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The Quantified User: Redefining How to Measure IT Success

Redefining How to Measure IT Success

In 1989, the blockbuster hit Back to the Future took the world by a storm with wild technology predictions. Now, we know the film might have missed the mark on flying cars and power clothes, but many of its predictions were more accurate than expected. Case in point: wearables.

From virtual reality headsets to fitness trackers, wearable technology powers this notion of the “quantified self” where our personal lives can be digitalized and analyzed with the end goal of being “improved.”

But when it comes to our professional lives, can we similarly analyze and improve them in order to enable productivity? Yes! Just as we are living in the era of the “quantified self” the enterprise is now entering the era of the “quantified user.”

But don’t just take my word for it. Here is how and, more importantly, why you should care…

What is the “quantified user?”

Think about the workplace today: it is one where people, processes and technologies are overwhelmingly digital and largely managed by third parties (eg: Office 365 and other business-critical SaaS offerings). And this is a great thing!

But this also presents an unforeseen challenge for IT which is, “how do we support a workforce that is largely digital and whose technology resources may or may not be managed by us?”

The key to supporting today’s workforce lies within the concept of the “quantified user” where, just as we are able to quantify the number of steps we take per day to help us improve our personal health, the “quantified user” is one whose end user experience within the digital workspace is quantified and given a score in order to enable productivity.


Learn More About End User Analytics


You might think that, at a glance, there is a loose relationship between a user’s experience and their productivity. However, over the past 20 years, workspace analytics provider, Lakeside Software has found the better the user experience score an employee has, the lower the barriers to productivity within the digital workspace. How? Via a healthier, more available desktop experience.

End user experience score: the most important metric in IT.

A bold statement, I know, but the end user experience score is the most important metric in IT because it accurately and objectively measures how all the technologies and actions taken by IT are enabling business productivity, which is the original purpose of any IT team.

The end user experience score is one that is normalized and is not touched by IT or IT vendors, and serves two purposes: inform what factors are impacting productivity and improve visibility into the health and performance of technology investments.

So how do we calculate the end user experience score?

Calculating employees’ end user experience score is done by analyzing and managing all the factors that could impact their productivity using a data-collection agent right where they conduct most if not all their work: the endpoint.

Why the endpoint? Because as critical IT functions are being outsourced and managed by third parties, reduced visibility into network transactions, data center transactions, and overall IT infrastructure is inevitable. Therefore, an employee’s workspace, the endpoint, has become the most privileged point of view IT can have into the state and the health of an increasingly scattered IT environment.

The end user experience score is one that should be calculated based on the availability and performance of all the factors that could impact the end user experience, that is everything from network and resource problems to infrastructure and system configuration issues.

The result is a score that is normalized and supports the “quantified user.” It is one that can be compared across teams and groups of users, and one that the IT team can work to improve in order to enable business productivity of those who matter most: the end users.

How to start using your end user experience score to enable productivity

Lakeside Software’s flagship solution, SysTrack, is based on permeating the use of the end user experience score throughout IT. A solution for workspace analytics, SysTrack is an endpoint agent that gathers and analyzes end user data on usage, experience and the overall endpoint in order to help IT teams in the following key areas:

  • Asset Optimization: ensuring the cost of IT is being optimized for the captured needs and usage of the users
  • Event Correlation and Analysis: pinpointing and resolving IT issues blocking users from being productive
  • Digital Experience Monitoring: monitoring and most importantly, analyzing end users’ experience with all the technologies and business processes provided for by the organization.

Learn more about SysTrack

 

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