IDC VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

IT SUPPLIER CUSTOMER EXPERIENCEAND THE ACCELERATION OF YOURDIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Author:Mark Yates
October 2020
Sponsored by
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IT Supplier Customer Experience and theAcceleration of Your Digital Transformation
Introduction: Collaborations Replacing Transactions
The vendor-buyer relationship has been transforming forseveral years — moving from a transactional model to acollaborative and cooperative one, with IT suppliers serving
as strategic partners to their clients.
The COVID crisis accelerated the shift. As enterprises
scrambled to put in place systems and solutions related toremote working, collaboration, security, and resilience, theyfound themselves better prepared than they anticipated.
Those that had already launched such initiatives
compressed timelines from years and months to weeks anddays. Those that once thought they would never (or could
never) put such solutions in place have completely changed
their song.

AT A GLANCE
IT buyers and suppliers must work as true
collaborators. This requires IT suppliers to
put customers at the center of portfolio
planning and service delivery and support.
Cisco has been at the forefront of this trend
and is defining how that relationship can
work.

WHAT'S IMPORTANT
 47% of enterprises say a supplier's ability
to help them plan, implement, andmanage a solution was very important or
extremely important when choosing a
supplier.

 More than half of surveyed enterprises
That has set new expectations and standards for projectin Europe say their track record is
execution. Among IT buyers, an IDC survey shows thatimportant or extremely important whenengendering trust with customers is head and shoulders
selecting a supplier.
above other priorities for addressing the challenges of Cisco has laid a foundation for ensuring
COVID. The same will be doubly true for IT suppliers now
provision of exceptional andworking as real partners. The accelerated pace of change
collaborative customer experience.
means their clients will need far more in the form ofservices, support, training, reassurance, portals, certifications, and frameworks as they plunge
into new technology and new ways of working.

As the crisis matures and eventually passes, whatever the new business and social normal, one
thing is certain: The expectation of accelerated digitalization — and the hands-on customer
experience (CX) of a reliable partner — will remain. IT buyers must select suppliers that will act astrue collaborators, providing strategic and tactical guidance as they facilitate deployment ofessential technology.

Trends: IT Abundance, the Need for CX, and Accelerated Digitalization
Over the past decade, IT abundance has radically shifted business leaders' expectations oftechnology. With an "app for everything," they no longer ask if something is possible but rather
how much it will cost and how long it will take.
This abundance has created tremendous pressure to get the technology right. The quality of
hardware and software from providers has converged. An IDC survey from 2018 already foundthat buyers see very little difference in the quality of products and services they receive from

IT Supplier Customer Experience and the Acceleration of Your Digital Transformation
suppliers. Of the top ranked suppliers rated on a five-point scale, the difference between firstplace and tenth place was just 0.2. Much as one retail bank holds your money as easily as
another, there are multiple viable technology combinations for doing the same thing.
When "everything is the best," selecting the right combination of tools becomes that much morechallenging. The competition between suppliers can make things worse. It propels additional(and arguably unneeded) complexity as developers and administrators grab tools from various
locations. Moreover, talent has failed to keep pace with IT proliferation, exacerbating the IT skills
shortage, especially in Europe, where a 2019 study from the European Commission ranked
developers and analysts third overall on the shortages list. (Engineers and information workers
also ranked high.)

The Supplier CX Imperative
Having a strong relationship with a primary supplier helps ensure that an acceptable level oftools proliferation is directed toward technology and business outcomes. That relationshipdepends on customer experience and a foundation of trust.
Among IT buyers, both CX and trust have topped priority lists. In May 2020, IDC Europe
conducted surveys on the impact of the COVID crisis on European enterprises. While customer
experience had already climbed to the top spot in pre-pandemic surveys, the gap between it andthe next highest priority has widened considerably. For one question asked both on the 2019
Digital Transformation Leaders Survey (n = 400) and the pandemic sentiment survey, the gap leapt
from around 2 points to 11 points, an extraordinary number for surveys of this nature.
Engendering trust with customers also took the top spot by a wide margin.
FIGURE 1
Core Components of IT Supplier Customer Experience

Source: IDC European IT Buyer Sentiment Survey — Wave 4, May 11–15, 2020 (n = 736)

IT buyers aiming to master CX (and engender trust in customers) will expect it from their
suppliers as well. And it is in the supplier interest to deliver high levels of CX. When asked why
they chose a supplier, more than half of the respondents in IDC's 2019 IT Services Survey (n = 665)
said their track record with a provider was very important or extremely important, ranking above

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IT Supplier Customer Experience and the Acceleration of Your Digital Transformation
DevOps capabilities, cloud-native skills, and the availability of options supporting digitaltransformation projects. This is a strong reminder of how the buyer-supplier relationship is
becoming less transactional and more collaborative.

