Australian orgs struggling to provide connected UX

Two-thirds of Australian organisations are failing to provide completely connected user experiences, new research from Mulesoft indicates.

A survey of 100 CIOs and IT decision-makers in Australia — including some in public sector organisations — found that with 70% of organisations’ customer interactions now digital, creating a connected user experience has become increasingly difficult.

More than half (55%) of respondents to the survey, conducted in collaboration with Deloitte Digital, said they find it difficult to integrate user experiences. This is up from 44% a year ago.

Respondents cited a lack of internal knowledge as the biggest challenge to integrating user experiences (56%) followed by outdated IT infrastructure (55%) and an inability to keep up with ever-changing processes, tools and systems (53%).

Data silos also remain a significant barrier to creating an integrated user experience, the research indicates. Nearly all (97%) respondents cited silos as a challenge. Meanwhile, integrating siloed apps and data was seen as the biggest challenge to digital transformation, cited by 44% of respondents, slightly ahead of risk management and compliance (43%).

But the research also found that organisations, including public sector organisations, are turning to APIs to tackle these integration challenges.

Most (92%) organisations now have a clear integration and API strategy, with over a third (34%) of respondents stating that leaders now demand that all projects abide by a company-wide integration strategy.

CIOs are also responding to the challenges by creating reusable APIs and other IT assets to accelerate time taken to complete projects. On average, 46% of Australian organisations’ internal software assets and components are available for developers to reuse, the survey suggests.

“Digital agility is essential to successful transformation, allowing organisations to drive innovation at scale, deliver new initiatives faster and create the experiences that customers want,” Deloitte Consulting Managing Director and API Transformation Leader Kurt Anderson said.

“A modern strategy that combines integration, API management and automation is central to achieving digital agility. It enables organisations to easily connect and integrate their data, applications and devices to create new digital capabilities and drive transformation projects.”

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