20%
25%

6 to 10 apps
2 to 5 apps

29%

8%
8%

1 app
None
Dont know

For customers/
business partners
For employees

9%

12%

5%
5%

Base: 485 US, UK, and German enterprise IT decision-makers

Source: Business Technographics Global Mobility Survey, 2014,
Forrester Research, Inc.

Current Digital Service Management

Approaches Don't Solve Rising
Complexity Challenges
Rising digital service complexity in regards to application
delivery means that safeguarding application performance,
availability, and usability is a digital business imperative.
Today, IT operations needs to ensure that it can proactively
manage digital service experience holistically, from the end
user through to the application and to the back-end
infrastructure workload, irrespective of whether its onpremises or in a cloud-based environment. Equally, digital
business operation means that IT operations has to
proactively manage internal, employee-facing digital
services and external, customer-facing digital services. The
consequence of an ineffective approach here is simple:
Digital service experience issues caused by underlying
application or infrastructure problems results in either loss of
employee productivity or loss of customers, resulting in lost
revenue and damage to the brand of the business.
Our custom survey shows that digital service management
is a challenge for organizations today. Almost half of survey
respondents stated that application complexity or multitiered
applications with complex interdependencies are the
primary challenge and obstacle in meeting application

performance and availability expectations. The following

issues were also uncovered:

Distributed, reactive, and tactical approaches. Over

half (52%) of IT infrastructure and operation decisionmakers stated their investments in monitoring and
3
management tools are reactive and tactical or distributed.
Such a fragmented approach leads to investments that
dont reflect the business importance of monitoring and
management. This results in duplicate or overlapping
tools, which means more sources of data, confusion, and
increased complexity. Additionally, this approach leads to
the wrong culture among IT operations, as monitoring
tools are used primarily to exonerate IT from blame rather
than focus on the customers or employees currently
affected by digital service issues.

Frequent digital service failures. The result of a

nonstrategic approach to digital service management is
easily visible from the survey. Over half (57%) of IT
infrastructure and operations professionals stated that
their organization suffers from business-critical application
performance and availability problems at least weekly
and at worst, hourly (see Figure 4). In todays digital
business, these problems reduce employee productivity
and shatter customer experiences.

FIGURE 4
Over Half Of Organizations Suffer From Business-Critical Application Performance And Availability
Problems At Least Weekly
How frequently do business-critical application performance or availability problems occur in your organization?
29%
26%
22%

57%

11%
7%

6%

0%
Hourly

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Quarterly

Less than
quarterly

Never

Base: 90 US, UK, and German IT operations and infrastructure decision-makers responsible for business-critical applications or IT services
Note: Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of BMC Software, November 2014

Application Performance
Management Is A Required Digital
Business Capability

Major impacts on the business. The impact of poor

performance and availability is profound on the business
(see Figure 5). The custom survey highlights that firstly,
issues lead to a loss of business user productivity. Simply,
if your employees cant work, then the business ceases to
function. Secondly, poor performance and availability
cause a loss of time and productivity in the IT department
as IT professionals scramble to find the root cause of
application issues. Thirdly, and most worryingly for the
business, poor performance and availability for critical
applications results in a direct loss of clients due to poor
image. This leads to long-lasting impacts on the brand
image and reputation of the business.

In summary, the custom survey highlights that current

approaches to digital service performance, availability, and
usability management are not suited to the needs of todays
digital businesses in fact, they increase the complexity of
delivering digital services successfully. To improve, IT
infrastructure and operations professionals must make
digital service management a priority. Digital service
management is underpinned by an APM strategy that
utilizes monitoring and management tools. Our survey
shows that the top desired monitoring/management solution
capabilities are (see Figure 6):

Rapid root-cause analysis. When an application

problem occurs in relation to a key digital service, then
employees and customers are affected, leaving the
business vulnerable. This means that rapid mean-time-toresolution (MTTR) of application issues is a necessity.
Therefore, its no surprise that the top solution feature
requested is the ability to rapidly perform root-cause

FIGURE 5
Poor End User Performance Of Critical Apps Reduces Business And IT Productivity, Revenue
What are the top three impacts of poor end user performance or availability in regards to
your most critical applications?
1

3
27%

Loss of business user productivity

Important loss of business revenue

Client dissatisfaction with the company
Loss of confidence in the app that supports
the business process

16%

17%

24%

13% 10%

19%

42%

14%

14%

42%

12%

40%

11%
10%

13%
17%
12%

16%

59%

17%

Loss of time and productivity in the IT department

Loss of clients and business due to poor image

Total %

14%

57%

37%

None of the above: 6%

Dont know: 2%

Base: 90 US, UK, and German IT operations and infrastructure decision-makers responsible for business-critical applications or IT services
Note: Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding.
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of BMC Software, November 2014

FIGURE 6
Top Desired Monitoring/Management Solution Capabilities
Which monitoring/management solution features do you think would help to guarantee that
application performance and availability expectations are met?
1