Accelerated Development and Deployment
That collaborative relationship is also crucial for the era of accelerated development, whichbecame a reality for many enterprises during the COVID pandemic. As mentioned, projects thatonce took months (or even years) have been executed in days. While many of these were
centered around the ramping up of digital customer channels and turning office workers into
remote workers, they nevertheless set new expectations around the speed with which digitaltransformation initiatives could be deployed.

Suppliers Need to Provide More Than Great Service
Digital transformation depends on having core systems in order. For most enterprises, thismeans integrating and building on disparate infrastructure systems and data sources. While
enterprises source from dozens of suppliers, central, hands-on suppliers must have a deep
technical foundation, a customer-centric approach, and a larger framework for developing digitalat the enterprise level.
FIGURE 2Core Components of IT Supplier Customer Experience

Source: IDC, 2020

Technical Foundation
Depth of technical know-how is evidenced by three key elements. The first is pedigree. A long
history means a larger number of specialized partners and expertise centers. It also means
broad and deep corporate and technical memory, which can greatly facilitate systems upgrades
and integrations, especially where legacy infrastructure, databases, networking, and softwaredevelopment are concerned. Then comes certifications and trainings, which demonstrate theability to fully articulate how the technology works and can be applied. Finally, the provision of afull set of hardware, software, and services — and partners that can integrate the full stack —enables the supplier to meet clients on their own technical playing fields.

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IT Supplier Customer Experience and the Acceleration of Your Digital Transformation
For instance, a U.K. financial institution faced major legacy challenges that led to instability in its
datacenters. Given the importance of the institution's role in financial markets and the U.K.
economy, it needed to act fast to correct the situation and turned to Cisco. Cisco initiated theengagement with an assessment of network and datacenter integrity and where best practices
should be applied. Once triage steps to stabilize the legacy systems had been completed, Cisco
led the planning, design, and implementation of two new greenfield datacenters, working closelywith the central bank to ensure full alignment of technical specifications and strategic priorities.
Building on the success of the new datacenters, the bank further embraced the collaborativemodel and engaged Cisco CX to plan and develop a new on-premises cloud environment
requiring orchestration of several players.

Customer-Centric Approach
The rising complexity of enterprise processes, systems, and ecosystem dynamics has accelerated
along with the rate of technology development. IT may be abundant, but no one can go it alone.
IT suppliers need to have high-touch customer models in place that go beyond classic service
implementation approaches. Since its founding in 1922, Haribo has been celebrated for its
gummi candy products and other sweets. The company began international expansion in the
1960s and currently operates 16 factories that produce over 100 million gummy bears a day.
To maintain its leadership, Haribo constantly seeks effective technologies to support its
operations and ensure continuing success. The company turned to Cisco for help in transforming
its enterprise network to make its operations more nimble and consistent. To lead thedeployment, the company brought in the Cisco Customer Experience (CX) organization to alignparticipants with project objectives to speed up change requests and improve agility for building
out new branches and product offerings.
Working closely with Haribo's technology partner, Cisco CX delivered a strategic approach on
how to best integrate Cisco technologies to achieve their goals and maximize their return on
investment. Cisco CX implemented its milestone use case methodology, defined and managed
expectations, and helped remove barriers to progress. The Cisco strategy ensured that the
project was measured against Haribo's success criteria.
The Cisco CX Customer Success Specialist (CSS) played a highly proactive role. They applied
Cisco's collaborative intelligence assets to match expertise, use cases, best practices, and insights
to project goals. They digitally connected Haribo with the right experience (assets and experts) at
the right time as the project progressed. Haribo's partner and the CSS remained in close
communication throughout the implementation period. The results include Haribo’s accelerated
troubleshooting process, improved performance throughout the network, and more production
uptime enabling the IT team to deliver faster on top business imperatives. (You can learn more
about how Cisco worked with Haribo to deploy DNA architecture athttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbBhv3GRW4c.)
IT suppliers must also have an empowerment orientation. According to a 2019 IDC survey, "easeof use" ranked just below security as the most important consideration for selecting a strategic
cloud infrastructure-as-a-service provider. IT suppliers must therefore equip their primary users

