Customer experience or CX is commonly used in B2C scenarios to optimize the end-user or consumer experience for products and services. Although its application in B2B scenarios is well-known, CX is seldom measured to assess enterprise satisfaction with an investment in technology and outsourcing managed services.
Measuring CX in the end consumer product industry is important for future product roadmapping and identifying improvement areas. Similarly, measuring CX for technology services and solutions is important to highlight the overall industry sentiment and identify areas for improvement. For more than five years, ISG has been tracking enterprise CX through its ISG Star of Excellence™ program to address this industry need and highlight factors that make-or-break client experience with their technology investments.
Enterprise CX is a quantifiable measure of a client’s experience with a technology or managed service provider. Measuring enterprise CX involves quantifying the enterprise’s satisfaction with its provider across six aspects, known as the six CX pillars. Each of the pillars consist of specific parameters that measure the performance of a managed or technology service provider, which, in turn, influence enterprise CX.
The 6 Pillars of Enterprise CX
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The Enterprise CX Pillars |
Ways providers can influence enterprise CX |
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Business continuity and flexibility |
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Execution and delivery |
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Governance and compliance |
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Collaboration and transparency |
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People and cultural fit |
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Innovation and thought leadership |
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For technology providers of hardware and software solutions, the corresponding parameters per CX pillar differ slightly to those for managed service providers.
How the ISG ISG Star of Excellence Program Works
In the ISG Star of Excellence program, ISG reaches out to enterprise clients via a “never-ending” survey and asks them to weigh each of these six pillars and then rate their managed and technology service providers on a score from 0 to 100. Zero indicates the least satisfied and 100 indicates the most satisfied. Enterprise CX is calculated as the weighted average of the six pillars' satisfaction and importance scores.
In 2022, ISG collected feedback from close to 2,000 enterprise clients across all sizes, industries and regions in the ISG Star of ExcellenceTM program. We calculated the enterprise CX scores for close to 70 leading managed service providers based on client responses. The average enterprise CX score across all service providers was 62.36. The program also lets clients provide a recommendation score for their provider between 0 to 100. The average net promoter score (NPS) of 28.0 was calculated based on the recommendation score for all providers.
The top 10 providers that scored the highest CX scores are listed below (in alphabetical order):
How ISG leverages Enterprise CX information in its sourcing advisory and research services
In addition, ISG also analyzes enterprise CX by different regions, technology services (as covered in the ISG Provider Lens™ program) and industries, and publishes these insights and trends in its quarterly CX Insights reports. The enterprise CX scores also feed into the providers’ positioning in the ISG Provider LensTM evaluations on the competitive strength-related axis of quadrants. The CX is also integral to the Candidate Provider Qualification (CPQ) process, in which ISG sourcing advisors shortlist service providers for their clients’ consulting engagements.
Providers that receive the highest CX scores across different categories are awarded a Star of Excellence Award. ISG provides different providers with benchmarking reports that detail their CX scores across various categories and conducts workshops with service providers to delve deep into the insights to understand areas of improvement.
Currently, global enterprises are dealing with a rapidly changing technology landscape and a fiercely competitive service provider market. Understanding the factors that influence CX for peers in the respective industry, region and technology services can assist clients in making an informed decision and managing their relationship with their service provider.
ISG can help in providing insights related to enterprise CX. If you are a service provider and want to know how enterprise clients perceive you regarding CX, please contact us. You can also get more information about the ISG Star of Excellence program in this webinar.
About the author
Mrinal Rai
Mrinal Rai is Assistant Director and Principal Analyst at ISG and leads research for the future of work and enterprise customer experience. His expertise is in the digital workplace, emerging technologies and the global IT outsourcing industry. He covers key areas around the Workplace and End User computing domain, viz., modernizing workplace, Enterprise mobility, BYOD, DEX, VDI, managed workplace services, service desk and modernizing IT architecture. He also focuses on unified communications collaboration as a service, enterprise social software, content collaboration, team collaboration, employee experience and productivity services and solutions. He has been with ISG for 10+ years and has 16+ years of industry experience. Mrinal works with ISG advisors and clients in engagements related to the digital workplace, unified communications and service desk. He also leads the ISG Star of ExcellenceTM program that tracks and analyzes enterprise customer experience in the technology industry and authors quarterly ISG CX Index reports. He is also the ISG’s official media spokesperson in India.
