APMdigest asked experts from across the IT industry for their opinions on what IT departments should be monitoring to ensure digital performance. Part 5, the final installment, offers some recommendations you may not have thought about.

Start with What You Should Be Monitoring to Ensure Digital Performance - Part 1

Start with What You Should Be Monitoring to Ensure Digital Performance - Part 2

Start with What You Should Be Monitoring to Ensure Digital Performance - Part 3

Start with What You Should Be Monitoring to Ensure Digital Performance - Part 4

SECURITY

The current software application scenario is predominantly threatened by security issues and cybersecurity risks. Security is probably one of the most critical aspects to consider while ensuring digital performance. In today's world of cyber threats, Security monitoring has become critical to safeguard apps against any unwanted and unwarranted cyber-attacks. Organizations must have a system that helps them monitor and improve the security of their applications. Digital Transformation and a robust digital interface can be offered only after ensuring all the security aspects.
Sajid Khan
Senior Director, Global Delivery, Cigniti Technologies

When processing transactions or information of your clients you must be monitoring your risk assessments and the implementation of your security measures. Maintain yourself and your team subscribed to threat alerts that will allow you to stay on top of possible risks.
Otis Gospodnetić
Founder, Sematext

Security strategy: Ensure that there is a process in place to protect the company's systems and data especially when adding or integrating applications.
Colin Earl
CEO, Agiloft

SOCIAL MEDIA

There are many metrics necessary to ensure digital performance, but there is a key metric often overlooked by businesses: social media based metrics. Data from social media monitoring has too long been considered a vanity metric, but it can have real operational value if used correctly. Coupled with machine learning algorithms, analyst teams can be alerted in real time to track and correlate social media data with changes in product demand or revenue, identifying the root cause immediately, and providing forecasting for the future. What's the value in this? Let's say a celebrity promotes your brand via social media and the post starts gaining traction, you need to quickly identify the actual business impact. That way, you can leverage the momentum in-store and online by adjusting to inventory to meet expected demand, tactically bundling products to grow basket size, etc. Social media has a huge impact on digital performance, and it is essential businesses are able to predict and manage this metric in real time.
Ira Cohen
Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist, Anodot

ITSM SUPPORT

For organizations in the throes of executing digital transformation, understanding how users interact with IT can help improve digital performance. Employees' optimum use of digital assets is tied to how well ITSM supports them when there are performance issues. Therefore, monitoring the efficiency of your ITSM processes can identify where less-than-adequate support is leading to weaker digital performance. In general, applying analytics to ITSM will give an organization actionable data points, to determine which combination of phone, email, automation, self-help options, social channels or integration to Twitter, Facebook, or Slack are the most effective means of receiving and resolving IT support issues. For example, measuring and monitoring the resolution of calls that come into a help desk, how long queue delays are, and whether the calls resulted in an improvement in user productivity can provide an indicator of how well ITSM is enabling digital performance, or being a block.
Alan Taylor
HDM, SMM, Principal Product Manager, Ivanti

PEOPLE

Rather than focusing on technological metrics like uptime or downtime, CPU, etc. companies should focus more on the human metrics. Talent is the number one operating priority, so measuring digital performance has more to do with the type of talent within an organization. This involves considering metrics like how many senior people they have, what their bench strength looks like, how long people have been in their roles, who the top performers are and whether they're being rewarded with opportunities or accolades. Once you have your focus on your people and the criteria for success aligned accordingly, you can do anything.
Craig Williams
VP and CIO, Ciena