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IT Supplier Customer Experience and the Acceleration of Your Digital Transformation
with tools that intuitively facilitate not just installation and configuration but also daily use,
especially among non-IT staff and stakeholders.
More generally, a 2020 IDC survey named giving professionals the right tools and solutions to dotheir jobs the most important measure for improving user experience. An extreme example is
Cisco's work for the Red Sea Development Company, the developer behind one of the world's
most ambitious sustainable tourism initiatives and a project central to the Saudi Vision 2030 plan
to diversify the economy.
Situated on the Red Sea coast, the Red Sea Project aims to attract tourists to an archipelago of
more than 90 islands, mountain canyons, dormant volcanoes, and ancient cultural and heritage
sites. Spanning some 28,000 square km, the project delivered by Cisco includes full design of an
ICT infrastructure and intelligent network, datacenter, command and control center, and thesmart services and platform needed to enable a unique visitor experience while supporting
sustainable development. The CX advisory team is working closely with the Red Sea
Development Company to help it realize the vision through technical solutions, mapping the
integration, assessment of business cases, defining governance, and securing theimplementation — all while staying aligned to the business objectives.

Connecting IT Solutions to a Vision
According to a 2019 IDC survey, just under half the respondents (47%) said the ability to help
them plan, implement, and manage a solution was very important or extremely important whenchoosing a supplier. A further 41% said the ability to support digital transformation projects wasvery important or extremely important.
A central approach to enabling big-picture thinking is framing technology into progressive
development steps and use cases. Both can then be used as building blocks meeting strategic
objectives. C-suite leaders have repeatedly told IDC that they understand that tech can "doanything." While there are still plenty of buyers looking for routers and server and cloud-based
solutions, they are also working backwards from the business need (aka use case) to thetechnology.
The thinking must therefore be long term and powered by strong trust between suppliers,
partners, and their clients. This can mean suppliers may need to work with other tech firms
considered competitors — all in the best interest of the client. For instance, Haribo wanted
Cisco's help but was largely satisfied with its long-term technology partner, a potential Cisco
competitor. Both the partner and Haribo, however, recognized they lacked a consistent longterm strategy and framework for creating actionable use cases. Haribo had Cisco CX organize
calls to define goals and map them into a success plan. Working use case by use case, Cisco CX
then helped Haribo and its partner identify and resolve operational and technical bottlenecks,
effectively steering both toward a larger strategic vision.

Vendor Profile
Cisco has been at the forefront of redefining supplier-buyer relationships. Around the time
COVID-19 was stress-testing enterprise systems through soaring rates of remote work, digital

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IT Supplier Customer Experience and the Acceleration of Your Digital Transformation
channel enhancements, supply chain reconsiderations, and accelerating the need for a morecollaborative relationship, Cisco was already two years into a three-year strategic plan designed
to fundamentally change the buyer-supplier relationship.
The strategic plan merges multiple technologies and service lines into a single framework(sometimes called the "racetrack"). Administered by the CX team, it is designed to help partners
and clients create technology road maps that align with business goals and establish when key
functionality should be added and the best practices for maximizing their business value. And
while there is still work to do, Cisco has already checked all the new-model relationship boxes
named above:








Hands-on collaboration. Over the past 10 years, services contracts have gotten smaller,
shorter, and far more focused on business outcomes at the same time staff shortages
and technology innovation (and abundance) have flooded the market with possibilities.
Through its partners and support centers, the Cisco CX team has responded with Success
Tracks, which allow clients to quickly and easily define the level of support based on theirbudgets, resources, and IT environments. One of its primary value propositions is expert
resources, designed for ongoing two-way communications. Options range from "Ask an
Expert" phone support to designated on-demand experts and coaching to embedded
experts (to be rolled out in 2021). Put another way, clients can draw on Cisco expertise tohelp with everything from specific technical issues and basic trainings to the creation of
fully realized technology road maps and strategies.
Visibility on usage and insights for action. A significant innovation led by the CX team isdelivered through CX Cloud, a "one-stop experience" dashboard that details a client's
architectures and Cisco products and the degree of implementation and use. This isdesigned to help clients and partners manage their installed base, provide usage insight,
and drive actions that accelerate access to unified automation and business telemetry.
Accessibility/ease of doing business. As part of its three-year plan, Cisco has been
simplifying solution support. Given the wide range of hardware, software, and service
options, enterprise IT leads and ground-level staff have told IDC they struggle withsupport from major suppliers, especially for complex challenges not easily addressed in
Q&As, forums, or troubleshooting guides. Skills gaps only exacerbate the problem. Cisco
has therefore discarded the traditional approach of multiple contact options depending
on product lines for a primary point of contact and streamlined partner cooperation tohandle multivendor issue resolution.
Larger structure and vision. Cisco has also set up a framework to help clients
incrementally and progressively improve their architectures while tightening theconnection to business outcomes. As implied in the above bullets, the tighter relationshipengenders trust, as hands-on advisory always begins with the larger technology context
and desired outcomes rather than as a need to upsell or cross-sell. Similarly, the CX Cloudfeatures the technology implementation racetrack, which helps users determine when
and why to add additional features or full-on solutions. It also provides off-the-shelfdigital advisory covering best practices, security, compatibility, and compliance to improveplanning and facilitate rapid deployment. Finally, Cisco has applied its widely trusted

