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Gartner: Nearly Half of Customer Service Reps Avoid Adopting New Technologies

Access to Legacy Systems and Tools Serves as the Primary Barrier to Adoption

Nearly half (45%) of customer service reps (CSRs) avoid adopting new technologies by relying on legacy systems and tools, according to a survey from Gartner, Inc.

A Gartner online survey of 888 CSRs and support specialists from August 2022 revealed access to legacy systems is the main barrier to new technology adoption.

"Many leaders believe that certain groups are less likely to adopt new technologies, such as reps who are older or work from home," said Melissa Fletcher, Sr Principal, Research in the Gartner Customer Service and Support practice. "However, the survey shows that these groups are not more likely to resist new technology, and what matters instead is reps’ access to legacy systems and tools."

Reps who have consistent access to outdated tools use them 20% more frequently than reps who have less access to them. Half report still having access to legacy systems and tools seven to 12 months after a new technology rollout, given the difficulty that comes with removing such.

"Shutting down old systems is the single most impactful action that a leader can take to encourage rep adoption of new technologies, but it shouldn’t happen all at once," said Fletcher.

Customer service and support leaders can take three approaches to ease into shutting down legacy systems:

1. Grouped features: Assign features to groups based on the screens or systems they are in, and then remove rep access to these groups one phase at a time.

2. Login elimination: Remove direct login to the legacy system, and only allow legacy login for features not yet implemented.

3. Designated user groups: Assign a small group of reps who will have permission to perform actions in the legacy system, while removing access for the remaining reps.

"Prior to engaging in any shutdown strategy, customer service leaders should meet with key stakeholders in IT as well as front line managers to set expectations around the transition period and the issues that are likely to arise," said Fletcher. "Cross-functional teams can better assess causes of reduced performance such as system bugs or user error and develop short-term workarounds to maintain productivity while addressing these issues."

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Gartner: Nearly Half of Customer Service Reps Avoid Adopting New Technologies

Access to Legacy Systems and Tools Serves as the Primary Barrier to Adoption

Nearly half (45%) of customer service reps (CSRs) avoid adopting new technologies by relying on legacy systems and tools, according to a survey from Gartner, Inc.

A Gartner online survey of 888 CSRs and support specialists from August 2022 revealed access to legacy systems is the main barrier to new technology adoption.

"Many leaders believe that certain groups are less likely to adopt new technologies, such as reps who are older or work from home," said Melissa Fletcher, Sr Principal, Research in the Gartner Customer Service and Support practice. "However, the survey shows that these groups are not more likely to resist new technology, and what matters instead is reps’ access to legacy systems and tools."

Reps who have consistent access to outdated tools use them 20% more frequently than reps who have less access to them. Half report still having access to legacy systems and tools seven to 12 months after a new technology rollout, given the difficulty that comes with removing such.

"Shutting down old systems is the single most impactful action that a leader can take to encourage rep adoption of new technologies, but it shouldn’t happen all at once," said Fletcher.

Customer service and support leaders can take three approaches to ease into shutting down legacy systems:

1. Grouped features: Assign features to groups based on the screens or systems they are in, and then remove rep access to these groups one phase at a time.

2. Login elimination: Remove direct login to the legacy system, and only allow legacy login for features not yet implemented.

3. Designated user groups: Assign a small group of reps who will have permission to perform actions in the legacy system, while removing access for the remaining reps.

"Prior to engaging in any shutdown strategy, customer service leaders should meet with key stakeholders in IT as well as front line managers to set expectations around the transition period and the issues that are likely to arise," said Fletcher. "Cross-functional teams can better assess causes of reduced performance such as system bugs or user error and develop short-term workarounds to maintain productivity while addressing these issues."

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Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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