Chloe Casdorph Here at ControlUp, we lead the way in Digital Employee Experience (DEX), partnering with clients across diverse industries, from healthcare to financial institutions. New customers often have questions about how DEX works and its impact on the modern workplace. As a marketing intern, I wanted to take a deep dive into these common inquiries. I spoke with our DEX expert, Joel Stocker, to get his insights on the top questions we hear.
1. How does DEX help organizations outside of IT?
Many teams within an organization can significantly benefit from a DEX platform. Human Resources (HR), for instance, often comes to mind. In today’s digital workplace, a positive employee experience is crucial for employee satisfaction and talent retention. Leading DEX tools include user sentiment tools, enabling surveys of end-users. This isn’t just about technology; it’s also about the human element. Other departments, like the security team, also benefit. Top-tier DEX software typically offers features for IT compliance and patch management, boosting the organization’s overall cybersecurity posture.
2. What is the ROI of DEX solutions?
A DEX tool can achieve significant cost savings, directly driving ROI. For example, rapidly resolving IT tickets drastically reduces IT support costs. DEX tools also aid in device lifecycle planning and endpoint management. The days of rigid three-year device refreshes are gone; now, DEX provides device performance and experience data so IT can make refresh decisions based on actual end-user experience, not just device age.
Tool consolidation is one of the biggest areas for savings for IT teams. The robust features of DEX software allow IT to streamline their software stack, reducing licensing costs, improving time-to-value for new hires, and optimizing workflows. This also helps with SaaS optimization by identifying underutilized tools.
3. How can DEX tools help with cost savings and tool consolidation?
Customers tell us they’ve built large portfolios of tools over the years, some acquired before the shift to remote work. Certain tools that worked well in the office might not fit today’s hybrid workplace. We also see instances where tools are forgotten, licenses aren’t cancelled after an employee leaves, or renewals happen by default. But the core question is: are they truly necessary? What ControlUp does, and what you see with effective DEX software, is help evaluate and right-size your IT software stack. This leads to direct cost savings on acquisition and subscription renewals.
4. What are the biggest challenges impacting end-user experience, and how does DEX help?
I always joke with customers, “Give me your most popular ticket.” When they say it’s typically “my computer/application is slow,” the end-user often doesn’t know why, just that it’s lagging. From that starting point, identifying the root cause of the problem is the most critical and challenging aspect. That’s where DEX excels. DEX software helps quickly pinpoint the cause and remediate the issue. Remediation might be easy, but rapid root cause analysis and identification are key.
5. How does DEX contribute to a successful hybrid workplace?
During COVID, many organizations went remote for the first time, necessitating different IT tools as employee behavior changed. Now, five years on, hybrid and remote work are here to stay. A DEX tool is extremely proficient at providing complete visibility to IT admins to solve problems, regardless of user location, device type, or app used. We now understand that end-user experience matters, remote troubleshooting is vital, and employee and IT productivity should remain constant, regardless of work style, device, or location.
6. What role does DEX play in attracting and retaining top talent?
The most important thing is that employees want to do their work without interruption. A frictionless experience, where tasks like patch management or VDI log-on are seamless, leads to a positive workday. These invisible, positive experiences boost employee sentiment and satisfaction. Happy employees build great companies and help attract and retain talent. Additionally, younger generations value flexibility in work devices and methods, which reduces concerns about device choices for companies and serves as a key differentiator in attracting new talent.
7. What are the common pitfalls or mistakes organizations make when implementing DEX, and how can they be avoided?
One common mistake I’ve seen customers make is treating a DEX tool as just another addition to their existing stack. DEX offers new ways of measuring IT by providing a deeper understanding of experience and performance. If you view it simply as another tool, it can contribute to an already-bloated IT environment. You need to start with a comprehensive evaluation of your current tools and business goals, then build your strategy. This means establishing new KPIs focused on IT excellence and digital employee experience.
8. What metrics should we track to measure and improve DEX over time effectively?
Effectively measuring and improving DEX over time hinges on understanding experience scores. While the specifics depend on your DEX tool, consolidating thousands of metrics, user sentiment, and digital workplace data into a single employee experience score offers a powerful way to track progress. This unified score allows you to observe trends, gauge IT excellence improvements, and assess the impact of application updates. If scores decline, it’s a clear signal to address issues, transforming challenges into learning opportunities. Ultimately, experience scoring is the most effective method for measuring and enhancing DEX, revealing the direct impact on your digital employee experience.
9. How do DEX tools provide granular visibility into endpoint performance and application health across the entire IT estate?
Data collection for real-time insights utilizes agents and browser extensions. We integrate with Citrix, Omnissa, and unified communication tools like Zoom and Teams. This provides crucial real-time data and end-user sentiment via surveys. Our DEX platform centralizes this data from relevant third-party platforms, offering comprehensive visibility and enabling corrective actions. It all begins with collecting the right metrics.
10. If I already have monitoring tools, why would I buy a DEX tool?
A lot of customers have monitoring tools, DEM tools, or observability tools, and they are often asked, “What is the difference? If I already have monitoring tools, why would I buy a DEX tool?” These tools are effective at telling you that you have a problem, but don’t provide the features to actually address that problem. You have to figure that out for yourself. A DEX solution is focused on a much broader aspect of the digital workplace. It allows you to effectively remediate the problem, or prevent problems before they happen.
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