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IT Supplier Customer Experience and the Acceleration of Your Digital Transformation
network certification progression to software development to help ensure enterprises
have the right talent in place as they plan and execute on long-term goals.

Challenges
Customer Experience Becomes Commodified
IT abundance is driving other suppliers to develop their own simplified and hands-on
approaches. Streamlined acquisition journeys have made procurement of complex dataofferings simpler at one supplier. A hands-on field force provides high-touch collaborative
support and consulting services at another. And leading systems and application providers areleveraging automation and low-code and no-code tools to make configuration, management,
and the user experience far simpler. In short, high-touch customer experience is becoming morecollaborative among suppliers across the board, meaning Cisco faces heightening competition.

Positioning and Messaging of Cisco CX
Despite what IDC perceives to be the benefits of Cisco CX, they are still difficult to define in astandardized 30-second elevator pitch. (One executive did provide IDC with an informal one thatsuggests this may change.) The range of services on offer is also complex, adding to the long listof existing products and services names that can be hard to keep track of (Success Tracks,
Business Critical Services, Cisco DNA, CX Cloud) along with another portal for buyers to contend
with. Finally, the term "CX" is used in a different manner than by management consultancies andother IT suppliers, especially those specializing in customer-facing application suites.

COVID-19 and its Wake
Given the success Cisco has had helping clients adjust to lockdown conditions, technology will
not be the issue in subsequent waves. Rather it will be clients' ability to survive another severe
cashflow shock. Also, there will be lingering unforeseen impacts. For instance, IDC believes a
hybrid remote working model will emerge. This will reduce the need for physical offices, whichmeans fewer commercial tenants in office buildings, lower revenue for facilities, and reduced
need for custodians, cafeteria subcontractors, building engineers, security, receptionists, and soforth. Coupled with expected depressions in travel and leisure, the cumulative impact will befinancial challenges that could translate into greater supplier competition for fewer IT projects.

Conclusion
IDC believes that hands-on customer experience offering service levels that match client needs
will be increasingly important. Automation, self-service, and off-the-shelf solutions will help
simplify IT acquisitions. But the rising number of complex projects will require true collaborators
rather than simple suppliers. All the indicators suggest the progression of Cisco's CX
development will be able to address the challenges described in this paper and that it is likely tobe successful. Cisco has a core understanding of the need for customer experience, has
restructured its service around collaboration, and is elevating discussions to use cases andbusiness goals.

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IT Supplier Customer Experience and the Acceleration of Your Digital Transformation

MESSAGE FROM THE SPONSOR
Cisco is the worldwide leader in technology that powers the internet. Cisco inspires new
possibilities by reimagining your applications, securing your data, transforming yourinfrastructure, and empowering your teams for a global and inclusive future. Make the most of
your technology investment and accelerate your success with Cisco Customer Experience.

About the Analyst
Mark Yates, Research Manager, Customer Experience, IDC
Mark Yates brings more than 20 years' experience to his role as a digital transformation
analyst. Working closely with other analysts and consultants, he helps translate thetenets of digital transformation and customer experience into practical strategies andactions. He identifies emerging business models that can upend cash cows and generate
new revenue streams. He helps firms identify pain points and the obstacles preventing
rapid transformation and better outcomes. He assesses market dynamics to determine
which technologies will be hot and where IT suppliers and enterprises should invest theirtime and talent.

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About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence,advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, andconsumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and theinvestment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and businessstrategy. More than 1,100 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise ontechnology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For 50 years,
IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC
is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company.
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