The ability to rapidly perform root-cause analysis if

a performance or availability issue occurs

12% 6%

The ability to automatically fix availability or performance issues

The ability to do deep-dive analysis of infrastructure and
application components
The ability to avoid or predict potential performance or availability
issues before they have impact on end user
The ability to integrate all monitoring data on a customizable dashboard to
foster cooperation between IT support and development

The ability to correlate application performance to

business revenue and/or profit
The ability to collect and analyze all application transactions

14%

12%
7%

9%

14% 4%
10%

6%

7%

9%

17% 4%

7%

The ability to monitor enterprise business applications 6% 6%

The ability to correlate application performance to employee productivity

Total %

7%

10% 3%

10%

7% 3%

11%
10%

10% 6% 6%
9%

9%

8% 3% 7%

8% 4%3% 8% 6%
2%
8% 6% 4% 8%

The ability to map applications to infrastructure components 3% 6% 4% 6% 4%

2%
The ability to monitor mobile and web-based applications 3%3% 7%
7%
1%
The ability to monitor an end users experience of applications 6%
8% 7%
2%
2%
An open source or limited freemium solution
6%
6%
2%
A deployment model that supports SaaS or on-premises
3%3%3%3%3%
depending on the environment
1%
Solid case studies for my industry and a strong customer community 3%4%4% 2%

7%

9%

50%
47%
43%
39%
38%
36%
30%
29%
28%
23%
22%
21%
18%
17%
16%

Base: 90 US, UK, and German IT operations and infrastructure decision-makers responsible for business-critical applications or IT services
Note: Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding.
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of BMC Software, November 2014

analysis if a performance or availability issue occurs.

Good APM solutions are able to pinpoint digital service
issues quickly, highlighting whether root cause is down to
a consumer device, the application, or the back-end
infrastructure workload.

Automation to fix issues. Identifying the cause of a

digital service issue is important, but fixing the problem or
providing a workaround for the customer or employee is
the real priority. The custom survey highlighted that
almost half (47%) of IT infrastructure and operations
decision-makers believe that the ability to automatically fix
availability or performance issues is a top
monitoring/management solution feature. At the basic
level, a good APM solution should provide run-book or
task automation features that automatically run a scriptbased action based on an alert or error event to fix simple
issues. But great APM solutions provide or integrate with
process automation solutions that are able to trigger more
complex responses involving many tasks related to a

process, such as spinning up additional virtual machines

based on application demand.

Deep-dive analysis of infrastructure and applications.

Rapid digital service issue resolution is key to limiting the
impact of digital service problems. But this is still a
reactive approach to digital service management. The
reality is that customers and employees dont expect
digital services to fail in the first place. Therefore, its
essential that APM solutions are able to help IT
infrastructure and operations professionals make forwardlooking insights in order to optimize digital services, not
just safeguard performance and availability. The third
desired feature discovered by the custom survey, the
ability to do deep-dive analysis of infrastructure and
application components, reflects this requirement. APM
solutions must make it easy for IT infrastructure and
operations professionals to analyze infrastructure and
application components in order to optimize capacity,
change, and release management processes.

Conclusion
Todays digital businesses are fueled by applications. The reality is that the application choices that a company makes are
central to the quality of digital services provided to customers and employees. This means that application performance
management is a digital business necessity. When making choices in regards to APM solutions, IT infrastructure and
operations professionals must:

Realize that great APM is about proactive insight. Historically, the core requirement for any APM solution is to rapidly
identify the root cause if a digital service issue arises. But todays customers expect digital services to be available and
perform well anytime and anywhere. This means that IT operations professionals should look for solutions that provide the
ability to make forward-looking insights through analytic features. The aim is not only to avoid performance, availability, or
usability issues from occurring in the first place, but to help make decisions that will improve the end user experience.

Involve relevant business units. The importance of applications in relation to business success means that APM
solutions are not just useful for IT infrastructure and operations professionals. Great APM solutions are able to provide
information and insights in the context of the audience to other business units such as marketing and eCommerce via
easily creatable dashboards. Therefore, IT infrastructure and operations professionals should collaborate with customerfacing business units in order to create dashboards that marry business information such as revenue and user
engagement data with performance, availability, and usability information in order to optimize digital strategy.

Methodology
This Technology Adoption Profile was commissioned by BMC Software. To create this profile, Forrester leveraged its
Business Technographics Global Priorities And Journey Survey, 2014; Business Technographics Global Developer Survey,
2014; and Business Technographics Global Mobility Survey, 2014. Forrester Consulting supplemented this data with custom
survey questions asked of 90 US, UK, and German enterprise IT operations and infrastructure decision-makers. Survey
respondents included decision-makers responsible for the performance and availability of their organizations businesscritical applications or IT services. The auxiliary custom survey was conducted in November 2014. For more information on
Forresters data panel and Tech Industry Consulting services, visit www.forrester.com.

Endnotes
1

Source: Forrester Research World Smartphone Adoption Forecast, 2012 To 2017 (Global), Forrester Research, Inc.,
February 11, 2013 and Forrester Research World Tablet Adoption Forecast, 2012 To 2017 (Global), Forrester Research,
Inc., January 16, 2013.
2

Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of BMC Software, November 2014.

Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of BMC Software, November 2014.

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